Grownups, Wondery Plus subscribers can listen to Wow in the World early and ad-free right now.
Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or Wondery Kids Plus on Apple Podcasts.
Hey, Wowzer fans, Mindy here.
And before we start the show, I gotta 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! is insane.
Sure, he might be a simple blue-collar oil-drilling everyman from 1998, but doggone it.
He's the best chance we've got for blowing up this asteroid and avoiding an Armageddon.
We have approval from the president, sir.
So, Bruce, what do you say?
Hmm.
I say Yes to saving the planet.
I say yes to saving my family.
Yes to soaring through space and being a hero.
Sorry.
Excuse me.
Hey, Guy Raz.
Where are you, little buddy?
I'm over here.
Oh, there you are.
Reggie, watch your wings.
There's people Shh.
Sorry.
Coming through.
Can you put your legs up?
Just hold your knees to your chest.
Thank you.
Thank you.
I think I'm stuck.
Can you give me a little nudge?
Oh, thank you.
Sorry.
All right, buddy.
I got nocturnes.
I got popcorn.
I got fish tacos.
Which one do you want?
Mindy, can you please be a little quieter?
They're in the final number of the first act.
Mm-mm.
Sorry, what did I miss?
Well, we're about to find out whether Bruce will leave his daughter to go blow up the asteroid headed for Earth.
I still can't believe you got us tickets to Armageddon the musical, Reggie.
That's what happens when your cousin is Lin-Manuel Miranda's pet parakeet.
Shh!
Sorry!
I'm just a simple oil man What should I say?
What's it gonna be?
I say yes!
During the intermission of Armageddon the Musical, please be sure to visit our concessions for asteroid popcorn balls the size of Texas.
Whoa, what a first act, Mindy.
I have chills.
Here, put on my sweater.
Okay, Reg, we'll meet you out there.
Someone's in a hurry to use the little pigeon's room.
I can't wait to see what the rock does as the asteroid in Act 2.
Me neither.
I keep hearing that he's dynamite in this.
That reminds me, Mindy, who's actually playing the role of the dynamite?
Um, I can't remember who's playing the role of the dynamite.
Uh, oh, but you know what?
I picked up one of those little programs when I was out in the lobby.
Let's look it up in here.
Ah, Mindy, it's all covered in butter.
No, it's not.
Then what do you call this?
Um, nacho cheese?
It's not even the same color as butter.
Here, I'll lick it off.
Ugh.
Okay, let's see here.
Wait a minute.
That's so cool!
What's so cool?
It says right here Mindy, that a special branch of NASA called Planetary Defense Coordination were actually brought on board to help write this musical.
Planetary defense, huh?
That's right.
It says right here that it's a special branch of NASA, the government space agency that keeps an eye on the night sky for any asteroids that might be headed our way.
Huh, so they're sort of like those government agents in the musical.
You know the ones that went out to Bruce's ranch to ask him to join the mission to blow up the asteroid.
Sort of, Mindy.
It says they track aliens. any asteroids that come within 30 million miles of Earth.
And just to be clear, asteroids are those big old hunks of rock floating way out there in space, right.
That's right.
It also says that, if it should ever come to it, they would lead a team of astronauts to help steer any incoming asteroids away from Earth.
Wow, that is literally a big job.
But... But what?
Guy Raz, I don't think planetary defense would approve of Bruce from the musical's smash bang, boom approach to stopping that asteroid.
Well, why is that?
Okay, so I just finished reading this brand new scientific study by Charles L Murr from John Hopkins University.
And the study shows that smashing apart an asteroid that's heading towards Earth is about as pointless as a pigeon in pajamas.
Well, what do you mean?
Well, Guy Raz, I could...
Tell you.
Or you could show me.
Yes, we finally agree.
But Mindy, the second act of the musical is going to start at any moment now.
Gairaz, we have a mostly functional time-traveling wow machine that's parked right outside.
We can be back before we've even left.
Come on, quick trip out to the asteroid belt?
What do you say?
What do I say?
What do I say?
I say yes.
Yes!
Okay, let me just get the valet to bring the wow machine around.
Jerry's still waiting on that PLP-50, and who's bringing around the Amphicar?
Hello, excuse me.
Oh, hi.
Yes, I was wondering if you could bring my wow machine around?
Sure, what's it look like?
It's the one with the broken pirate ship door and the red racing stripes.
Oh, I'm sorry, you're going to have to be more specific.
