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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 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! for fishing, huh, Reg?
Just you and me, fishing pole, sitting here on the roof of my gingerbread mansion.
Look, I can almost touch the sun!
Wow!
Oh!
Okay Reg, I'm gonna go ahead and spread the line, and while I'm doing that, I need you to attach the bait.
What do you mean, what bait?
I've got a whole basket over here.
Look, I've got...
Some cheese, some cheese pizza, some peanut butter.
Well, just take an entire cheese pizza right here, smother it in peanut butter and then shove it into this hot dog bun.
No rat is going to be able to resist what's on the end of this fishing line, that's for sure.
Yeah, I did say rat.
You didn't think I was going to fish for fish, did you?
Reggie, my moat is bone dry down there.
Okay, Reg.
On the count of three.
One, two, three.
Ow!
What was that?
Hit me right in the head.
And now we wait.
Ooh, it's a peanut butter cheese pizza dog.
From the sky.
Well, don't mind if I do.
How cool.
Reggie, something's nibbling on the bait.
It's gotta be a rat.
I can feel it.
So good.
Oh, baby, this is gonna be a real lunker.
Huh, something's fishy about this peanut butter cheese pizza dog, but I can't quite... Wait for it.
Wait for it.
Hey, what's this fishy line?
In the... Oh, hi, Mindy.
Dennis!
Hi, Reggie.
What are you two doing up here?
Fishing?
Uh... How do you expect to catch any fish?
The moat is bone dry.
Can't you see I'm up here fishing for rats?
Oh.
Again?
Hey, uh, Mindy?
Hey, Guy Razzi.
Dennis?
Hi.
Reggie?
Ew.
What are you all doing on the roof of the gingerbread house?
Ugh!
It's a mansion!
Oh, right.
Sorry.
Sorry.
What are you doing on the roof of your gingerbread mansion?
I'm not sure those pretzel rod beans are going to be able to withstand... Quick, Reggie!
Go to the bait basket and get the kale!
Mindy, rats won't like kale.
The only things that like kale are... Oh, I get it.
It's for Guy Ross.
Also, I think you're getting a little too close to the sun up there.
There we go.
Why don't you come down to the ground where it's a little... Hey!
That's it, Guy Raz.
Go ahead.
Take a bite.
Okay.
Wait for it.
That's some fresh kale.
Now!
What in the... Oh, hey, buddy.
Wow, Mindy, look at that.
You caught a freshwater Guy Raz.
What is he, like 70 inches?
Gotta be a record.
Here.
Take my picture with him.
What?
But hold still, you rascal.
Say cheese.
Cheese.
Put me down, Dennis.
Oh, wait.
Reggie, give me that.
I'm going to take a selfie.
Cheese.
Huh?
Wait.
Did you hear that?
What?
Is that?
Could it be?
Huh. hear it now.
It's like a rumbling, squeaking, teeny tiny pawing sound.
Almost like a charging horde of... Uh-oh.
What?
Rats!
Rats?
They must have heard you say cheese.
What?
Rats love selfies?
And now they're all running up the sides of my gingerbread mansion.
I didn't need a fishing pole after all.
You Whoa, this was not how I expected to catch my raps today, that's for sure.
Wait, what was that you said, Dennis?
Huh?
I said thank goodness.
No, the other thing, when the rats were tickling you.
Oh, I said, uh, stop.
Please make it stop.
Help.
Hmm, but you were laughing.
So?
That doesn't mean I was enjoying myself.
I was attacked.
Huh, you were attacked with tickles, which made you laugh?
I was freaked out on the inside.
Well, how does that work?
Wait, I think I know what was going on, Mindy.
You do?
Yes, you see, there are millions of tiny sensors under your skin called nerve endings.
And when your skin is touched, those nerve endings send signal to the parts of your brain that are responsible for making sense of touch and feeling.
Hmm.
And together those parts of your brain are essentially what create the sensation you're feeling Dennis.
Okay.
Ah.
So, for example, if I were to say, touch a hot stove or, you know, the sun, those nerve endings would alert my brain and my brain would send messages back to my hand notifying it that I have touched something hot and that I should probably expect a bad feeling.
Well, yes.
And if you were being tickled, those two parts of your brain would tell you to expect a tickling sensation, which could be good.
Good?
No, it was torture.
Or it could feel like torture.
So if the rats tickling Dennis made Dennis feel like he was being tortured, then why was he laughing?
Yeah, why was I laughing?
Well, scientists still don't know for sure.
But some scientists who study how humans have evolved and other scientists who study the brain believe that it could be a kind of involuntary defense mechanism.
Oh, like your body's way of chilling out a tense situation.
Exactly.
You know, all of this reminds me of a new scientific study that I just read about rats in tickling.
Oh, what a coincidence.
Yeah. came from the University of Bristol in England.
And in that study, a team of researchers led by Professor Emma Robinson wanted to find out once and for all do rats like to be tickled?
Oh, yeah.
I think I saw something about this study in the scientific journal Current Biology.
Yep, that's the one.
