You're listening to the Brains On Universe.
You're listening to Brains On, where we're serious about being curious.
Holy macaroni, do we have a big episode for you today.
You know it.
You love it.
It's the... mystery sound.
Oh, yeah.
We're going to hear a bunch of intriguing, curious, and downright mysterious sounds.
Your job will be to guess what they are.
This mystery sound extravaganza is going to take us all over the world, thanks to our super special guest, Thomas Rex Beverly.
I had a grizzly bear in Alaska come up and try to eat one of my microphones for a while.
Oh my gosh!
You hear him sniffing and licking it and playing around with it for about 30 minutes, which was kind of fun.
I hope your ears are ready because they're about to get a workout.
To the studio, please.
Which one?
Since you've gone independent and moved into the new Brains on Universe headquarters.
Every floor has a studio and you keep building more.
Always good to be prepared.
Shannon said he's been fixing up the Smarty Pass floor.
Let's check that out.
Smarty Pass floor going up.
Elevator, you were one of our founding Smarty Pass members, right?
That is correct, Molly.
Ad-free episodes, discounts on merch and live shows and my favorite hangouts with you, Mark and Sandin.
But you hang out with us all the time, like right now.
This is work, Molly.
It's different.
Anyhow, it's easier than ever to become a member.
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Smarty Pass Studio.
Molling!
Great timing.
What do you think of the new bubblegum-themed Smarty Pass floor?
It's pretty pink and sticky.
I know, right?
Bubblegum on the floors, walls, and ceilings.
You're always just a couple of chops away to your next bubble.
Oh, okay.
But I don't think all that gum is going to be good for the studio equipment.
Fair point.
I'll clean it up.
With my mouth.
Elevator, let's just go to the main studio.
Thank you.
You're listening to Brains On, part of the Brains On universe.
I'm your host, Molly Bloom, and I'm here with Rahema from Dallas, Texas.
Hi, Rahema.
Hello.
Hello.
I'm so excited to be here.
Oh my gosh, we are so excited you're here because I got to meet you not too long ago in person when we had a live show in Dallas.
So without giving too much away, what was your favorite part of the show?
That's an unfair question.
But I think my favorite part of the show was probably when there were scientists coming From the past falling from the ceiling.
Don't ask.
But my favorite part of the entire experience was definitely being able to meet you and Mark and Sandin, which that was a lot of fun.
Honestly, that was my highlight too, meeting you.
It was so fun.
So today's a Mystery Sound episode, Mystery Sound Extravaganza.
So how are you when it comes to guessing the mystery sound?
I like to consider myself really good at guessing the mystery sound, but I only really get it right like 60 of the time.
So not the best of the best.
I think that's pretty good.
I find mystery sounds very hard myself.
I almost never get them right.
So today, we're putting an outdoor spin on today's mystery sound extravaganza.
Everything you're going to hear comes from the natural world.
And joining us with sounds from all over the world is Thomas Rex Beverly.
He is an adventure field recordist.
He travels the globe to find some of the most interesting sounds in nature.
His trips also involve some tough physical activities too, like he might have to scuba, dive or backpack or ski just to track down sounds that he's never heard before.
Hi, Tom.
Welcome.
Hi.
Glad to be here.
Before we get into the sounds, can you tell us a little bit about what you do?
It sounds really exciting.
Yeah, so I record nature sounds.
It's kind of like being a nature photographer.
So if you're a Nat Geo photographer that went out and... photographed elephants or other animals.
But I go out with microphones and I record their sounds.
So that might be large animals, elephants, wolves, whales.
Sometimes it might be glaciers.
Sometimes it might be weather, big storms, thunder, that sort of thing.
Well, here at Brains On, we appreciate you, Tom, and we appreciate a finely tuned ear.
And it sounds like we have the best here today.
So, Rahema, it's time for the first...
So, Tom, you recorded what we're about to hear without giving too much away.
Would you mind telling us where in the world it's from?
So this was recorded in Texas in November, but it's not really supposed to be in Texas, so it's not the best hint.
Okay, and you and Rahama are both in Texas right now.
So, see if that helps at all.
Here is the sound that it's some kind of bird at the beginning.
It was like so.
