it is estimated that over four million people have been abducted by alien life forms but only one of them asked for it this is Alio of Earth if any aliens are listening come and get me from Disney and Pixar yes he'll go where no one has gone before welcome to the commune ever this is the most beautiful place I've ever seen this is the bathroom Disney and Pixar's Elio rated PG the rattle guidance suggested only in theaters June 20th.
Hey, Wowzer fans, Mindy and Guy Raz here and before we start the show, it's almost summertime and you know what that means.
It's almost time for my annual summer rewatch of the 26 hour long docuseries on the history of whales.
Uh sure, Guy Raz, but I was actually thinking about summer road trips.
Oh, that's right. Wowzers, if your family has some summer road trips coming up, take a pit stop to find some WOW.
We've teamed up with our friends at Geocaching HQ, the Aspen Institute, and the Nature Conservancy to create Planet WOW, an epic geocaching eco -adventure, that shares the wow's of places on our earth and encourages curious kids like you to become the next generation of climate crusaders.
We've sent out PlanetWOW trading cards to members of our world organization of Wowsers to plant in a geocache near them.
And you can check and see if one of those cards are in a geocache near you at Tinkercast .com slash PlanetWOW.
There, you can also find the location of our official PlanetWOW geocaches.
And if there aren't any trading cards nearby your route, print yours at home and plant them in a geocache along the ride.
we have printable cards available on our website, tinkercast .com slash Planet Wow.
We can't wait to hear what you find on your ego adventures this summer.
Leave us a video or audio message about places in your world that wow you for a chance to be featured on an upcoming episode of Wow in the World.
That's it, and now let's get back to the show.
I don't know what you've been told, but we're in a golden age So many discoveries that are jumping off the page Wild in the world.
ahem. Alright, let's see what we have here.
Whew, the latest issue of Microhouse Monthly.
Let's hear a letter from Thomas Fingerling, a jar of mystery slime addressed to Mindy, and… What is this?
It looks super old, I wonder what it could...
Oh hey Mindy. Hey Guy Roz!
Did my slime arrive yet?
They stopped letting me send it to my house.
Ahhh yeah. It's right here.
Perfect, this is the last thing I need for my slip and slide.
Slip and slime? Don't you mean slip and slide?
Ahhh, nope. Hey, what do you got in your hand there?
Oh, ah, I don't know.
It just arrived in the mail.
Ughh, looks super old.
I know! The paper is practically falling apart!
Well, what are you waiting for, Guy Raz?
Open it! Open it up, see what it is!
Okay, okay. I'm gonna carefully open this envelope here.
Let's see... What does it say?
It says, Dear Guy Raz, You are cordially invited to witness the signing of the meter convention on the 20th of May at the Palais du Cet d 'Orsay where representatives of 17 nations shall establish a universal standard of measure.
Your presence at this historic occasion would be most esteemed.
With highest regard, the International Bureau of Weights and Measures.
Whoa, this is incredible, Mindy!
an invitation to the meter convention.
Whoa! Cool! You have no idea what this is, do you?
No, not a clue. Well, it's the meeting that 17 countries held back in 1875 where they all agreed to use the metric system to measure and weigh stuff.
Oh yeah, the metric system, that's what they use in Canada.
Exactly, but not just Canada.
The metric system is how 95 % of the world measures stuff.
Yeah. So instead of feet and inches.
They use centimeters and meters.
And you're getting this invitation to this metric meeting 150 years too late?
Why? Well, that's the mystery Mindy.
I have no idea. Well, there is only one way to solve it.
Yeah. What's that? We got to go to that meter party.
You mean to the meter convention?
Yeah, it would be rude not to, Guy -Raz.
Plus we need to figure out who sent that invitation to you.
I don't know, Mindy.
Come on, what's the use of having a wow machine if you can't use it to visit 19th century France every now and then?
Besides you love France, and I love French fries.
C 'est vrais. OK, Mindy, I'm in.
Let's solve this metric mystery.
That's the spirit, Guy -Raz.