We've got a lot of wow machines here today, ma'am.
Oh, um, okay.
Well, it's leaking mayonnaise and smells like a combo of baby powder and hot dog water.
Oh, yes.
I know the one.
I'll be right back.
There we go, ma'am.
Sorry for the wait.
I couldn't remember where I put it.
Tell me about it.
That happens to me all the time.
One time, I thought I left it in the Paleolithic era, and then I couldn't find it anywhere.
And next thing I know, I end up finding it all the way in the Pleistocene era.
Well, you three have a good night.
Okay, Guy Raz, hop on in.
Okay.
Let's see here.
Blinds are down.
Trade tables are up.
Let's punch in some coordinates.
Asteroid belt.
Okay.
You ready?
You bet, Mindy.
Good.
Because here we go!
Woo!
Yeah!
Never gets old.
Right, Guy Raz?
Right.
Reggie, you doing okay there, buddy?
Well, Guy Raz, Reggie, I would like to take this opportunity to welcome you to the Asteroid Belt.
Over 200 million miles away from Earth and home to 2 billion tons of floating space rock, any of which could be knocked off course by something as innocent and unassuming as say, I don't know, maybe a little old, time-traveling wow machine.
Mindy, what in the wow are you doing?
Just giving one of these giant asteroids a little nudge towards Earth.
What?
Don't worry, Guy Raz.
It takes at least 220 days for an asteroid to travel all the way from the asteroid belt to Earth.
But Mindy.
Guy Raz, do you trust me?
No.
OK, that is not the answer I was looking for.
But, Guy Raz Reggie, hold on to your tail feathers, because this asteroid has a date with planet Earth.
Mindy, no.
Wait, was that it?
Like I said, just a little nudge.
Okay, Mindy, but how do we stop this asteroid from crashing into Earth?
Oh, are we going to blow it up like they did in Armageddon the musical?
I say, yeah!
Uh, no.
Then how?
Well, remember that part of NASA that was mentioned in the musical's program earlier?
Planetary defense?
Yeah, so planetary defense has lots of different plans for stopping asteroids that are on a course for Earth.
Uh-huh.
And one of those plans is to take a small but heavy spacecraft, slam it into the side of the asteroid and smash it into lots of teeny tiny, harmless smithereens.
And by smithereens, I mean pieces.
Well, it's not exactly as exciting as a gigantic outer space explosion, but hey, if it works, it works.
But that's the thing, Guy Raz.
What?
It doesn't work.
It doesn't work?
Mindy, what do you mean it doesn't work?
Okay, so remember that scientific study I was telling you about earlier?
The one by Charles Elmire from Johns Hopkins University?
Mm-hmm, that's the one.
So Charles Elmire and his team of researchers were able to test how effective this method of destroying an incoming asteroid would be by science, simulating it or modeling it on a computer.
So he was able to use information about asteroids and impacts to predict what would happen if you slammed a spacecraft into the side of an asteroid.
Exactoritos, Guy Raz.
And what did he find?
Well, that's what we're here to find out.
What?
Well, I didn't bring you and Reggie all the way out here to the asteroid belt.
Just to tell you about a scientific study.
You...
You didn't?
No.
I came here to show you about a scientific study.
Show me?
Yes.
Okay.
Let's see here.
In the simulation, they used a 15.5 mile wide asteroid.
Check.
Whoa.
15.5 miles?
Mindy, this asteroid is a quarter of the size of Washington, D.C.
Yeah.
And then they slammed a 4000-foot projectile into the side of the asteroid to crack the case of whether this form of asteroid assassination would work in reality.
And what do they find, Mindy?
Well, why don't you grab that little tricked-out bike pump over there and find out?
Bike pump?
Mindy, is that my bike pump?
With a couple of upgrades.
Go ahead, check it out.
Give it a couple pumps.
Okay.
Okay.
Mindy, what was that?
The outside of the wow machine is expanding.
Guy Raz, I turned your bike pump into an expando pump.
An expando pump?
Yeah, it makes the wow machine bigger.
Check it out.
Look outside.
OK.
Hey, the asteroid seems to have gotten smaller.
But in reality, we've just gotten bigger.
Huh.
So why did we need to make the wow machine so much bigger?
Well, to show you, I'm going to recreate the simulation or the model, the same way that those researchers at John Hopkins University did.
Now, let me see here.
The projectile in the simulation was 4,000 feet tall.
