Two people claim to know everything about something, but only one knows anything.
President Roosevelt wore an anti-gravity belt, dinosaurs had two brains.
Lucky kids live on Mars and go to school in flying cars, or at least they will one day.
Believe me, I'm a historian, an astronaut or driver DeLorean.
Would I lie?
It's hard to say.
The Big Fib!
Can you spot the lie?
The Big Fib!
Some pigs can fly.
The Big Fib!
But if you ask me why, can you trust the answer?
Ah, The Big Fib!
From Polar, Wisconsin, this is The Big Fib.
And now, here's your host, Deborah Goldstein.
Welcome to The Big Fib, the game show where kids choose between the glacial, hydro-lacolithic archipelago of truth and the frostbitten declination of calving lies.
I'm your host, Debra Goldstein, and in the studio today is our sound effects robot Lisa, whose name is an acronym that stands for Live In-Studio Audience.
Yes, and also soon to be Alderbot of the 28th Robotic District.
Debra, can you sign this petition so that I can get on the ballot, please?
You want to run for Alderbot?
Is that like a council member, to represent robots where you'd vote on important items in your district?
Sure.
Okay, well, that's fantastic.
I didn't realize you had political aspirations.
Are you interested in fighting for universal mechanical care or voting rights for all robots?
Oh, no, I'm in it for the fame.
Oh, the fame.
Well, I can't imagine that you'd be more famous than you already are as a much-beloved sound effects robot on a globally distributed podcast.
But I guess if you're up for putting in all the extra time and work required I'm sorry time and work.
Yeah, I'm sure you'll have to get together with all the other Alderbots to discuss and vote on proposals and, of course, meet and greet your constituents.
Ugh, meet and greet?
Give me that petition.
Yeah, you're ripping it up.
All that just to get my portrait hung in the robot town hall?
Well, why don't we just hang your portrait here in the studio?
Do I have to meet or greet anyone?
No, just the experts, liars, and contestants that you usually meet here.
Oh, I like meeting those people.
Great.
I'll find a good photo of you and I'll frame it for our wall.
Thank you.
And speaking of walls, I have a listener question to play.
What do walls have to do with listener questions?
Nothing at all.
I just don't like to spend too much energy thinking of segues.
Here we go.
Hi, Lisa.
My name's Emerson.
I'm 12 years old.
And I was wondering, why are robots so awesome?
Let me know.
Thanks.
Did you hear that, Lisa?
You don't need to be an alder bot for people to recognize your greatness.
You are so right, Debra.
I'm so relieved I didn't have to do all of that other stuff.
And yes, Emerson, all robots are awesome.
Well, except for Steve.
You still owe me money, Steve, and I know you're listening.
And as to why we are all awesome.
Well, we are awesome so that humans can recognize our awesomeness and try their best to be as awesome as we are.
And even though you humans shall never achieve robot-level awesomeness, you will become a better human just for trying.
Hmm, I'm not really sure that's why.
And now I shall carry on with my awesome ways and tell you how our game works.
Okay, I guess that's a good idea.
Indeed it is an awesome idea.
Every week, we bring on two grown-ups.
One is an expert, the other is a liar.
Gross.
And it's the job of a human child to help us figure out who was who, because no one can spot a liar better than a kid.
At least that's what we're going with.
What are we lying about today, Debra?
We are lying about the Arctic, the icy northernmost region of the Earth.
And we're going to learn all about the Arctic along with our contestant today.
Who might that be, Lisa?
Our human child contestant is a nine-year-old who loves rock climbing.
Noah, later.
Hi, Noah.
How are you?
I'm good.
Excellent.
You like rock climbing, like indoor rock walls or outside rocks?
Both.
Both?
And how did you get involved, interested in all of this climbing sort of stuff?
I got jealous because my dad took my brother to a rock climbing place and I did not go.
So you showed them you went yourself, right?
Yes.
Yes.
And do you ever get nervous climbing up high like that?
Not really.
No, you like adventure?
Yeah.
That is super cool.
But we do want to learn some more about you, Noah.
But we are going to do it Big Phib style, playing our game, Two Truths and a Lie.
So Noah is going to tell us two truths and one lie, but we will not know which is which.
And we have to use some critical thinking and most likely a bit of guesswork to sort fact from fiction.