At first I thought that it would be like a small bird, but then it started getting kind of like groany like, and I feel like only a bigger bird would be able to make a sound like that.
So I think that it might be some kind of bigger bird.
I think it's a bird too.
I think you're totally right, Tom.
What is it?
Are we right?
So it is not a bird.
It is an animal, though.
It is actually a deer called a Sika deer.
Oh.
So they make these bird-like bugling sorts of sounds.
The one thing you might have heard in the U.S. is an elk.
They make these trumpeting bugling sort of sounds.
And this one basically sounds like a baby elk.
And it makes these sounds in the fall when it's usually a male deer that's trying to find a mate.
And it makes all these spooky sounds.
Wow, a deer.
Oh my gosh.
Sika deer are actually from Asia.
They're not supposed to be in Texas, but people brought them over and had them on their ranches and they escaped.
And so now you can hear these spooky sounds, especially around Halloween, out in the hill country around San Antonio.
They're quite beautiful.
They echo through the hills.
Wow.
I would have never guessed a deer for that sound.
Seriously, that's amazing.
Okay, that was a tough one.
But Tom, we're going to ask you... to join Rahama as a guesser on this next one.
So here is a sound.
Are you ready for one that our listener sent to us?
I'm ready.
So ready.
Okay, here it is.
Are you hearing?
What are you cluing in on?
Let's start with Tom.
What do you think?
Yeah, it's tricky.
I would say maybe a little bit of a kind of wet sort of motor sound in the distance.
Maybe something dragging.
Not sure.
Or Hema, what do you think?
I agree with Tom that it's something spinning in water.
So I think it might be like boat motor maybe, but I also heard flapping, so it could have been somebody who is recording like a flock of waterfowl on a boat.
So we're hearing both like the flapping and the rotor spinning.
So that's my guess some very keen listening happening here today.
So we're gonna have to answer right after a quick break.
Hear you later.
You're listening to Brains On.
I'm Rahema.
I'm Molly.
And I'm Tom.
And Tom has brought us some of the absolute coolest mystery sounds from his expeditions around the world.
But before we can hear his next selection, let's see how good he and Rahema were at guessing a mystery.
Sound from a Brains On listener.
So you guys heard some flapping.
You heard maybe some motor.
You heard something wet.
You heard something dragging.
We're not sure what it is.
Do you want to stick with those guesses?
I think I'm going to stick with my guess.
What do you think, Tom?
Yeah, I'll stick with mine.
All right.
Here is the answer.
Hello.
I'm Dylan.
I live in Victor, Idaho.
The sound you just heard is the spasmodic geyser near Old Faithful and Yellowstone National Park.
I knew I heard water.
Wow.
That was a tricky one.
Tom, have you been there before?
Did you know that?
Have you seen that geyser before?
I have not seen that geyser.
I've been pretty close to there, but never recorded in Yellowstone.
All right.
So we're going to hear another sound from Tom.
Here it is.
That is a cool sound.
Okay, Tom, before we guess.
Wow.
Without giving it away, where did you record that?
So that is up in the far north in the Arctic would be your hint for that one.
But it's kind of tricky too.
Okay.
So Rahama, what do you think?
Okay.
He said up north.
And at first, I heard something crumbling.
So I think it might be ice.
Oh.
I think it sounds kind of weird, but I think it might be ice, like a glacier crumbling.
I love that guess.
So smart.
I don't think I can do better than that.
So let's hear Tom.
What is the answer?
So it is a glacier.
You nailed it with that.
So imagine you're in Iceland in the winter.
You have a big glacier.
And at the bottom of the glacier, there's a lake.
But the top of the lake is frozen.
And so I went out on the frozen lake and used these big drills to drill holes in the ice.
And you put an underwater microphone called a hydrophone through the ice.
And then what you're actually hearing is the cracking and breaking and moving of the glacier.
And sometimes they're like... Sometimes they're... Make all these cracking sounds.
If you're above the ice, you don't actually hear much at all.
But then if you put the hydrophones under the ice, you hear all of this fabulous ice sound.
So it's a...
Fun way to listen to the glaciers.
Yes!
Incredible work.
So amazing.
What's one thing you never forget to pack on your expeditions?