And the wow machine is only about 10 feet tall.
So let's go ahead and make the wow machine about 400 times bigger.
Move over, pal.
Ugh!
Ugh!
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
Are you saying that you're going to slam the Wow Machine into the side of this asteroid in order to smash it into smithereens?
Yes, of course that's what I'm saying, Guy Raz.
What?
Don't worry.
The Wow Machine is made out of reinforced aluminum-sided cardboard.
Well, that's fine.
Maybe.
Mindy, I don't know about this.
Great.
That makes two of us.
Mindy!
Reggie, Guy Raz, strap yourselves in.
You still don't have seatbelts in here, Mindy.
Then I don't, um, oh, hold on to that railing over there.
Is this railing made out of candy canes?
And here we go!
Oh, yeah!
Ah, that sound is so annoying!
Let me just take care of this.
Everything's fine.
Hey, look.
It worked.
Whoa.
The asteroid, it's broken up into lots and lots of tiny, tiny pieces.
What once looked like a giant piece of rock is now just millions and billions of harmless little pieces.
But Mindy, I thought you said this wouldn't work.
Ooh, yeah.
Well, not so fast, Guy Raz.
You see that big old chunk of rock that's still intact over there?
Yeah.
Well, that's the core of the asteroid.
And if this simulation is anything to go by, let me just hit this button here.
Whoops, sorry.
Nope, that's for the cat flap.
Just need to push the fast forward button.
Ah, here it is.
Whoa, though all of those smaller pieces of asteroid are heading back towards the core of the asteroid.
Just like in the simulation.
It's as though the core of the asteroid is sucking in all of the smaller pieces that just got smashed off of it.
Like Humpty Dumpty putting himself back together again.
And Guy Raz, this is all because of the gravitational pull.
And a gravitational pull is the invisible force that heavy objects in space use to suck smaller objects in
You know it, Guy Raz.
And these researchers were able to show that these big asteroids' gravitational pull gave the asteroids the ability to pull themselves back together again when they were smashed by a heavy spacecraft.
Right, so let me get this straight.
The spacecraft smashes into the side of the asteroid, bursting into lots of little pieces, but the leftover asteroid core is still big enough to pull back in all of those little pieces because of its gravitational pull.
Yep.
Sucked him right up and put itself back together again.
Okay, but Mindy, I still have one more eensy-weensy tiny little concern.
Uh, Guy Raz, we are in a partly functional aluminum-coated cardboard wow machine in the middle of the asteroid belt.
What do you possibly have to be concerned about?
There's still an asteroid headed towards planet Earth.
Okay.
Okay.
Get those ants out of your pants and calm down.
As usual, I've got everything out of control.
What?
I also have a plan.
You do?
No, but NASA does.
It does?
Yeah.
So you know how I said that NASA has a bunch of different plans to redirect asteroids that are on a crash course with Earth.
Uh-huh.
Well, I thought that maybe we could take another plan out of their playbook here.
Ah!
NASA's Planetary Defense Playbook?
Okay, now let's see here.
No, no, no.
How about this one, Mindy?
Gravity tractor beam.
A tractor beam, like they use in science fiction movies?
Exactly.
It says here that it's one of the most promising plans to redirect an asteroid that's heading towards Earth.
Sounds good enough to me.
It says here that if you can get a large enough object next to the asteroid, the object's gravitational field should be able to pull the asteroid towards it and, over time, change its path.
Change its path away from Earth!
Exactly.
Just like how the asteroid's core or center was able to pull in all those smashed bits of asteroid.
Okay, let me just make sure I've got this straight.
So you're saying that a large object next to the asteroid could use its gravitational pull to pull the asteroid away from Earth?
Correctamundo!
If only we had a large enough object.
Uh, Guy Raz?
Yeah?
Forgetting something?
Huh?
What?
Huh?
Huh?
Huh.
Ahem.
Of course, the Expando Pump.
Mindy, that's brilliant.
If we keep expanding the Wow Machine, we might be able to make it big enough for its gravitational field to pull this asteroid out of the way of Earth.
That's the plan.
Now, you want to give me a hand here?
Sure thing, Mindy.
And pump.
And pump.
And pump.
And pump.
And pump.
And pump.
And pump.
Whoa.
Whoa, Mindy. take a look at the asteroid now.
It looks about ten times smaller than it was before.
But again, it's just that we here in the Wow Machine have gotten bigger.
Right.