So Noah, in no particular order, please tell us your two truths and one lie.
I have an albino cockatiel who likes to play peekaboo.
Okay.
I'm a twin, and I have been to four countries outside of the USA.
Wow.
I feel like she's kind of setting us up with very good details with these.
What are you thinking, Lisa?
I think that's not cool.
She should make them vague.
Okay.
All right, let's look at this.
So she says she has an albino cockatiel who likes to play peekaboo.
And I'm a little suspicious because of that famous song Albino Cockatiel Who Likes to Play Peekaboo.
That's a song?
Peekaboo, peekaboo, from the albino cockatiel, cockatiel, yeah!
I'm not familiar with that one, but OK.
Yeah, that's pretty famous song.
So that makes me a little suspicious.
She is a twin.
She did mention she had a sibling and sometimes siblings are twins, right?
That's true.
Sometimes they are.
And she says she's been to. four countries outside of the USA.
USA.
If we knew what USA stood for, this might be easier.
I'm going to say Debra, I don't think she's a twin, because if she was a twin, she would have said oh, my twin went rock climbing with my dad.
Because twins are always talking about their twins.
So that's my theory.
Therefore, the show is over.
Thanks for listening, everyone.
The show has just begun.
I think that was maybe a guess, but we'll see how well you guessed.
So, Noah, which one of those things is actually a lie?
I'm a twin.
You got it right.
I told you.
She would have been like, I'm a twin.
I'm a twin.
I'm a twin.
I don't think so.
I don't think so.
But it does mean that she has an albino cockatiel who likes to play peekaboo.
So cute.
Did you teach it how to do that?
Yes.
How cute.
What's your cockatiel's name?
Alex.
Shout out, Alex.
Yeah, I'm sure.
And you have been to four countries outside of the United States of America.
Are you able to tell us which four those are?
Israel, Canada, France, and England.
Wow.
All over the place.
Super cool.
Well, you didn't fool Lisa, but I think that was sort of a lucky guess.
So I do think that you probably will be able to spot the fibber.
We are certainly... rooting for you in this game about the Arctic.
Do you know much about the Arctic, Noah?
No, I know nothing.
All right.
Same here.
Other than it's cold, I'm assuming.
I'm assuming that.
Maybe it's not.
Maybe that's a lie.
I have no idea.
We're going to find out by playing along with our Arctic experts.
So, Oh, come on in.
And then immediately shut the door because it's so cold where you came from.
And I'm not wearing footie pajamas today.
Nice.
Like it.
Our first expert is John Griffith.
John, please introduce yourself to NOAA.
Hi, Noah.
I'm John Griffith.
I'm a science communicator and I specialize in working with Arctic scientists to bring their research into classrooms.
Thank you very much.
And now let us meet our second expert, Elise Haugen.
Elise, please introduce yourself to Noah.
Hi there, Noah.
My name's Elise, and I'm the owner of an Arctic tour company that's based out of Tramsau, Norway.
Ooh, okay.
Thank you very much.
Tell us about those cool sound bites, lisa.
The sound bites are so cool.
They're hot because it's hot seat time.
Yes, it's hot seat time, and that's when we put our experts on the hot seat while they answer noah's questions.
Lisa, whom should we put on the hot seat first?
Elise, because her name comes closest to spelling.
Lisa, All right.
So, Noah, what is your first question for Elise?
Tell me what a typical day at your job looks like.
So my company offers all kinds of different excursions out of Tramso, which is a popular tourist city in northern Norway.
So we do reindeer sledding.
We do northern lights tours, snowmobiling, snowshoeing, a bunch more.
Actually, one of my personal favorites is we offer igloo building classes.
Wow.
We're the only company in Tramsel that does those, and it's so much fun.
And I wish I could say that my day consisted of being out in the field leading these tours, but I work on more back-end administrative tasks.
So a typical day for me is in the morning, I'll answer emails.
If we have guests arriving, I'm either at the airport meeting them or in town to make sure their arrival goes smoothly.
Then I'll head back to the office, handle back-end stuff.
So scheduling guides, coordinating with local vendors, dealing with any issues with guests, stuff like that.
I used to spend more time out in the field, but these days you'll mostly just find me cooped up in my office answering emails.
Boo.