I think I bring a lot of tape with me, like duct tape and electrical tape, because sometimes an animal will destroy my microphones or the weather breaks something.
So you can fix a lot of things with some duct tape.
Do animals... ever get upset that there's a bunch of microphones and equipment in their habitats?
Sometimes.
A lot of what I do is leave microphones out by themselves for 24 hours.
So I'll go set them up.
I'll let that record for a long period of time by itself so that I get the animals behaving naturally, because they wouldn't act normal if I was sitting there with the microphone.
And so oftentimes they'll come up very close and investigate the microphones.
I had a grizzly bear in Alaska come up and try to eat one of my microphones for a while.
You hear him sniffing and licking it and playing around with it for about 30 minutes, which was kind of fun.
Generally, I tend to like going places where there's less wildlife trying to mess with your sounds.
Well, we're going to have another sound from your travels in just a bit.
So stick around.
We've got an episode coming up all about skunks.
They're famous for their strong smell.
And that stink is a defense mechanism.
It's a way for skunks to scare away animals that might hurt them.
That's a pretty clever way to scare off your enemies.
Totally.
So if you could design a unique way to scare off animal enemies, what would it be?
What about you, Rahama?
What would your odd animal defense be?
Hmm.
Well, I think...
I would start off with like a really big suit because in the animal world, dominance is everything.
So if I appear to be in a higher social class than the animal, then fighting would be out of the question.
Smart.
Throw in some symbols, a slime gun, and maybe a nose plug, and I think I'm covered.
Wow, that is very well thought out.
I can't wait to see your suit.
It's going to be amazing.
So listeners, please share your ideas for wild animal defense mechanisms.
Record a voice memo and then go to brainson.org to send it to us.
And while you're there, you can also send us your drawings and questions.
And keep listening.
We're back with our mystery sound extravaganza.
Our pal Thomas Rex Beverly has come with a treasure trove of mystery sounds from his sound adventure trips, and our co-host Rahema has flexed her listening skills to the max.
So, you all are both from Texas.
What are some of your favorite sounds in the area?
Rahema, why don't you start?
Well, I remember that there was one time when my family went to a Japanese garden.
It's basically a giant walk through meadow that has like flower trees and a bunch of koi ponds and there were butterflies everywhere.
And the sounds of the birds was so relaxing.
And I think that in one of them that we went to, there was also music playing.
So that, plus the sounds of the birds and the water and the rustling leaves and the wind, was so relaxing.
That sounds amazing.
And Tom, what about you?
Do you do much recording of sounds close to home?
Yeah, I've done a bunch of recording out in West Texas near kind of Big Bend National Park out there.
And yeah, I love listening to the summer thunderstorms, the big booming echoing thunder.
And then sometimes you'll get hail storms.
My parents had a house out there with a metal roof.
So you get the hail kind of pinging off the roof and the big echoing thunder that's bouncing around in the mountain valley.
So I've always loved storms and been a little bit of a storm chaser.
So I like their sounds.
So, Tom, where is our audio journey going to go next?
We're going to head out to California to a special thing that only grows in California and Oregon.
Putting the mystery in mystery sound, but that's a helpful clue.
Okay, Rahama, are you ready?
So ready.
All right, let's hear it.
I don't know.
What do you think?
So the sounds at the end give you a little hint, and then the thing at the beginning is what you're trying to guess.
Ooh, okay.
What do you think, Grandma?
I have two guesses.
So my first guess is at first I hear a storm and then with that weird sound at the end, I'm thinking that it's either like a storm alarm, like one of those tornado alarms, but either that or
I think it might be some kind of frog.
Yes, I was thinking frog too.
There's so many like bizarre frog sounds.
Wait, Tom said it was something that grows.
Grows?
Didn't he say that's something that only grows in Oregon and California?
So is it like a plant?
Is it a plant talking to me personally?
I don't think so.
I don't think a plant can talk.
Maybe that what we thought was a storm at the beginning was like rustlings.
Of leaves or something.
Or maybe.
But I did hear some kind of like booming in the background.
And it seemed too big to be wind.
Yeah, I think you're right.
Anyway, that's a thought.
We have a lot of thoughts.
We're not sure.
