Hi, I'm Lindsay.
And I'm Marshall.
Welcome to Tumble, the show where we explore stories of science discovery.
Today, we've got an end-of-year mailbag celebration episode.
It is a festive mailbag.
We're going to be reviewing your reviews, answering a real grab bag of fascinating listener questions and revealing the true identity of Milo Sloth, one of our oldest birthday shoutouts.
Stay tuned.
Okay, so Marshall, for the final mailbag of the year.
I thought it was time to turn the tables, do something fun and review our listeners' reviews.
Oh, wait.
Are we giving them a score?
Yes.
Yes, we are.
Oh, I love grading.
That's something I always used to do around this time of year.
All right.
I set up a scale of one to five random emojis.
Okay.
In the spirit of all of the random emojis we get in our reviews, five random emojis being the highest score you can possibly get.
Okay.
Is five good or is that bad?
Five is good.
Okay.
So it's like a lot of uncontrolled enthusiasm.
Got it.
If I like the review, I give it five random emojis.
And if I don't, I give it one.
Yeah.
Okay.
I'm ready.
What's the first?
All right.
So our first review to review is titled Hi from Hey Bob.
Yes, I'm Bob.
I don't believe you.
I think this is a my lady doth protest too much.
So this alleged Bob gives us a five star review and they write, Hi, me like this.
Keep making now this for you.
And then we get a long period of star emojis.
That's a lot of star emojis.
Yeah.
That's like a screen full.
But I can see that we can keep scrolling down.
Oh, wait, there's more?
Then it says, why you scroll here?
Then it goes, ah ha ha, I caught you.
Okay.
Finger pointing emoji.
R-O-F-L emoji.
And tear cry emoji.
Okay.
All right.
That's it.
Go listen to something instead.
Scrolling, scrolling, scrolling.
Would you like a pancake?
You get a lot.
Followed by a lot of pancake emojis.
I personally would give this five out of five random emojis.
There are so many random emojis here.
The review structure, I think, is unprecedented on Apple Podcasts.
Yeah.
Okay.
So I'm ready to give this one a score.
Yeah.
What's yours?
I mean, I think this has to be a five random emoji.
This is a pretty random review.
It's so random.
I appreciate the positivity about the show.
I appreciate the five stars because that does help our rating, which is good, which then helps other people find the podcast, which is also good.
And then the fact that there was just the whole story.
I really like it.
Yeah.
And at the end we got pancakes.
Yeah, i'm all for pancakes.
Yeah, a lot of pancakes, a lot, all right, what's next?
Okay, the second review is yay, from zen penguin.
A five-star review, that's it.
That's it.
I'm trying to click on it and nothing's happening.
Stop, because it just says yay.
It just says yay, all right well, you know, i'll give that five.
Two, i give that five because i love the simplicity, i love the word yay, i love how it's used twice.
I also like a zen penguin.
Yeah.
All right.
So what else you got?
Our last is titled, This is an amazing podcast from Talia with exclamation points.
Five star review.
This is still an amazing podcast, and I'm so happy you read my last review in your mailbag.
I so appreciate this podcast, and in all caps, I'm so excited for more!
All right, well, more is definitely coming, for sure.
And, you know, I think I give that five, again, out of five.
I mean, the truth is, I'm actually kind of an easy grader, so...
I don't know what we were thinking here.
What I really liked about Talia's review is that she referenced us reading her last review, and I definitely want to reward more reviews with more reading of reviews.
Yeah, way to go, Talia.
We'll keep reading your reviews.
Just keep leaving them.
All right.
Thanks to all listeners who have left us reviews and those have left comments on our Spotify page as well.
So now let's get on to our listener questions.
This is a real grab bag.
Okay.
All right.
The first one is from Murphy.
Hi, my name is Murphy and I'm five years old.
My question is, why is the English language so weird?
I think the answer to my question is because the guy that made English language likes seeing kids confused.
And I think scientists can find out by building a time machine and going to talk to the guy that made English language.
Thank you, Lindsay and Marshall.
I love your podcast.
Oh, and Marshall, cats aren't evil.