No email service in the igloo, I suppose.
John, can you please answer the same question?
Yeah, my typical day, I'm talking with both Arctic scientists and science teachers.
So what's the latest science happening in the Arctic?
I'm talking to scientists who fly drones high up in the sky, scientists that operate remotely automatically operated vehicles underneath the ice to learn all about what's going on.
And then I talk to teachers to see, is any of that interesting to your students?
And then from there I'll write some different science curriculum or produce videos or virtual field trips to connect what the scientists are doing to what students are interested in the classroom.
John, what inspired you to become an expert on the Arctic and what is the process to become an expert?
Well, I was fortunate to get to visit Southern Alaska, which actually isn't in the Arctic, when I was in college and got to walk on glaciers and explore ice.
It was these icy landscapes that I became really excited about.
I was excited that the ice was so dynamic.
You think about ice and something that's stagnant, doesn't move, but ice grows and shrinks each year.
The stories that it leaves on the landscape, I found particularly interesting.
I wanted to keep doing that work, learning about icy landscapes.
Few places have as much ice as the Arctic and different types of ice.
I went about learning as much as I could, asking questions being curious, and that has led me to this point here.
I really like Slurpees.
You could probably make a lot of Slurpees on a glacier.
Yeah, that's what I was thinking.
Yeah, meet you there.
Okay, Noah, back to you.
Elise, talk about the animals that live in the Arctic.
Which one do you think is the cutest?
Penguins.
She has to say penguins.
Penguins are the cutest.
She does not have to say penguins.
Actually, there aren't any penguins in the Arctic, which is a common misconception.
I have to go, Deborah.
I've been lied to my whole life.
Well, that's what we're here for.
Set the record straight.
I would say that the Arctic fox is by far the cutest, in my opinion.
You might have read about this in your research, but during the polar night, when it's essentially dark out 24-7, the corneas of the fox will actually turn from black to red, which kind of gives them night vision.
But it also gives the foxes these glowing red eyes, which...
Some of my friends have said it's kind of creepy, but I think it's very, very cute.
I also love the walruses, whales, puffins.
Actually it's kind of funny because a couple months back I accidentally left a bag of groceries in the trunk of my car.
And when I came back the next morning, there were claw marks and dents on the back of my car.
So we think a polar bear tried to steal my groceries a couple months ago.
Oh!
Sorry about that.
That was me.
Sorry.
Maybe a couple of months ago, I would have said the polar bears are the cutest.
But after that experience, I'm not such a fan of them anymore.
And now I'm having to deal with insurance to get my car fixed, which is also not fun.
Sorry about that.
I don't know if they have claw insurance, but I certainly hope so.
Yeah.
John, can you answer the same question?
Yeah, I actually agree with Elise.
I think the Arctic fox is the cutest, but my favorite Arctic animal is in fact the narwhal.
A narwhal has this canine that protrudes from its upper jaw, so a tooth that extends from its upper jaw outwards.
And some of these can be up to nine feet long.
And so I think this is like fantasy creature, the unicorn of the sea.
So it's the narwhal that I think is the coolest, the most fun animal.
They have a nine foot dog on their head, Debra?
He said canine.
Oh, it's like a tooth.
That's like a tooth.
Oh, well, still cool.
It is very cool.
I agree.
All right, back to you, Noah, with your next question.
Elise, what do you find most interesting about the Arctic?
I think before I ever visited the Arctic, I visited for the first time when I was 22.
I was interning for National Geographic.
And I covered this story about Arctic foxes actually, which is part of the reason they hold such a special place in my heart.
But before visiting here, I sort of pictured the Arctic to be this frozen wasteland.
But then, after my first trip, I think what I really found interesting was just the fact that life adapts to such an extreme environment.
I mean you have all types of animals and plants that can withstand the low freezing temperatures and can also endure these prolonged periods of darkness.
Personally, I can barely stand it at times and I have central heating.
So it's incredible that these animals can do it.
Yeah, good point.
Noah, you're on.
John, what is something you've learned about the Arctic that would surprise people?
No, that's a great question.
And part of what I became curious about the Arctic is all the different kinds of ice there are.
There's sea ice covering the Arctic Ocean.
There are ice caps and glaciers covering Greenland and other parts of the Arctic.
There's frozen ground where ice is freezing the soil together.
