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Hey, Wowzer fams! Mindy and Guy Raz here, and before we start the show, did you hear that we are on YouTube?
That's right, Mindy. Wowzer fans, you can find full episodes of Wow in the World and more of your favorite Tinkercast podcasts on our YouTube channel, WowTube.
Plus, on WowTube, you can also watch me explode some watermelons and test out Bonkerball's experiments in the laboratory of bad ideas.
Or you can dance along with Dennis for music videos featuring music from WeWow on the weekend.
There is so much in store made just for you on WowTube.
Visit Tinkercast.com slash YouTube to watch now.
That's Tinkercast.com slash YouTube. We wow on the weekend.
We wow on the weekend. We wow on the weekend.
Because this is what we do on the weekend.
And then we, oh wait, no, I said laughing twice.
Uh, whatever. We wow on the weekend. Yeah!
Wow on the weekend. Cause this is what we do on the weekend.
Hello and welcome to Wee Wow on the Weekend.
I'm your host, Dennis. And Reggie's also a host as well, also.
We're down in my mother's basement just hanging out, being cool.
Reggie! I am so cool! Yeah-huh! Remember the time I accidentally crashed my bike into the bushes by the library and I got a scrape and I hardly even cried?
I cried. because I was wearing sunglasses and I couldn't see which was cool.
Oh, whatever. We need to move on because today we have a brand new segment.
I know! I call it Reading Reviewsies! Reviewsies!
You know, the comments people write on Apple Podcasts or Spotify or whatever and they give us stars!
Yeah, I printed a bunch out and I'm gonna read them.
I'm reading reviewsies for me and for yousies.
We've got us some doozies, so let's Read Reviews!
Okay, let's see what we got here. This Reviewsy comes from Cat12345678910111.
The title says... Nice. And the message says...
Cool. Huh. That's a really short Reviewsy.
Oh, and they gave us five stars. Thanks, Cat12345678910111.
Next comment. Okay, this next Reviewsy comes from username Fiona.
The title reads... The best show ever. Aw, thank you, Fiona.
And the message says... Ahem. I have watched all your episodes twice.
They are so great. I love Dennis so much.
Thank you. I am extremely lovable. Let's see how many stars.
What? One star? Oh, why? Oh! What an emotional rollercoaster of a reviewsy.
I need to sit down. Oh, right. I'm already sitting down.
Right, right, right, right, right. Okay, next comment.
This next one's from username The Gymnast of the West.
Ooh, mysterious. The title says, 11 out of 10.
The message reads, Be new year. Fireworks emoji.
I love your podcast. You should make an episode about the science of stress.
Well, Gymnasts of the West, as it happens, there's an episode of Wow in the World called Gaming Your Way to Zen.
Reggie, nuh-uh. It's not called the zen of video games.
It's called gaming your way to zen. Yes, it is.
Look. Season 3, Episode 5, The Zen of Video Games.
Huh. Okay, whatever, you're right. Anyway, in the episode, Guy, Roz and Mindy enter a relaxing state of flow by playing video games.
Thank you, Gymnasts of the West, and thank you everyone for your reviewsies.
Keep them coming. All right. If you leave a comment on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, I just might read it.
Five stars or more, please. What? It only goes up to five stars?
Sheesh, I feel like we should be able to squeeze in a sixth or seventh star, you know?
Okay, next up is a little segment I like to call Inside Tinkercast Studios.
Inside Tinkercast Studios. This is the part where we revisit an episode of one of my favorite Tinkercast shows.
And this weekend, we're revisiting episodes from the very first season of Wow in the World.
Today we're doing a story from Episode 9 called Dogs and Humans.
In this episode, Mindy and Guy Raz discuss a striking similarity between dogs and humans.
No, Reggie, we don't smell the same. Well, I don't want to spoil the surprise.
Let's just play the episode. Okay, here we go.
And play. Wee Wow will be right back. Grown-ups, this message is for you.
That's it. Now back to the show. Hey, Guy Raz.
Hello, Mindy. How's it going, buddy? It's going well, thanks.
So I've got a serious question for you. Okay.
What kind of dog loves to take baths? Well, actually... Okay.
Guy Raz, it's a joke! What kind of dog loves to take a bath?
A Shampoodle! OK, moving right along. Well, actually, Mindy, that brings me to a science story.
Oh, I love stories. What do you have? You know that old saying about humans and dogs?
Oh, yeah. Never eat a dog unless it's in a bug.
Uh. Maybe it was something like never eat a dog if it can run away from you.
I don't know, Guy Raz. I don't know what the saying is.
Actually, the old saying I was thinking about, Mindy, is dogs are man's best friend.
I never heard that one. We call dogs our best friends because, you know, they're loyal and loving no matter what, even on a bad day.
Or a bun. You know, even on a bad day, Mindy, your dog will still love you.
Yeah. And it'll show you that love by slobbering all over your face and eating your shoes.
The reason why dogs and humans are such good pals might have something to do with evolution.
Oh, evolution. So like the way we've changed over millions of years.
Exactly. We humans have changed over time.
