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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 7pm 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!
Hey grownups, if you're planning on taking a family trip to Orlando this summer to be transported to magical universes well, you should know there's one portal you don't want to miss.
Your portal to the original universe Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex, where they have flying dragons too.
It's about science where no spells are required.
Walk beneath a towering Falcon 9 booster, touch a real moon rock and come face-to-face with Space Shuttle Atlantis plus.
Take a behind-the-gates bus tour for an exclusive look at NASA's legendary launch sites and the future of space exploration.
Visitors also have the chance to meet an astronaut.
Talk about a core memory in the making.
And get this, our friends at Kennedy Space Center have offered our listeners $7 off admission.
Just use code WOW at checkout.
With missions to Mars, rocket launches, and deep space exploration...
No trip to Orlando is complete without landing at Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex.
Discover something real.
Okay, a little to the left.
Nope, nope, nope.
That's too far.
Back a little to the right, Tommy.
How's that?
Is it straight?
Yeah, but now it looks too good.
Put it back to the left.
Oh, good thinking.
We need to hurry.
Mindy and Grandma G-Force are going to be home any minute now.
Oh, is this the part where we go hide?
Yep, and then we'll jump out and yell, Surprise!
Surprise!
For the fifth time, Dennis, this is not a surprise birthday party.
It's a welcome home celebration.
Oh.
Mindy and Grandma G-Force have been in Italy spelunking in the Trebiciano Abyss in Milan for the last two weeks, and they're finally coming home today.
Uh, Guy Raz?
Yes, Dennis?
What's the truffle cheese abyss?
You mean the Trebiciano Abyss?
Yeah.
The Trebbie Chimney Abyss.
Dennis, the Trebbie Chimney Abyss is one of the deepest underground caves in the world.
Oh, is it deeper than my belly button?
Or deeper than my belly button?
Dennis!
Or is it deeper than Reggie's belly button even?
Oh, right.
Reggie doesn't have a belly button.
Oh.
What?
That bird's got no belly button.
And where does he keep his jelly beans?
Would you all please just listen?
The Trabiciano Abyss is as deep as the...
Eiffel Tower is tall.
There's an underground cave deeper than the length of the Eiffel Tower?
We gotta stop measuring things with towers.
You know what?
That is so true.
What I am trying to say is that Mindy and Grandma G-Force basically took a journey to the center of the Earth and back, and they deserve a warm welcome home.
Oh, well, why didn't you just say so?
Guy Raz, they are going to get a warm welcome home.
Just look at the sign we made.
It's a beautiful sign, feller.
Uh, what's it say?
It says, welcome home.
Welcome home?
What?
Well, we ran out of the right letters.
Yeah, all the good letters were taken.
You ran out of the right letters?
You were literally painting them onto the sign.
And the sign should read, welcome home, not welcome ohm.
Oh.
Oh, yeah.
Shh.
Everybody quiet.
You hear that noise?
Oh, I hear it.
What is it?
G-Force are home.
Places, everyone.
Okay, on the count of three, I want all of us to yell, welcome home.
Got it?
Got it.
Welcome home on the count of three.
Let me just see here.
One, two, three.
Welcome home.
Good morning, Reggie, Dennis.
Mindy, Grandma G-Force, we missed you so much.
Aw. you, buddy.
And I missed you so much, Mindy, that I moved into your house.
What?
What?
Well, G-Force, I see you came back to haunt me.
You're never getting rid of me, fingerling.
Now, come here.
G-Force, let me go.
Did she just put him in a headlock?
Oh, it's her way of hugging.
I see.
So, Mindy, how was the trip to Italy?
Did you get to the of the Trabiciano Abyss?
And was there a gift shop?
Oh, it was beyond bonker balls.
Here, check out these pictures we took from our trip.
Whoa!
Come on!
Would you look at that abyss?
It's so abysmal.
How'd you get down in there?
We had to attach one end of a rope and a harness to our bodies and then the other to the top of this well-like opening.
And then...
See, in this picture, we had to rappel or climb down 340 meters or 1,115 feet.
It was so deep.