Okay, now all we need to do is get close enough to the asteroid for it to get caught in our gravitational field.
Let me just grab the steering wheel here.
Mindy, is that steering wheel from a pirate ship?
Mm-hmm.
What?
Now, let's get That asteroid.
Easy.
Easy does it.
Keep.
That should be close enough.
Well, now what do we do, Mindy?
Now we slowly drag this big old hunk of rock out of harm's way.
Hey, how long does this usually take, Mindy?
Eh, a couple of months.
A couple of months?
Yeah, our gravitational pull isn't that strong, but over a long enough period of time we should be able to drag this thing out of the way.
Mindy, can't we just use the fast forward button again?
Oh, yeah.
I always forget about that thing.
Hold tight.
And that should do it.
Look, Mindy, it's working.
The asteroid's going to miss Earth by a long shot.
Oh, yeah.
Didn't doubt it for a second.
So, do you think we can head back to the theater now?
I know it may not be completely scientifically accurate, but I heard the final dance number in Armageddon.
The musical is out of this world.
I see what you did there, Guy Raz.
Out of this world.
All right.
Let's get ready to head on back.
Locking in the coordinates.
Here we go!
Woo!
Yay!
Nice landing, Mindy.
Those giant bouncy castles you attached to the front bumper really helps to soften the landing.
Thanks, buddy.
Now let's get out of here.
Opening the hatch.
You landed us right in the middle of the stage during the final number.
Everyone thinks it's part of the show.
Mindy, what do we do now?
Just smile and wave.
Just smile and wave.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Oh, too much.
Too much.
Loud in the World will be right back.
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 That's it.
Back to the show.
Uncle Valis Ogan.
And all wow in the world is that some snails have 52,000 teeth.
Thanks.
Love your show.
Hi, Mindy and Guyrod.
My name is Bailey.
I live in Beaufort, Georgia.
I was born in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which is home to Africa's oldest national park, Varinga National Park.
Reggie would love it there.
And I think you're so impossible.
Bye.
Hi, my name is Hannah.
I live in Germany.
My wow in the world is that if you put a green, red and blue light together, you have a white light.
Bye.
Hi, Minnie and Guy Raz.
My name is Jarek, and I live in Atlanta, Georgia.
My wow is that Chocolate is made from a fruit called a cacao bean.
Bye, love your show.
Say hi to Freddie for me.
The annoying Dennis.
Oh, wow, the amazing Dennis.
I love it.
Reggie, no, he said amazing.
Hi, my name is Delia.
I live in Washington, D.C.
The wow in my world is little brown fat can eat more than 700 mosquitoes in one hour.
My name is Chaska, and I'm from Kissimmee, Florida.
My wow in the world is that a man named Alex Honnold scaled El Capitan in Yosemite with no ropes or climbing gear.
Hi, my name is Tig, and I am from Berkeley, California.
My wow in the world is that space is constantly expanding.
And Mindy, you crack me up, and I assure you I am not an egg.
My name is Addison.
Where I live is Fairfax, California.
In my round the world, baby pigeons are called squabs.
Both mothers and fathers produce milk and care for their squabs.
Pigeons are able to learn math and can also recognize themselves in the mirror.
Pigeons are pretty smart.
And check dates for our upcoming live events.
That's wowintheworld.com.
Our show is produced by Jed Anderson.
Who provides the bells, whistles, and silly characters.
Say hello, Jed.
Hello.
Our show is written by me, Guy Raz, and Thomas Van Kalken, who also provides silly characters.
Tom?
Hello there.
Thanks also to Jessica Bode, Casey Koffer, Rebecca Caban, Kit Ballinger, and Alex Curley.
Meredith Halpern-Ranzer powers the wow at Tinkercast.
Our theme song was composed and performed by The Pop-Ups.
For more info on their two-time Grammy-nominated all-ages music, find them at thepopups.com.
And grown-ups, you can follow Wow in the World on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter at wowintheworld.
And our email address is hello at wowintheworld.com.
And if you're a kid with a big wow to share with us...
Call us at 1-888-7-WOW-WOW for a chance to be featured at the end of the show.
Also, if you haven't already done so, please subscribe to Wow in the World on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.
Yeah, leave us a few stars, a review, or just tell a friend about the show.
Thanks again for listening.
And until next time, keep on wowing.
Jinx!
And before you go, tell us about yourself by filling out a short survey at wondery.com slash survey.