I don't know how you can say that so definitively.
Marshall, cats aren't evil.
I guess not.
I guess not.
Well, I really love Murphy's question and her reasoning that it's just to confuse kids.
Yeah, I mean, it makes sense.
And if there is one guy who created English, I'm sure there's lots of stuff that's in there that is unnecessarily confusing.
Like, why did he make O-U-G-H make 15 different sounds?
All right.
Well, we got an answer from a linguist and neuroscientist who we've had on the podcast before.
I'm Simon Fischerbaum, and I'm a neuroscientist and cognitive scientist who studies language.
So hi, Murphy.
So first, I think you're right that English is weird, and I'm sorry that you find it so confusing.
You're right.
It is confusing.
But it's also amazing because there are more than a billion people in the world that speak English, which means that there are so many people that you can talk to.
Nobody makes a language, so your time machine is going to have a hard time finding the right person to ask.
Languages are things that change all the time, and that's definitely been true of English.
Because so many people speak English.
English has come into contact with so many different languages in the whole world.
If I were to tell someone who spoke English 500 years ago.
I'm sitting in the restaurant in my pajamas eating chocolate and bananas.
They would have no idea what I was saying, because that sentence has words that are borrowed from languages that originated in Africa, in Asia, in the Americas and in other parts of Europe.
So English is weird because it's a big melting pot of words from all over the world.
You might also be asking why English is spelled so weird.
Like, once we borrow a word, why don't we spell it in a way that makes it easy to learn how to read?
But that's actually hard to do, too. because of how many people speak English.
From Scotland to Jamaica to Singapore, people speak English with so many different wonderful accents that it's hard to figure out what the right way to spell words would be so that it works for everyone.
Think about just here in the US.
For some people, the word P-E-N and the word P-I-N sound exactly the same.
For my accent, they sound different, pin and penned.
Should they be spelled with the same vowel or a different vowel?
Either way, it'll be confusing for someone.
So instead, we have our weird English language that's just confusing for everyone.
Sorry about that, Murphy.
Oh, no.
Well, I mean, I guess, if you have a compromise and it makes everyone unhappy, you've been successful.
Yeah.
Instead of confusing for some people, confusing for everyone.
I think that really settles it.
Solid deal.
Anyway, what's our next question?
So our second question is from Layla.
My name is Layla, and my question is, who made peanut butter and jelly a combo?
I love the combo.
That's great.
I mean so this isn't really a science question, but we thought it was such a fascinating question and we knew just the person to answer it, our friend Mick Sullivan, at the very excellent Kids History podcast The Past and the Curious, which you should definitely listen to if you haven't already.
So here's what Mick had to say.
What a delicious question, Leila.
I actually had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for lunch today.
When historians go looking for the first of anything, like the first peanut butter and jelly sandwich, the only thing they have to use as evidence are what we call primary sources.
So we can only base our knowledge on any original documents as evidence.
So someone had to write something down, save something, take a picture, something that we can trace.
Maybe someone made a peanut butter and jelly sandwich before.
But if we have no evidence, we have no way of knowing that today.
So the first time a PBJ appears in print is a recipe from 1901 in the Boston Cooking School magazine.
The author said it was an original recipe.
And it involves spreading peanut paste on bread along with currant or crab apple jam.
And here's a shocker.
If you want to be historically accurate to the original recipe, you'll need to use three pieces of bread.
That's right.
The 1901 version was a triple decker.
I'm just shaking my head right now.
That is a shocking revelation.
Oh my gosh.
Three pieces of bread.
It's like a club sandwich.
Oh my gosh.
I'm going to try that immediately.
It's going to be pretty bready.
Well, I guess it depends on how much peanut butter and jelly you use.
Yeah, that opens more questions about what kind of bread you'll use.
I have no idea.
Wow.
Well, that's a fascinating answer to an interesting question.
Yes.
Do we have another question?
Yes, we have one last question.
This is from our listener, Soren.
Hello, my name is Soren and I'm nine years old.
My question is, why do cats hate water?