Yep, and it was dark and it was dank, just like I like it.
Neat.
Huh?
So, Mindy, did you bring me a souvenir?
Dennis?
Well, funny you should mention it, Dennis, because... Yes, we did.
You did?
We did.
Oh.
Gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme.
Now settle down and help me get this thing out of my pocket here.
What could it be?
A fridge magnet?
No, wait.
A key ring?
No, wait.
A tea towel.
Oh, that'd be sweet.
Come on, Grandma G-Force.
We gotta show them what we brought back from the cave.
Now everybody stand back.
I don't know if it's gonna bite.
If it's gonna bite?
Come on out, little feller.
Time to show you off.
Isn't he a cutie?
What in the baby dragon is that thing?
A subterranean salamander?
It's an old sweet old.
Dennis, for the last time, it's home sweet?
No, actually, Dennis is right, Guy Raz.
Huh?
This little buddy is a real live oldie.
Om.
Wow.
Wait.
You brought an om back?
In your pocket?
What?
Don't act so surprised, garage.
It's unbecoming.
She filled her pocket with water so the om could breathe.
What?
Fingerling, go fetch me a pail of water.
Okie doke.
It's so cute.
But Mindy, what exactly is an olm?
Allow me to explain.
See the olm, once thought to be a mythical baby dragon, is a very, very hard to find subterranean salamander who lives deep, deep down in cool, dark places like the Turbicino Abyss or cave in Italy.
And until recently, scientists believed that these ohms would never see the light of day.
Is that why he's so ghostly pale?
And why he ain't got no eyes.
Or a nose.
Or a mouth.
Uh, wait, no, there's a little tiny mouth.
Hi, little mouth.
Oh yeah, so interesting thing about ohms.
They actually do not have any any facial features, unless you count some gills.
In fact, when baby ohms are born, their eyes are quickly covered in skin, which leaves them completely blind for the rest of their long, long life.
And this little ohm here just celebrated his 100th birthday.
Didn't you?
He don't talk much.
He doesn't talk, and he doesn't listen either.
In fact, Underground in the cave, he navigates by sensing vibrations, picking up certain chemical clues in the water and using Earth's magnetic fields to help orient himself.
Let me get a closer look at this little Olm.
Go ahead and drop him in this pail of water here, Grandma G-Force.
Okay.
Cannonball!
Huh.
Okay.
So he's got a body that looks sort of like a snake, but with scales, skinny little legs, and he's about the length of a banana.
Ooh, you think it tastes like a banana, too?
What?
Nothing.
Mindy, are you sure he's okay?
Yeah, why?
Well, he seems to be floating towards the surface of the water.
Grandma G-Force, how long did you have him in your pocket?
Relax, Garage.
He just needs to be burped.
Burped?
Oh, like a little baby, a little baby dragon.
It's true see, when an ohm, which is a fully aquatic animal, that means it lives in the water, when it accidentally gets a gulp of air, when you pull it out of your pocket, that air stays inside of its body.
And when it gets back in the water, it causes the ohm to float up to the surface and it can't swim until it's well, let it out burped.
Grandma G-Force, did you really just burp that ohm?
Yeah, I did, and I'll do it again.
Watch this.
Okay, so she's turning the ohm on his back.
Your hair, boy.
And now she's massaging his tummy to help him burp out the air, causing him to float.
I'm just going to tickle your tummy until you burp it out.
Woo-hoo!
Do me next.
My tummy's gassy.
No.
Mindy, this is incredible.
How do you know all of this?
Well, I learned about it from a recent scientific study that I read in the journal Ecology.
No, no.
Hear me out, everyone.
This is fascinating.
Go on, Mindy.
Okay.
So this zoology professor named Raul Manenti, from the University of Milan in Italy, made it his life's mission to find a real live ohm, in the wild.
What do you mean?
Hard?
Hard doesn't even begin to cover it, Dennis.
Oh.
Over centuries, only a few ohms have ever been spotted above ground.
And scientists believe that in those cases, it was only because they were flooded out of their usual underground habitats.
Well, I'd imagine they wouldn't want to come up.