I got the wow machine idling in your driveway.
You do? Yeah. I was going to use it to take a quick trip out to the moon, but I don't know.
This sounds more fun.
OK. Let's go. Yes. Let me just quickly lock the door here.
All right. Good to go.
Follow me, Guy -Roz!
Right behind you, Mindy.
What, what, what, what.
Opening the hatch. OK, Guy -Roz.
Hop on in. OK. Ha, ha, ha.
All right. Let's get ready to go.
Oh, you got those, uh, time and space coordinates for me?
Yep. Let me just check the invitation here.
Uh, Paris, France? Paris, France!
May 20th, 1875, exactly 150 years ago.
All right. Let's see here.
May 2 zero, 1 875, got it.
All right. You all strapped in, Guy Raz?
Strapped in with what?
Oh yeah, I took out the seatbelts last week.
What? Well, hold on to something...
Cause here's we... Mindy, wait!
Aaaah! Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!
Wow! It's safe and sound!
Should we make it, Mindy?
Only one way to find out.
Open up the hatch here...
Ha! Bonjour, Paris.
Bonjour. Huh, Mindy, I didn't know you spoke French. Oh, I don't.
In fact, here, stick this in your ear.
Ow, Mindy, what is this?
It's my latest and greatest invention, Guy Raz.
It'll translate everything said here back and forth into English.
Why does it feel like a wet marshmallow?
Oh, that's because it's half wet marshmallow.
Ah. There we go. Oh, that's actually quite comfortable.
It does feel a little sticky though.
That means it's working.
Come on, we're gonna be late for the party.
Let me just lock up the wow machine here.
Okay. Now we just need to find out where this convention is happening, Mindy.
Do you think it could be at the French Academy of Sciences?
Maybe. Why? Because there's a big old sign on that building over there that says measurements meeting this way.
And next to that, it says the French Academy of Sciences.
Well, that must be it, Mindy.
Come on. Coming. Walk, walk, walk, walk, walk, walk, walk.
Opening the door. Oh.
This is kind of a big party, Mindy.
Yeah. Oh, look they have coffee.
Give me, give me, give me, give me, give me.
Ugh, gross. Ugh, I forgot.
I can't stand coffee.
Alright, alright, settle down everyone!
It's time to get this little convention underway.
Okay, welcome to the first meeting of the Measurements Enthusiasts Club of 1780.
1780? Mindy, I thought we were meant to be headed back to 1875?
Yikes! Looks like the WoW Machine might have overshot it a little.
Well, if the meter convention was in 1875, then...where are we?
Today gentlemen! Uh...and lady.
Thank you. We will be solving one of the biggest problems of our time.
How in the world are we meant to measure stuff?
Seriously. I was at the market the other day and asked for a pound of fish and the dude pulls out a jar of grain.
I asked him, what is that?
He says, it's a pound.
I say, it looks like a jar of grain.
He says, that's what a pound is.
The weight of 7 ,000 grains.
I had the exact same problem.
I went to get some fabric for my curtains the other day and when I asked for a yard of burlap, the dude like measured my chest. I asked him, what are you doing?
And he said that a yard was officially the distance around a man's chest!
And I said, so, if I had a bigger chest I'd get more fabric?
And he said, get this, I don't make the rules!
Well, luckily we do make the rules.
I've gathered you all here today, the greatest minds in France, to come up with a new way of measuring things.
One that is based in reality on moving and not simply the length of someone's body or how much 7 ,000 grains weigh.
Whoa, Mindy, we must have overshot the officials signing in of the metric system and landed in the meeting where they invented it.
Yeah, sure looks that way.
Alright now if I could just get my assistant to bring out the chalkboard for us assistant You are sir, thank you clearance Let's get a little brainstorm going shall we?
Come on, no bad ideas now.
Just yell them out What if we measured everything by the length of a standard cat like?
That's only about 40 cats from here to there OK, are you listening to me at all?
I said, no bad ideas, and then the first thing you do is yell out a bad idea.
He has a point. I have an idea.
Well, is it a good one?