You two read the strangest stuff.
In fact, scientists have known for a few years now that rats are not only ticklish when they're being tickled.
No.
Giggling rats?
Well, I've got to hear this.
Come here, rats.
Here, ratty-ratties.
Come on, laugh now.
Coochie-coochie-coo.
Actually, Dennis, rat laughter cannot be heard by the human ear.
Oh.
Hear it!
Mindy's right, Dennis.
You can tickle those rats all day long, but you'll never be able to hear them with your naked ear, because rats laugh at a frequency far higher than human ears can detect.
Well, rats.
Unless you're wearing a pair of these high-frequency, ultrasonic hearing headsets I invented.
Ooh, tech accessories.
Let me see, let me see, let me see.
Oh.
Uh, do you have them in any other colors?
Uh, Mindy, these high-frequency headsets look like old hamburger buns attached to earmuffs.
And what's with all this loose wiring hanging off of them?
Oh, get careful!
Was that a spark?
That was the complainy pants detector.
And the next person to criticize my high-frequency hearing headsets gets mildly zapped.
Uh...
Never mind.
I like them now.
Here you go, Dennis.
A pair for you and a pair for you, Reggie.
Although I do have to say you already have excellent hearing.
So, Mindy, were Professor Robinson and her team able to hear the rats giggling?
Well, yeah.
Really?
Sort of.
See, they were able to record the rats' ultrasonic or high-frequency laughter on a special device that would then play the sounds back to the researchers at a frequency that they could hear with their human ears.
Oh boy, I can't wait to hear rat giggles.
Oh, right.
Reggie's got a point.
Wasn't there a question as to whether or not rats actually like being tickled?
I mean...
That kind of seems important.
Yeah.
How were Professor Robinson and her team able to test it?
Oh, OK.
So for this experiment, the researchers wanted to recreate the kind of tickling atmosphere that the rats would experience naturally when playing with other rats.
And what kind of atmosphere is that?
Well, just take a look at our rooftop rats here.
It looks like they're roughhousing and tumbling around.
The little rat just jumped on the big rat's back.
Whoa.
And now the big rat is flipping around to get the little rat off.
And oh, now the little rat is on the big rat's belly.
And look at their little paws.
They're using them to tickle each other.
Look and listen.
I hear something.
Is that giggling?
Oh my gosh!
It's so cute!
I'm going in!
Come here!
Come here, little bunny!
Tickle fight!
Tickle fight!
Tickle fight!
I'm guessing that the researchers did not join in the fun?
Actually, they did, Guy Raz.
What?
Yeah see, in recreating this natural tickling environment in the lab, the researchers had to play the role of the other rat.
Of course, because when testing the rat giggles they couldn't have too many rats or they wouldn't know which rat the giggles were coming from.
Exactoritos, Guy Raz.
The researchers experimented with one rat at a time.
So, in the spirit of anything for science, they had to tickle the rats themselves.
Anything for science.
And while they were doing this, they took notes on the rat's behavior and reaction to the tickling.
You know, for example, if the rat tried to play with the tickling hand or... Mindy!
Guy!
Look!
I think they like me!
They're playing with my hand like it's one of them!
Oops!
Look out.
I'm going to get you.
Back for more, huh?
Or if the rat kept coming back for more.
Or even if it just tried to get away from the researcher's hand altogether.
So just to make sure I'm getting this right, you're saying that the researchers would tickle a rat.
Tickle, tickle, tickle.
Uh-huh.
And while they were tickling that rat, They'd be recording the rats' high-frequency laughter or vocalizations on a special recorder that would then translate it into a sound frequency that they could hear with their own ears.
You know it.
And when they played these giggles back, they compared them to what they observed while watching the rats.
And what did they discover?
Well, they discovered that the rats who giggled the most also seemed to have the most positive experience of being tickled.
Wow.
And those were the rats that kept coming back for more.
You again.
Well, okay.
They kept attacking the researcher's hand with what they called joy jumps.
Oh, did you see that?
It jumped.
These rats were clearly into it.
So this would suggest that The rats who laughed the most also enjoyed being tickled the most.
You got it.
The researchers also found that not all rats enjoyed being tickled.
At least, not all of the time.
Huh.
Some of the rats were ticklish. clearly not in the mood to be tickled?
That's what I'm saying.
The researchers found that the rats who showed the least positive experiences were also the rats least likely to giggle when they were being tickled.
Mindy, this rat won't laugh when I tickle it.
I think it's broken.
That rat's not broken, Dennis.
Yeah, it's just not in the mood to be tickled.
Oh, like me from before when the rats were tickling me and I didn't like it?
Oh.
I get it.
So, Mindy, does this research suggest that rats only laugh when they're enjoying themselves?
Oh, good question.
Because remember before Mindy, when I was being tickled and I didn't want to be, but I was still laughing.
Do rats do that?
Should I not be tickling them?
Well, Professor Robinson and her team found that rats have a much more honest response to tickling than humans do.
Oh, that's good.
So if they're enjoying themselves they'll laugh, and if they're not, they won't, whereas in humans it seems to be much more involuntary.