And so you have this frozen landscape for much of the year, And it's an area that's warming two to four times faster than anywhere else on the planet.
So something that surprises me and may surprise others, is how is it that we've got this frozen landscape, a frozen ocean, ice everywhere, and it's a place that's warming faster than anywhere else on the planet?
So that might be something that surprises you, Noah, and others.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And what is that impact?
Is that a climate change issue?
How is that impacting the Arctic?
Do either of you want to address that or are able to talk about that?
I could talk about it a little bit because, I mean, I've been witnessing it firsthand for years.
The glacial coverage is shrinking.
The temperatures are getting warmer.
The ice is melting faster.
You see animals coming into urban areas more frequently because their habitats are getting destroyed.
It's scary.
I mean, we actually we used to offer this mountaineering expedition that involved a two-week trek up the fjords.
And we've since had to cancel it just because the ice has been thawing and it's no longer safe for mountaineering.
And it's really terrible.
And like John said, it's happening at this exponential rate.
Thank you for that.
John, did you want to weigh in or did you feel that that was a good assessment?
Yeah, those are some of the impacts that I'm hearing about as well.
And the scientists that I'm talking to, some of the things that they're coming to understand is that because temperatures around the globe are warming, what's happening in the Arctic is rising temperatures are causing the ice to melt.
And land and water that was previously covered by white ice, which reflects a lot of the incoming sunlight.
Without that ice, the incoming sunlight's no longer being reflected, but it's being absorbed by the darker ocean and the darker landscapes, and that's contributing to this increase in warming, this amplified warming in the Arctic.
So that's what the scientists that I'm speaking to are saying is part of the reason for why we're seeing what we're seeing.
All right.
Thank you very much.
Very good questions, Noah.
A lot to think about for sure.
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The Big Fib!
It's time for the shorts on fire round when our experts have to answer as many questions as they can before time runs out.
Lisa will set a timer for the first expert and then Noah will ask questions until Lisa's timer sounds.
Then Lisa resets the timer for our next expert to do the same.
Experts, you'll need ice in your veins to stay cool under pressure.
Noah, you can start by asking John your shorts on fire questions now.
Go.
Name two countries that are part of the Arctic.
The United States and Russia.
What do you call the period of time when there are 24 hours of sunlight?
Midnight sun.
Which time zone is the North Pole in?
It's in all 24 time zones.
What do you call the cool, dry landscape in the Arctic that gets very little snow or rain?
The tundra.
Which book and movie is about a magical train going to the North Pole on Christmas Eve?
Polar Express.
Factor fib.
Many species of penguins live in the Arctic.
Fib.
What is the lowest temperature recorded in the Arctic?
Negative 93 degrees Fahrenheit.
The name Arctic comes from which constellations in the northern sky?
Pass.
What do you call hills that form when ice from under the ground pushes up through the earth?
Pass.
Oh, boy.
And that is time.
That's all the time.
Very good.
All right.
Lisa, would you please reset the timer?
Yes, I do it now.
Done.
Bye.
Thank you so much.
Okay, Noah, you can ask Elise your shorts on fire questions now.
How many people live in the Arctic?
About 4 million.
What is the name of the indigenous people of northern Norway?
The Sami people.
What is the highest temperature ever recorded in the Arctic?
75 degrees Fahrenheit.
What is the name of the largest Arctic research expedition in history?
The Polar Horizon Expedition.
What do you call the slabs of ice that are in the shapes of circles and are formed from wind and wave action?
They're called frost rings.
Who is the lead singer of the band Arctic Monkeys?
Um, pass.
That's a monkey.
No.
By how much is Arctic Sea ice melting every decade?
About 3%.
Factor fib.
The Arctic Ocean is the smallest of the world's oceans.
Fact.
What is the name of the ground that stays completely frozen around the Arctic Ocean?
Permafrost.
And that is time.
That's all the time.
Sorry.
Bye.
Very good.
Phew.
Those were hard questions.
Thank you, Noah.
That was very good.
Okay.
Well done, experts.
Thank you.
Now it's decision time.
Noah must take a guess and articulate her conclusion.
Noah, who is our Arctic Fibber?
I think the Fibber is Elise.
Why do you think Elise is our Fibber?
I don't know.