I think so. OK, let's hear it.
What if we used the Earth?
The Earth? Mendy? Shhh.
Sorry. All right, settle down, settle down.
You, explain yourself, buddy.
Well, we were talking about needing something Consistent something that won't change how about our planet?
That's a lot more consistent than the size of a man's chest Okay, not bad not bad use the Planets how are they gonna measure the planet?
I have a question. Yes you what's your question?
How are you going to measure the planet?
Well, it's not gonna be easy I was kinda thinking that maybe we'd figure out how far it is from the North Pole to the equator, and then like, we split that distance up into 10 million different smaller parts.
Huh, okay. 10 million smaller.
Yeah, that could work.
Hold on. I haven't even gotten to the best part yet.
What's that? I have a name for it.
For what? For what we'd call these smaller units of measurement.
Okay? What is it? We shall call it...
the meter! The meter?
Yes, after the Greek word metron.
The Greek word for measurement?
The Greek word for measurement?
That's so sick! I love it!
All in favor of the meter!
Uh, excuse me! Excuse me.
Uh, yes my lady? Mindy, what are you doing?
One second, Kairos...
Uh, yes. Um, hi. The real question here is how exactly are you going to measure from the North Pole to the equator?
I don't know if you've ever tried to walk that before, but it's like a super duper long way.
That is a good question.
Anyone got any ideas?
Ahem. I do. Oh, no. Not this guy again.
No, no, no. This is a good idea this time.
I promise. OK. Let's hear it.
Well, I was just thinking, maybe we could measure the distance between two spots that are closer together, like I don't know, Dunkirk here in France, and Barcelona in Spain?
And then just expand from there to figure out the distance between the North Pole and the equator.
How are they going to do that?
Yeah! How exactly would we measure that?
With math! Why, with math, of course.
Trigonometry. That's actually not a bad idea.
Uh, sorry. Excuse me again.
Um, uh, you were going to measure the length of two countries?
Yeah, how long is that going to take?
Oh, it shouldn't take that long, right?
Let's see here. Yes.
Yeah. Ah, see? Should only take about seven years.
Seven years? I can measure that faster with my tape measure in that amount of time.
I think that's the problem.
And if they don't have any tape measures, that's what they're trying to invent.
Oh, yeah, that's right.
And if you're making something that's going to be used by everyone, you want to make sure that it's super precise.
And the only way to make sure that it's super precise is with...
Math? Exactly. OK, OK.
I'll see you all back here in, like, seven years.
And we can figure out all the math and make that meter.
How does that sound?
This is going to change the world!
Come on, Mindy, let's get out of here and get to the party that we were actually invited to.
Oh, good idea, Guy Raz.
With all this commotion, I almost forgot that we had a mystery to solve.
What? Well, we still have to figure out who sent you that invitation.
Oh, yeah, that's right.
Okay, follow me guy rise I Can't believe it's gonna take those guys seven years to make all those calculations And then a bunch more time to get everyone on board with this new way of measuring things.
What do you mean? Well, look at this invitation Mindy the one for the convention.
Yeah the meter convention.
It's for the year 1875, that's 95 years from now.
Wait a minute, so you mean that those guys go out, make the measurements, invent the meter, and then it takes them almost another 100 years to convince everyone that it's a good idea?
That's right. Oh, good thing we got a WOW machine.
Speaking of which, opening the hatch. Happened, Guy Raz, we've got a party to get to.
That's right. Next stop, the meter convention of 1875.
Okay. Tell me that date again, Guy Raz.
Gotta punch in the coordinates.
Okay. May 20, 1875.
Okay. May 20, 1875.
For real this time, Wow machine!
And here we go! Whooooo!
Wow! Yay! Ha ha ha ha ha!
Another great landing!
Did we make it? Uh, are we in the right time period this time?
Oh, here, let me just check.
Uh, yeah, definitely in the right time.
Now, let's just see if we hit the right place.
Oh, yeah. This seems like the place, alright.
Whoa, Mindy! You actually landed the wow machine in the building itself this time.