I think scientists can find out by observing a bunch of cats in a controlled area with water.
But I think cats hate water because it's heavy on their coats.
I can't wait to find out the truth.
I think the answer is obviously that they're evil.
Marshall, for every gain you make in saying that you know cats aren't evil, you immediately walk it back.
This is the truest proof of their villainy.
Only villains avoid water.
So I asked a bunch of science journalists this question, and I got a surprising answer that not all cats hate water.
You know, even some of our listeners might have cats that enjoy water in some circumstances.
Oh, I guess those are the non-evil cats.
So, and in fact there's an entire breed of cats from Turkey called the van cat that is actually famous for swimming.
And they go swimming in a lake called Van Lake, which is where they got their name.
And if you watch a video it is kind of crazy to see all these cats like splashing and swimming about in the water.
That's actually crazy.
I kind of can't imagine that.
Do we have a video?
Yes.
Let's watch.
Okay.
Here we go.
I'm pressing play.
Busting one of the longest held myths about cats.
That they all hate water.
Oh my gosh.
Look at him go.
Just a sleek kitty swimming machine.
So furry.
Oh my gosh.
That's crazy.
He looks like a little, I don't know, like a cat otter.
Yes, that is really what they look like.
Oh my gosh.
Well, I have to say, I kind of want a van cat and it doesn't look evil.
Oh my gosh.
I think he'd be a friendly swimming cat buddy.
Yeah, because you love swimming too.
I always assumed that, like cat, swimming would involve a lot more hissing and trying to jump out of the water.
Well, just, you know, upending your expectations about cats.
I know, cats, they surprise you.
Cats will surprise you.
I mean, they do.
All right.
So now we know not all cats hate water.
Some of them actually could go for a refreshing swim every now and again.
All right.
Well, that sounds great.
All right.
So now we're going to take a short break.
And when we come back, we'll talk to one of our oldest listeners and longest running patrons.
All right, we're back.
Okay.
So one thing that I think our listeners may not know is that every other week before we do a release, I put together the list of the birthday shout outs and I'll take a look at everybody who's got a birthday coming up in the next two weeks.
And when I notice someone who's been an active patron for like a long time, like two or three years, I might send an email and reach out and just be like hey, really thank you for supporting us.
And we just want to know like what's what's going on in your life.
And this is particularly true if it's been someone who's been supporting us for like a long time.
How long?
Well, in this case, I found a patron who had a birthday just a week or so ago, who's been supporting us for 109 months, which is what nine years and one month.
So they don't refer to their child as being that old, though.
He's 109 months.
109 months.
Well, he's actually older than that, because he started supporting us when he was five and now he is 14.
So we decided to reach out to them and set up a conversation to find out one why the shout-out has been going to Milo Sloth.
Yeah.
And why they've been supporting us for so long.
So here's a snippet of that conversation.
And can you explain to me Milo Sloth?
I think it just goes back to me really loving Sloth.
You guys started supporting us on patreon in 2018 or thereabouts maybe even earlier, like 2017 or something and uh, you were one of the first people to submit a birthday shout out form and in that form, the shout out goes to milo sloth and i've been uh reading that on your birthday every year since and always remembering like i said something to milo sloth last year, didn't i?
I hope he's developing like a cult following amongst your fans.
So you were saying, like around that time you guys were listening to like a lot of podcasts all the time and we were one.
Yeah yes, you're definitely friend center.
What's made it one of your favorite podcasts?
I don't know.
It just felt super engaging when I was like all the way to school.
It made car rides definitely a lot more fun.
Who do you think is the funnier host?
Oh, that's all you.
I can't decide.
I'm sorry she put you in that position.
If one of you wants to call us back directly, we'll give you that answer, but, you know.
What keeps you supporting the Patreon so many years on?
To give 10 a month, even if we're not listening to something that is obviously that I know helped our kids and was such a healthy landing place and a nurturing place for our kids for so many years.
To know that we can support other families and other kids in listening to that just feels really good.
You guys do cool things and I'm a big supporter of anybody doing anything cool in the world, whether or not it applies to my kids at their age right now or not.