We've... We've had to learn how to cooperate with each other in order to make sure that we survive.
We know all about cooperation, Guy Raz. Do you remember that one time I asked you to put your cell phone in the aquarium so that I could talk to the fish? and you didn't want to do it but you did it anyway because you're a good friend and also because you fell into it?
That was cooperation. Yeah, exactly. And, you know, long, long before humans had cities or horses or supermarkets or... Or animals. airports or taco trucks.
Yeah, right, right. Long before we had all of those things, Mindy, we had to find food out in the wild.
And over time, we figured out that if we were going to make it on this planet, We had to work together.
So some people would look for food. Other people would build places to live.
Other people would cook the food. Basically, we had to become friends.
Hello. So survival of the friendliest? Exactly.
Humans had to become friendly because as any kid knows, Mindy, By being friendly, you are more likely to get what you want.
Okay, I think I've got this. So say I want you to give me 100 bucks, I might say something to you like, Guy Raz, you're looking so dashing today.
I hardly even recognized it was you. Uh, yeah.
No, that's not it. Anyway, Mindy, friendliness is how early humans were in one sense able to become the most dominant species on planet Earth.
Okay, and just to be sure, when you say species, you mean groups of living creatures, right?
Yeah. but not just creatures, Mindy. A species is a similar group of living things that create more of that same species.
For example, cats are a species, so are horses and tigers, but so are plants and flowers like the water hyacinth. and even things like garlic and fruit flies.
And of course, our nearest relatives, chimpanzees.
Knew it. Guy Raz, I took one look at your toes last summer and knew that your great-grandma had to have been a chimpanzee.
Uh, well, we're not... really relative in that sense.
We actually broke away from chimpanzees about 7 million years ago.
So... Not like in our family. But yes, we humans are distant relatives of chimps.
We are different, of course. Very different than chimps.
But out of all the species on Earth, they are the closest ones to us.
Wait a minute. So does this mean that chimps are also friendly in the same way that humans are?
Well, it's interesting you ask, Mindy, because when it comes to friendliness, our closest animal relatives... might be... Ooh, ooh, pick me!
You want to take a guess? Is it man's best friend?
That's exactly right, Mindy. Dogs. So how do we even know this?
Well, Mindy, scientists at the University of Arizona recently discovered that dogs and two-year-old humans shows similar patterns of something called social intelligence.
Okay, so I don't want to sound socially unintelligent, Guy Raz, but what exactly does that mean?
Well, it means that among all creatures, dogs seem to be able to understand what's going on around them. in ways that are similar to a two-year-old kid.
Wow, so how do we even know this? Well, the scientists at the University of Arizona took a group of chimps and a group of dogs and they gave them some brain games to play.
So for example, the scientists would hide a toy in a room.
And then they'd start to look in the direction of the toy or even point their fingers to the part of the room where the toys were hidden.
And lo and behold, the dogs would stand up and walk to that part of the room and find the toys.
But when it came to the chimps, Mindy, they would just sit on their bottoms and do nothing.
Wow, that's crazy town. So then what did the two-year-olds do?
Mindy, those little humans did exactly the same thing the dogs did. what's more is that the scientists found that dogs and the kids were better than the chimps at making eye contact, at looking right into the of the scientists.
Such manners. So why is this a big deal?
Well, it's a big deal because making eye contact is an example of that term I mentioned earlier. social intelligence.
And it suggests, Mindy, that dogs like humans probably evolved or changed over millions of years to become friendly.
As you said, survival of the friendliest.
That's so cool. Cool. So, Guy Raz, now that we know about dogs, what does this discovery mean for us humans?
Well, Mindy, it's possible that we might be able to better understand when and how humans develop certain behaviors. and why it's easier for some humans to be friendly, but sometimes harder for other humans to be friendly.
We know that at around nine months, human babies start to understand what's going on around them.
They start to notice how other people around them behave.
And if we can get an even better understanding of how dogs have figured this out, it could help us crack the code about certain mysteries related to human behavior that we don't yet understand.
Yeah, like why we get the hiccups, or why we can't sneeze with our eyes open, or why we see in 3D, or why we get bored, or why our feet fall asleep when we sit on the toilet for too long.
Or why we toot. Or why we daydream. Or why our cheeks turn red when we're embarrassed.
Ah! Oh, wow! Cool! That was great! Dogs have as much social intelligence as two-year-old humans.
Reggie, do you think I have as much social intelligence as a dog?
Because one time, on the internet, I saw a video of a dog that could ride a skateboard.
What? Skateboarding isn't social intelligence.
Oh. Well, another time on the internet, I saw a video of a dog popping bubbles with a raccoon.
Is that social intelligence? Well, okay, maybe it's not social intelligence, but it was definitely adorable infectiousness.
Well, that will just about do it for today, listeners.
If you have a question for me, remember to call and leave me a message at...
888-7-WOW-WOW That's 1-888-7-WOW-WOW I just might answer your question on WeWow on on the weekend.
Okay, let's do the goodbye song. That's the end of the show.
I have to go watch videos of dogs on the internet.
But I'll do another show tomorrow. But for now, that's the end of the show.
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