Tom, please help us.
What was that?
Yeah, so the sounds at the end are animals.
The thing that you thought was maybe some sort of alarm or maybe a frog.
That's actually a raven going...
They make these croaking sort of sounds.
So that's a big, big black bird called a raven.
Super smart birds.
And was that first part a storm?
It sounds a lot like a storm, but it is something that grows.
So one of the things I managed to record is this big booming sound in a forest.
So that was the sound of a gigantic redwood tree falling in the distance and going boom.
Oh.
So that's a tree that's like about at least as tall as if you've seen a football field.
So imagine the length of a football field standing up.
So 300 to 400 feet.
And they're pretty gigantic trees that have been growing for over a thousand years sometimes.
And yeah, sometimes they fall in a windstorm or sometimes they just fall over and they make a gigantic booming sound, kind of like thunder.
So it's not something you would hear very often anywhere.
Booming trees and ranting ravens?
Spooky.
All right.
So do you have any tips, Tom, on how to tune into the sounds of nature in a place like this?
So I usually do a little exercise where I start by trying to listen to a sound that's in your body.
So that would be maybe holding your breath.
Sometimes you can hear your stomach gurgling or the sound of your own heartbeat.
If you hold your breath, then moving out a little bit.
Maybe that's a few feet away.
Maybe that's the sound of your foot on the ground, moving some leaves.
Maybe it's the sound of something really close to you.
Then you jump out a little further, maybe 50 feet.
Then you start to hear those ravens or those birds or a little bit of wind.
Then you jump out 500 feet.
Then you can hear everything in your environment.
Maybe that's the car driving by your street in the city.
And then you can jump back even further.
So trying to listen out a few miles.
So that's sometimes like the airplane that's flying over really high that you can actually hear if you focus on it.
It's a distant train.
It's the distant redwood tree booming.
So just trying to focus on those different levels because you can actually hear very far away.
It can be kind of fun to do that, because a lot of people don't even notice the sounds that are going on around them.
Well, we've got one more sound from Tom.
But first let's see what's new in our mailbag.
Love getting your mail, whether it's a letter with a stamp or an email with whatever emails are sent with.
Drop us a drawing, ask us for life advice, or send us your idea for a new room at our headquarters.
Just go to brainson.org.
Now let's see what this one is.
Oh, it's a message from a teacher.
Let's hear it.
Hi, my name is Carla Morin.
I'm a third grade teacher in Canton, Michigan.
I love to use the Brains On podcast with my science classes.
I match up episodes with science units like Life Cycles and Traits.
For the Traits unit, one of my favorite episodes is Meet Sandy the Left-Handed Mutant Snail.
It's something that kids can relate to being right or left-handed.
As a science teacher, I like that it features school kids as scientists.
My students love the voices of the snail and the sound effects and the fact that it also talks about mutants.
As a science teacher, I love all the questions that Brains On asks and it gets kids to think about science and be interested in science.
Aw, a plus to you for sharing us with your class.
We're sending you a free subscription to Smarty Pass, of course.
If you're a teacher, tell us how you use Brains On.
Go to brainson.org to get in touch.
Okay, later mailbag!
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Thank you so much.
So, Tom, you have taken Rahama and me on a real journey.
The Arctic.
California, Texas.
So do you have one more sound to share?
Yes.
Okay, let's hear it.
Okay, Tom, before we guess, where did you record that?
So that was in Hawaii.
Okay.
Rahama, what do you think?
All right.
So when I first heard the sound, I was thinking either seals or whales.
But if there's anywhere that seals do not live, it's Hawaii.
So I'm going to guess that those were whale sounds.
I like that idea a lot.
It sounded, I guess it's like a whale party.
There sounded like so many of them.
Okay, Tom, are we close?
What was it?
Yeah, it's definitely a whale party.
There's a whole bunch of humpback whales that go there in... what is their winter?
So these humpbacks, they live in Alaska part of the year and they go up and they eat krill and salmon up there.
And then when it gets cold in Alaska, they swim all the way to Hawaii.
And that's where they do their singing and they give birth to their babies.
And yeah, that's probably anywhere from 20 to 50 whales in this one bay.
And they all just hang out and sing to each other and make lots of fun sounds.