Well, I thought it was really cool to talk to a listener.
And I just love hearing from people who listen to Tumble, especially people who are like, basically grownups now, who remember us from when they were littler.
Yeah, it is just really cool knowing that we were a big part of Milo's life.
And you know, I also really appreciated hearing from Josh that he thinks we're doing something cool and wants to support it.
Yeah, Josh runs a lot of great restaurants in and around Santa Monica, so he's doing something cool too, and that he thinks we're doing something cool is, I think, a seal of approval.
Yeah, it's very validating.
But if you want to be like Josh, you don't have to start a restaurant.
You can just support us on Patreon.
It's a really great last-minute Christmas gift and it's also a thoughtful long-term contribution just to make sure that we can keep making new episodes of Tumble for years to come.
Listener support is not only significant to us financially, but it also just gives us the motivation to keep going, because we know that people care enough about what we do, what we're putting into the world, to help support it with their own money.
If you want to sign up yourself at patreon or you could give a gift subscription just go to patreoncom slash tumble podcast and join at any level, and we appreciate it.
Just so so so, so much, so much.
We also want to let you know that there is going to be an end of the year treat in our patreon feed.
Do we want to tell them what it is or just have them find out?
I think it should be a surprise.
Oh, it'll be a surprise.
OK, and this is the last thing we'll tell you.
If you want to support science, education and high quality audio experiences for kids everywhere in a bigger way, just consider reaching out to us directly to make a tax deductible donation to Tumble Education.
We want to thank you all so much for listening this year.
We'll be taking a little break and returning with new episodes on January 23rd, but we'll still be popping up in your feed with some special treats.
And remember, always listen to the end for the cool Easter eggs.
And keep sending us your reviews, your comments, your questions, your concerns, your random thoughts.
We love them all.
And what do you think is the best combo?
Thanks today to our experts Dr Simon Fischerbaum at Rice University and Mick Sullivan, host of the kids podcast The Past and the Curious.
Do you want to support Tumble so we can keep making more episodes?
Just join our Patreon starting at just one dollar a month at Patreon dot com slash Tumble podcast.
It gets you ad free versions of the show.
And if you go for five dollars or more, you'll get a birthday shout out which those are coming right up.
I'm Lindsay Patterson, and I wrote this show.
And I'm Marshall Escamilla, and I produced this episode, and I make all the music for Tumble.
Tumble is produced by Tumble Media.
Thanks for listening, and stay tuned for more stories of science discovery.
All right, everybody, here we are at the end of the episode.
And by now, I think we should all know exactly what that means.
It means birthday shout outs for our Patreon people, as we were just like talking about for like five minutes before.
So, you know, really, this should be no surprise to anybody.
Anyway, without any further ado, here are some birthday shoutouts for people who have birthdays over the next couple of days.
First, to Morgan, happy birthday on December 19th.
Mom and dad love you.
We're so excited for you to broaden your science horizons.
Oh, cool.
A happy birthday on December 21st to twins, twins, Audrey and Naomi.
Birthday hugs from mom and dad.
To Rishiv, mom and dad love you and have a very happy birthday on December 23rd.
And that's all we've got for this episode.
Thanks so much to all of you and to everyone who supports Tumble on Patreon.
We really appreciate it so, so much.
And I hope you all know that we couldn't keep making episodes of Tumble without the support of our subscribers on Patreon.
If you want to join these fine folks and get a birthday shout-out of your own, go ahead and support Tumble on Patreon at the 5 level or higher by going to patreoncom slash tumblepodcast.
Once again, that is patreoncom slash tumblepodcast.
Okay, and you guys know that that can't possibly be it, because i've been doing easter eggs almost all season now.
So this time i want to let you know that i've got a box full of tumble notebooks sitting right next to me right now that come with like cool little pens they're.
They're really cool looking and kids always love them when i bring them to shows.
So if you want one, I will give away three notebooks to the first three people who email me a picture of a cute, adorable and totally not at all evil cat.
Just the cutest picture you can find.
Extra points if you drew it yourself.
And we'll see you all next time.