I mean, look at this little fella.
No eyes, no nose.
Can't stop burping.
Scientists believe that ohms were so well equipped to live underground that there would be no way for them to survive on the surface.
I imagine that on the surface, without a whole lot to protect themselves, they'd probably make a nice meal for hungry predators.
Exactly.
But deep underground, these ohms rule the waters.
So how exactly does one go about finding one of these elusive ohms?
Well, for years, Dr Manenti and his team would repel or use ropes to climb deep deep, deep into underground caves.
But in 2020, they were just minding their own business on the surface when they spotted something unusual.
Unusual?
Something ghostly pale.
Ghostly hail?
Something without eyes.
No eyes?
Something burping.
What is it, Mindy?
Damn, Mandy.
Quit trying to riddle us.
It was an ohm.
Oh, come on.
You knew where this story was going.
Yeah, I guess.
An ohm on the surface?
An ohm. swimming in spring water on the surface of the Earth and in broad daylight.
What in the world?
Dr. Manenti and his team had never seen anything like it.
Oh, goodness!
An underground olm now in plain sight above ground?
Wow!
Somebody do something!
Quickly, the team sprung into action.
They began monitoring or snooping on 69 springs in the area.
Oh!
Good idea.
And much to their shock and surprise, they spotted ohms at a whopping 15 of these springs.
And there were no recent floods to help explain it.
Oh, no!
So what were they doing up there, Mindy?
Good question, Guy Raz.
And that was exactly the question that Dr. Manenti and his team had, too.
What in the wow were these ohms doing swimming on the surface of the Earth?
Yeah!
I demand answers!
And to find the answer, they used some interesting research techniques that would give them clues.
Like what, Mindy?
Well, for one, they would make the ohms burp.
I'm gonna make you burp up the truth, little ohm.
What in the?
They discovered that when they scooped the ohms out of the water to steady them, if the ohms had swallowed air, they would automatically float to the surface once they were placed back in the water.
Just like we witnessed with this little om here.
Exactly.
And sometimes they would just burp up whatever air they swallowed.
But other times... Yes?
Other times, they would burp up and barf out earthworms.
Wait a minute, Mindy.
Earthworms don't live in the deep, dark, Caves where ohms do, they live in earth.
Ah, a keen observation, Guy Raz.
And you are correct.
Having earthworms in their bellies suggested that these ohms were risking their lives by coming to the surface to hunt for food that they couldn't get deep down in their caves.
Ah, it's sort of like how I travel 25 miles to get heirloom wheat berries from one certain market because I can't find it anywhere else.
Exactly, just like that.
And what was even more bonker balls was the fact that these ohms were chubby little buddies.
The other ohms, the ones that were previously found underground, were all super skinny.
So what you're saying is that, just when scientists thought they knew everything there was to know about this specific species of cave salamander, new research suggests that what we believed to be true for hundreds of years suddenly
Isn't true.
Or at least there's a lot more to the story.
Fascinating.
You never know what scientists are going to discover next.
I know.
So much scientific mystery still left to uncover.
And it could be happening right under our own two feet.
So what's next for little Olmsky here?
Olmsky?
Yeah, that's what I named him.
Olmsky.
Is he just going to live in this here bucket of water or what?
Huh.
Yeah, I guess I didn't really think this through.
You know, Grandma G-Force, he did seem pretty happy living underwater in that cave where we found him.
Yeah, so what?
I was happier down there, too.
So maybe it's time we take him back home to his natural habitat?
No, he's going to live with me.
Keepers.
Kairos has a point, Grandma G-Force.
When it comes to finding anything in nature, especially living things, it's best to just take pictures and leave the things where we found them.
Well, come on, G-Force.
Time to take little Lomsky here back to where he belongs.
No.
He's my pet souvenir.
I ain't giving him back.
Grandma G-Force?
Ah!
Fine.
You're going in my pocket, little oomski.
Time to take you back home.
Yay!
I'm proud of you, Grandpa Cheek Horse.
Hey, Reg, think you could fly us to the Trabiciano Cave in Italy?