We might laugh, whether we like it or not.
I see hey, mindy.
Yes dennis, i have a question.
Why are researchers tickling rats for science?
I mean, aren't scientists usually curing diseases and studying the mysteries and problems of the planet and stuff like that?
Actually Dennis, rats and other rodents have been helping scientists to solve the world's problems for over 150 years.
Yeah, and because there are so many similarities between the bodies and brains of rats and of humans.
Well, rats have played a pretty important role in helping scientists to develop medicines and to understand the human brain and the way it behaves.
Oh, and I just thought of another thing.
Even NASA has rats living aboard the International Space Station.
They're working to help scientists better understand life in microgravity.
We actually owe rats a debt of gratitude.
They're the unsung heroes of the scientific world.
Wow!
True heroes.
Okay.
So all of this is to say Dennis, that this experiment is a step in helping scientists to understand when a rat is experiencing true happiness and when it's not.
Okay, that's enough.
That's enough, rats.
Yep, you know what they say.
Happy rats, happy researchers.
Got it.
I guess we should probably round up these rats and get them off of my gingerbread roof before they eat it.
I suppose.
OK, little ratties.
Party's over.
Time to go.
Wow, Dennis.
You're like a real life Pied Piper.
Oh my gosh, you're right.
I want you to take my picture when I get back.
Wow in the World will be right back.
Grownups, this message is for you.
Hey, grownups.
It's Mindy and Guy Raz 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.
Hello, my name is Nevin.
I live in Scottsdale, Arizona.
And my Wow in the World is that the sun has so much energy because of a process known as nuclear fusion, which happens when the nuclei two atoms lot of energy.
Like in the sun, it's when two hydrogen atoms join together to make helium.
Bye, Mindy and Guy Law's lovely show, and say hi to Veggie and Dennis for me.
Hi!
Hi, my name is Annabelle, and I live in Denver, Colorado.
My wow in the world is the cockeyed squid.
It has one normal eye and one eye that points upward.
This squid lives in complete darkness.
Say hi to Grandma G-Force, And Thomas Fingerleg.
Sup?
Bye.
Hi, Mindy and Guy Roz.
My name's Eden.
I'm nine years old.
I live in Surrey, B.C.
My wow in the world is that the first computers weren't even machines.
They were actually just humans who solved complicated math problems.
Say hi to the whole neighborhood for me.
Bye.
Hi, Mindy and Guy Roz.
My name is Rory.
I live in Brooklyn, New York.
And my wow in the world is... is that ants were alive at the time of dinosaurs.
Say hi to Reggie, the Annoying Dennis, Gary the Goose, and Debbie, Donna, Pam, Carol, Cheryl, Mystics, and Steve.
Bye.
Hi, Mindy and Guy Raz.
My name is Rainey, and I live in Pensacola, Florida.
My role in the world is that kittens lose their baby teeth.
Say hi to Reggie for me.
Hi, my name is Julian.
I live in Brooklyn, New York.
My wow in the world is helium is the second lightest element.
Say hi to that man for me.
Hi, Mindy and Guy Rod.
My name is Brooke, and I'm from Manchester, Maryland.
My wow in the world is that the smallest monkey is about as tall as a toothbrush.
Hi, Mindy.
Hi, Guy.
This is Moira.
And Hannah.
From Indianapolis.
So my wow in the world is that scientists use whale earwax to tell their age.
And my wow is that humans and slugs share more than half of their genes.
Make sure to say hi to Dennis for us because, well, he's Dennis.
Howdy.
And Grandma G-Force and the whole crew.
Yeah, just say hi to the whole crew for us.
No way, dear.
Okay.
Bye.
Love your show.
Bye.
End of messages.
Hey, everyone.
Thanks so much for hanging out with us this week on Wow in the World.
And to keep the wow rolling, consider becoming a member of our World Organization of Wowzers.
Each membership includes episode-specific digital activities and science experiments, book lists and more.
Plus, you'll get a welcome box including a special edition members-only t-shirt and an autographed picture of us.
Find out more at Tinkercast.com.
There you can also find more info on our upcoming shows.
Shop our shop and find our New York Times best-selling book, The How and Wow of the Human Body.
Wow in the World is written by Mindy Thomas and Tom Van Kalken with help from me.
Our senior producer, Jed Anderson, brings our show to life with sound design and music editing and is also in charge of wrangling Dennis Thomas Fingerling, Reggie and many of the other silly characters you hear.
And Grandma G-Force wrangles Grandma G-Force.
Grandma G-Force, get out of the credits!
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 their music at thepopups.com.
And special thanks to the rest of our Wow in the World team, including Anna Zagorski, Rebecca Caban, Kit Ballinger and Henry Moskal.
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.
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 or on an upcoming new episode of Two.
What's in a Wow?
Also, be sure to subscribe to Wow in the World wherever you get your podcasts.
And you can also ask your smart speaker to play Wow in the World.
Thanks for listening.
And until next time, keep on wowing.
Keep on wowing.
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