So they make one sound that's especially fun.
It's kind of like Hello, my name is Tom and Whale.
They go boop.
They make these little boop, little whoop sounds.
And so that's kind of like them.
Some of the researchers think that that is kind of like them saying their name.
So sometimes when you're listening, you can hear one off to the left and you'll go boop.
And the other one off the right will go boop.
That's so cool.
A little bit different sound.
They're like, oh, that's my name.
I love that.
So you can hear them talking to each other.
So yeah, it's quite amazing to hear.
Well, Tom, these sounds have been so cool.
And listeners, we have a very special treat.
After today's credits and honor roll, we are going to play Tom's whale recording in full.
So if you want to relax and pretend you're floating in the ocean, stick around until the end.
So Tom, before we go, we have one more sound for you to guess.
You ready?
Yep.
Okay, here it is.
Tom, what do you think?
Sounds maybe like someone typing really fast on a keyboard or a cat kind of jumping around on some sort of keys or maybe pine cones kind of getting scraped around.
The little petals kind of plucking.
Yeah.
Something like that.
Oh, I'm not sure.
Maybe like somebody like sanding or like breaking wood or something.
I don't know.
Or I think that it also could also be a pine cone that also kind of sounds like pine cones okay excellent guesses here is the answer hi i'm vera and i lived in herndon virginia my mystery sound is me cracking ice on the pathway so a little different than that glacier we heard earlier but still ice very cool very cool ice makes really cool sounds Thanks so much for your time, Tom.
Yeah, thank you, Tom.
We really appreciate it.
Yeah, thank you.
This was a lot of fun.
Bye.
Mystery sounds are truly everywhere.
Sometimes all you have to do is sit quietly for a minute and there they are.
I don't know about you, Rahama, but I can always use a little more quiet time to help me relax.
For sure.
That's it for this episode of Brains On.
This episode was written and produced by Mark Sanchez.
Mark also wrote our theme song and sound designed the episode.
It was edited by Sandin Totten.
We had engineering help from Michael Zavala and special thanks to Thomas Mungi and Joki Correa.
If you want to find out more about Thomas Rex Beverly's sound adventures, check out his website thomasrexbeverlycom.
We'll have a link in the show notes too.
Our website was built by Ken Taborski at codeofthenorth.com.
Brains On is an independent podcast.
Our show depends on your support.
Help the show grow by going to brainson.org and signing up for Smarty Pass.
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$60?
That's like the price of one pizza night.
Exactly.
Sign up today at brainson.org.
Now it's time for the Brains Honor Roll.
These are the kids who keep the show going with their questions ideas, mystery sounds, drawings and high fives.
Amelia from New Mexico, Clara from Markham, Ontario, Mary and Elizabeth from Philadelphia, Orion and Liam from Oakland, California, Elias and Emma from Taft, California, Zoe and Sammy from Amber, Pennsylvania, Cooper from Birmingham, Alabama, Mina from South Orange, New Jersey, Elena from Houston, Quinn from Kelowna, British Columbia, Kiers from Ottawa, Amelia from Franklin, Tennessee, Marlo and Beatrix from Portland, Oregon,
We'll see you next time.
Clara from Redmond, Washington.
James from Little Rock, Arkansas.
Evan from Singapore.
Logan from Cincinnati.
Louis from Hastings, New Zealand.
Scarlett from Chattanooga, Tennessee.
Aria from Victoria.
Jameson from Reading, Pennsylvania.
Eddie from Erie, Colorado.
Naisha from Mumbai, India.
Aiden and Asha from Orlando, Florida.
Titus from Alexandria, Louisiana.
Ari from Los Angeles.
Malcolm and Quinton from Inglewood, California.
Jiajia from Shenzhen, China.
Claire from Astoria, New York.
Claire from Boxborough, Massachusetts.
Annabella from Lisbon, Portugal.
Addie from Guelph, Ontario.
Lila and Aiden from North Reading, Massachusetts.
Born.
Next week's episode is all about how CDs and records get made.
Tune in and you'll get to hear this.
I don't understand human foods like potatoes or tomatoes or pinky toes.
Thanks for listening.
As promised, here come those whale sounds.