Thanks, Reggie.
Come on, everyone, hop on Reggie's back.
Okay, it's time to get this oom back home.
And here we go! be right back grown-ups this message is for you hey grown-ups it's mindy and guy ross 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.
Hi, thanks for calling Wow in the World.
After the beep, get ready to record.
Hi, my name is Aiden.
I'm seven years old and I live in Naperville, Illinois.
My Wow in the World is that the colossal squid's eye is the size of a soccer ball.
Love your show.
Hi, Mindy and Guy Ross.
My name is Eva.
I'm from Canada, Nanaimo, D.C.
My wow in the world is that some birds can do math.
Reggie, can you do math?
Hi, Mindy and Guy Ross.
I'm Declan, and I'm 7 from Vancouver, Canada.
My wow in the world is that the first airplane flight was only 12 seconds long.
Say hi to Dennis.
Ahoy there.
Snoopy seek robot.
Greetings.
What is up?
Baby Dennis.
Hello, my name is Penelope and I live in Westfield, New Jersey.
It is another of 15,000 varieties of tomatoes in our world.
Say hi to Reggie from me.
Bye.
Hi, Mindy, Guy, Roz, and Reggie.
My name is Judy, and I'm 10 years old.
And my name is Sarah, and I'm 7 years old.
We live in Seattle Washington, and our vow is that crocodiles can grow as many as 3000 feet in a lifetime.
Wow.
Bye, Mindy, Guy, Roz, Reggie, Dennis, and everybody else.
We love your show.
Hi, Mindy and Guy, Roz.
My name is Reed, and I'm and I live in Batavia, New York.
My wow in the world is that it takes less than a second for light to travel all the way around the world.
Say hi to Grandma G-Force for me.
She's obviously the best character.
Oh, yeah.
Bye, Mindy and Guy Ross.
Love your show.
Hi, Mindy.
Hi, Guy Ross.
I'm Andres from Manila Philippines, and my wow in the world is that you can activate moving your eyes side to side.
Hi, I love your show.
Say hi to Dennis and Reggie for me.
Hi!
Hi, I'm Indian Guy Roz.
I'm Eleanor.
I'm nine years old.
And I'm from Atlanta, Georgia.
And my wow in the world is that an elephant's trunk is strong enough to pull down a huge tree, but nimble enough to pick up a single blade of grass.
Isn't that neat?
Love your show so much.
Wow in the World is written by Mindy Thomas and Tom Van Kalken with help from me, Guy Raz.
Original sound design and music editing is done by Tyler Thole with help from our supervising producer, Jed Anderson.
You can also hear Jed Anderson in the voices of Dennis Thomas Fingerling, Reggie and many of the other silly characters that you hear on our show.
And Lizzie Freilich can also be heard as some of the silly characters on our show.
Jessica Bode keeps our facts straight as our fact checker and Meredith Halpern-Ranzer powers the wow at Tinkercast.
Our theme song was composed and performed by three-time Grammy nominees, the Pop-Ups.
Find them at thepopups.com.
Special thanks to Kit Ballinger, Rebecca Caban, Dr Natasha Crandall, Kenny Curtis, Kristen Yang Twee Mack, Erica Medina, Henry Moskal, Jodi Nussbaum, Ali Paksima, Linda Rothenberg, Steph Sosa, Joanna Weber, Anna Zagorski and all of the other tinkerers at Tinkercast HQ.
And to keep the wow rolling at...
There you can become a member of the World Organization of Wowzers to get year-round mailings and weekly activities.
Shop our Wow Shop.
Get tickets for upcoming events, find our best-selling books and learn about some of the other amazing podcasts from Tinkercast.
Grownups, 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.
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 our show or an upcoming episode of Two.
What's in a Wow?
Thanks again for listening.
We're here every Monday or you can check out Two What's in a Wow every Friday right here in the Wow in the World podcast feed.
And don't forget, we wow on the weekend with Dennis, Saturday and Sunday.
Keep on wowing!
Wowing!
Wow! in the world was made by Tinkercast and sent to you by Wondery.