Yeah, and I totally did that on purpose, too.
Uh, come on, Guy Raz.
Looks like the party is through here.
Okay. What, what, what, what, what?
Wow, this is hard. Hello, everyone.
Thank you for coming here today, for the signing of the Meter Convention.
Yes, yes. Is that the same person as before?
It can't be, Mindy.
That was almost 100 years ago.
Now, when my great -grandfather, the first president of the Measurements Enthusiasts Club, first came up with the idea for the meter, everyone thought he was out of his mind.
But look at us now, Pop Pop.
We have 17 of the world's most influential countries here to agree to use your system of measurement.
It's so wonderful to see all these countries represented here.
Spain, Argentina, Denmark, USA.
Wait, what? The USA?
We're here? That's right, Mindy.
We were actually one of the first 17 countries to agree to start using the metric system, though it never really caught on.
So now I would like to get a representative from each country to come up here and sign this treaty.
How does that sound?
Alright, Spain? We got someone from Spain?
Great. Denmark, if you could just stand here.
United States? Uh, hello?
United States? Can we get someone from the United States up here, please?
Uh, gaye, Ronald, get up there!
What? Me? What? this is probably why you were invited to sign the meter treaty for the United States I don't think excuse me uh this guy's from the USA indeed excellent well get on up here buddy come on don't be shy go on guy ross have fun up there you got this buddy okay let's see where were we hey what's on this table here extra invitations don't mind if i do excuse me mind if i borrow your quill there Not at all.
Thank you, Dear Guy Ross.
You are cordially invited.
And that is the last signature.
Congratulations and thank you all for joining us on this metric adventure.
Now, let's talk about the ways in which we can all use the new meter.
I want to invent a foot race called the 100 meter dash.
Oh, wow. That sounds fun.
I love dashing. I want to measure how tall I am in meters.
Great idea! Oh, hi.
Excuse me? Yes? Could you add this invitation to your outgoing mail?
Uh. Oh, but could you also hold off on sending it for like 150 years?
What? Trust me, it'll be worth it.
If you say so. Wonderful.
Any more uses for the meter?
Anyone? I want to measure how many meters it is to grandmother's house.
Ooh, good one. And then, I want to know how fast I can run to Grandmother's house, in meters per second.
Oh, yeah! Phew, well, that should do it, Mindy!
The meter is born! Aww, little baby meter, it's so cute!
Yeah, but the only thing left that bothers me is that mysterious invitation.
Who even sent it to me?
Well, Guy -Roz, I guess we'll never know.
It wasn't you, was it?
What? No, it wasn't me!
Mindy! Hey Roz, it wasn't me!
It was probably just an old British man, probably, or something!
I know your handwriting, Mindy!
Roz, the invitation was 150 years old and couldn't be more wanted.
Well, in the world, we'll be right back.
Grownups, this message is for you!
Hey grownups! It's Mindy and Guy Raz from Wow in the World and guess what?
What's the good news, Mindy?
Once Upon a Beat is back with brand new episodes!
Oh, I love that podcast!
We here at TinkerCast have partnered with our friends at Wondery to bring your family new episodes of Once Upon a Beat.
Once Upon a Beat remixes fairy tales and fables as old as time, giving them a fresh spin with some rhythm and rhyme!
This podcast is hosted by the amazing DJ Fuuch and features original hip hop songs from Grammy Award -winning artist, Secret Agent 23 Skidoo.
Once Upon a Beat is where hip hop and fairy tales meet and you can listen to new episodes right now.
Follow Once Upon a Beat on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts.
You can listen to Once Upon a Beat early and ad -free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app in Apple Podcasts.
That's it. Back to the show.
Hi. Thanks for calling Wow in the World.
After the beep, get ready to record. My name is Paul.
I live in Raleigh, North Carolina.
And my wow in the world is that colossal squid have spinning hooks on their tentacles.
Say hi to Reggie. Grandma G -Force, Thomas Pinkerlin.
Oh, cool dude! Dennis, I know you're static, man.