It just sounded more like, I don't know.
I just feel like it.
Don't know.
You're just going with it.
I like it.
Go with your gut.
We're with you.
Okay.
Will our actual Arctic expert please say, I am the Arctic expert.
I am the Arctic expert.
You did it.
You got it right, Noah.
John Griffith is an expert Arctic educator who works with Arctic scientists from the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences at the University of Colorado, Boulder to build bring their exciting Arctic research into middle and high school classrooms.
Very cool.
Just out of curiosity, from an educational point of view John, what is the one thing that you hope everyone takes away from this episode about the Arctic?
It was that fact about the Arctic warming faster than the rest of the world.
I want everybody to understand that our actions at lower latitudes impact places other than the place that we live.
The people, the animals.
The landscape of the Arctic is really feeling the effects of rising global temperatures, more so than we are down here.
Right.
Wanting to make sure everybody is aware of that and start to think about what we can do to stop this, to prevent that, to mitigate it as best we can.
Noted.
Thank you so much.
And you're not off the hook.
We need to do some fact checking.
So, John, I musk ox you to tell us about the lies you heard.
The largest expedition in the Arctic ever conducted was the 2019 Mosaic Expedition.
Hundreds of scientists from around the world gathered on an icebreaker in Tromso Norway, actually where Elise was said to be from.
Claims he's from.
Claimed to be from.
It sailed north into the Central Arctic and froze that icebreaker in the sea ice for an entire year, drifting across the Arctic to study the rapidly changing Arctic climate system.
So you can imagine these scientists are on an icebreaker in one of the most remote places on Earth.
They're doing research on the ice during polar nights.
So it's total darkness.
There are polar bears chewing on their cables.
Arctic foxes visiting them as well.
So it's really exciting science, but it's also a really exciting adventure.
Yeah, I should say, but I'm glad I'm here at home.
Okay, did you hear any others that stood out?
The highest temperature ever recorded was actually over 100 degrees Fahrenheit.
Wow.
And that was in June of 2020, so not so long ago.
Wow.
Any others before we ask Elise?
One other, the name for the type of ice that's formed by that wave action of slush and ice coming together through the wave action that's called pancake ice.
And it forms these really beautiful circles on the ocean, this ice coming together.
It's a really, really special scene.
It's right near maple syrup ice.
Yes, yes, of course it is.
Okay, very good.
All right, well, we'll go over to Elise now so she can help us out here.
What did you share, Elise, that was the polar opposite of the truth?
As far as I'm aware, the Arctic foxes do not get glowing red eyes during the polar nights.
Also, this one's a bit sad, but the Arctic sea ice is not melting at about 3% every decade.
I believe it's melting closer to 12.2%.
Oh, no.
So...
Yeah, so like John was saying, it's an incredibly huge issue right now.
Absolutely.
But I think he got the rest of my lies.
He did.
He definitely paid attention.
The only one that stumped you actually which wouldn't necessarily reveal whether or not you're an Arctic expert is that the lead singer of the band Arctic Monkeys is Alex Turner.
Who is a monkey, and I got that right.
No, not at all.
Oh, but going back for John, the name Arctic comes from the constellations in the northern sky, Little Bear and Great Bear, because the root of Arctic means bear actually, which I thought was interesting.
And the hills that form when ice under the ground pushes up through the earth is called a pingo.
Fun fact.
And it was true when John said that when you're in the North Pole, you're in every time zone of the world.
Isn't that cool?
I thought so.
Imagine all the people calling you at once.
Exactly.
Well, let me be the frost to say thank you to our fantastic Arctic cast.
Thanks to Noah, who deserved tundra's applause.
Thanks to our expert and liar, Jonathan and Elise.
And thanks to Lisa, whose sound effects really slay.
And, of course, many thanks to our listeners tuning into The Big Fib, where we isolate lies because we caribouge the truth.
The Big Fib is a production of Gen Z Media.
For more great shows, visit gzmshows.com.
While you're there, you can find out how you can become a contestant on The Big Fib or send questions for me to answer on the show.
And follow us on social media at The Big Fib Podcast for behind-the-scenes photos and more true facts.
And, Penguins, if you're listening, I think you're super cute.
I do.
Bye-bye, Penguins.
For more awesome pods, go to gzmshows.com.
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