What? No, I'm not static, man.
We just look alike and sound like.
Bye. Hello, my name is Eberly.
I'm seven years old, and I live in Tucson, Arizona.
My world is researchers and pre -discovered 27 new animal species, including an amphibious mouse.
It has wet coat and is considered to be among the rarest in the world.
Hi, I'm Theo and I'm from Haddonfield, New Jersey and did you know echelon sharks can walk on land?
Hiissss Hi India Girls my name is Meena and I live in California My Wow is that not even the spiciest pepper in the world is spicy to burst Isn't that a baulker balls?
Then I drew Reggie, Grandma G -force, Thomas Fingerling, Dennis, and Baby Dennis Brrrrrr Bye Ahoy there!
Hi, I'm Grant, from Lincoln, Nebraska.
My enzyme is a stone that can hold up to 1 ,763 pounds.
Isn't that wow? Hi, I'm India Guy -Rods, my name is Simana Adams, I live in Pleasant Grove, Utah.
My one and only hope is that bubble wrap was made accidentally by teen ventures.
They were trying to make a wallpaper that was easy to clean.
Love your show. Say hi to everybody for me.
Hi. Bye. Hi, my name's Arthur and I live in Seattle, Washington.
And my WoW In The World is, did you know that Shakespeare is credited with coining the term in a pickle?
Also, say hi to Grandma June Force.
Oh, yeah. Dennis. Hi there.
And Reggie. Also, Dennis.
Yes? I know your static name.
Bye. End of messages.
Thanks for listening to this episode of WoW In The World.
If you're a kid with a big wow to share with us, call our Wow Hotline at 1 -888 -7 -WOW -WOW for a chance to be featured at the end of the show or an upcoming episode of Two What's in a Wow.
And while you're at it, why don't you head over to Apple Podcasts and tell us what wows you about our show by leaving a review?
You just might hear your reviews he read by Dennis on WeWow on the weekend.
Oh, and don't forget to visit us at Tinkercast .com and become a member of the world organization of Wowsers.
With that, you'll get year -round mailings, weekly activities, birthday cards, and more.
On Tinkercast .com, you can also shop our Wow shop, get tickets for upcoming live events, find our books, and learn about all the other amazing podcasts from Tinkercast. Once again, that's Tinkercast .com.
Wow in the World is written by Mindy Thomas and Tom Van Kelken with contributions from me, Guy Raz.
Original sound design and music editing is done by Tyler Thol with help from our senior production director, Jed Anderson.
You can also hear Jed Anderson in the voices of Dennis, Thomas Fingerling, Reggie, and many of the other silly characters you hear on our show.
This episode also features the voice talents of Lizzie Fralick.
Thanks, Lizzie! Jessica Bode keeps our facts straight as our fact checker and Meredith Halpern -Ranser powers the wow at Tinker Cast. Our theme song was composed and performed by three -time Grammy nominees The Pop -Ups.
Find them at thepopups .com.
Special thanks to our team, including Kit Balinger, Rebecca Caban, Dr. Natasha Crandall, Kenny Curtis, Kristin Yang, Tuy Mac, Erica Medina, Henry Moskill, Jody Nussbaum, Allie Paxima, Linda Rothenberg, Steph Sosa, Anna Zagorski and all of the other tinkerers at Tinkercast HQ.
Grown -ups, you can follow Wow in the World on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter at Wow in the World and our email address is hello at tinkercast .com.
Thanks for listening.
Find episodes of Wow in the World every Monday, Two What's in a Wow every Friday and We Wow on the Weekends with Dennis every Saturday and Sunday, right here in the Wow In The World podcast feed.
Until then, keep on wow -ing.
Wow In The World was made by Tinker Cast and sent to you by Wondery.
Grown -ups, if you like Wow In The World you can listen early and ad -free right now on Wondery+.
Plus. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Wondery Kids Plus on Apple podcasts.
Prime members can listen ad -free on Amazon Music.
And before you go, tell us about yourself by filling out a short survey at wonder .com slash survey.
