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Hey, Wowzer fans, Mindy here.
And before we start the show, it's almost Halloween.
And to celebrate with all of Boo I mean you we've put together some of our favorite spooky episodes of Wow in the World and Halloween experiments and crafts all in one place so you can make your Halloween extra wow from home.
Plus, if you want to dress up like someone from the Wow Crew this year, you can find Halloween costume ideas from your fellow Wowzers there too.
We can't wait to see what costumes you come up with this year.
Oh, and just a tip for how to make your Mindy costume more realistic add some leftover mac and cheese to your jacket pocket.
For activities, episodes, videos, and more wows, visit Tinkercast.com slash Halloween.
That's Tinkercast.com slash Halloween.
That's it, and now let's get back to the show.
Hey, grownups.
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We wow on the weekend.
We wow on the weekend.
We wow on the weekend.
Cause this is what we do on the weekend.
Talking, laughing, me and Reggie.
Singing, laughing, and then we, oh wait, no, I said laughing twice.
Uh, whatever.
We wow on the weekend.
We WeeWOW on the weekend, cause this is what we do on the weekend.
Hello and welcome to WeeWOW on the weekend.
I'm your host, Dennis.
And that's my co-host, Reggie.
What?
No, I don't need to say you're a giant pigeon.
The listeners already know that.
Fine.
If you're tuning in for the first time, because you've apparently been living under a rock.
My co-host Reggie, is a giant pigeon.
Right, and I'm a regular-sized human person, not giant.
Oh, right, ants might think I'm giant.
Good point.
Now what?
Who is it?
Package four.
Reggie, it'll just take a second.
Hello, regular-sized human mail carrier person.
Not my name.
Right, sorry.
Can I get a signature for this?
Oh, sure, sure, sure, sure, sure, sure, sure.
There you go.
Much obliged.
And here's your package.
Thank you.
Oh, hey, wait.
Post officer lady, want to be on my show?
It's called Wee Wow on the Weekend.
Uh, no, sorry.
I got to finish my mail route.
All right, that's okay.
I know you're very busy and very important and very cool.
But I could come back tomorrow.
Hooray!
That would be amazing.
Okay, have fun delivering the mail and knocking on all the doors and ringing all the doorbells and shaking everyone's packages to try to guess what's inside them.
Reggie!
Reggie!
You'll never guess who's coming on the show tomorrow.
What?
How'd you guess?
Oh, you heard the whole thing?
Even the part where she said no?
And the part where I got all rambly and embarrassed?
Whatever.
It doesn't matter.
I got the most important person in the whole neighborhood as a guest on my show.
Oh, sorry.
The most important person in the whole neighborhood as a guest on our show.
Reggie, the mail carrier is so the most important person in the whole neighborhood.
Because she carries the mail, Reggie.
And she knows who's writing letters to each other and who's getting which magazines and who lives in which house.
She's very powerful.
My what?
Oh, right, my package.
Oh, Reggie, you're a genius.
We can play what's in this box.
Ahem.
Found a box that was delivered to my house by the mail carrier.
And now I'm going to find out what's in the box.
OK, here we go.
Ready?
What's in this box? a special ice cube tray I ordered.
Oh, it makes better ice than ice cubes, Reggie.
It makes ice spheres.
Because, Reggie, round ice is fancier than square ice.
Everyone knows that.
Fine, I'll show you.
You just put the cover on like this.
Then you just use your water bottle to pour some water in this little hole here.
And voila!
Spherical ice.
Oh, right, I forgot to freeze it.
It's still water.
It's not funny, Reggie.
Okay, it's a little funny.
All right, what's next?
Oh, good idea.
Let's do a little segment I like to call Inside Tinkercast Studios.
Ahem.
Inside Tinkercast Studios.
This is the part where we revisit an episode of one of my favorite Tinkercast shows.
Ahem.
And today we're listening to Wow in the World, Season 1, Episode 12 called The Fish with the Killer Kiss.
Reggie, no!
This one sounds scary and kind of gross.
Killer kisses?
Oh, it's about a kind of fish that eats its food by kissing it?
Well, that sounds kind of cool.
Okay, I take it back.
I want to listen.
Woo-hoo!
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, what's grosser than gross?
Uh, eating a picnic lunch in a trash dump?
No, having a picnic lunch in a trash dump isn't gross, Guy Raz.
It's convenient.
You don't even have to throw your trash away because you're already in a dump.
It took me three days to get the smell off my clothes.
Oh, no, that smell wasn't from the trash dump, Guy Raz.
That smell was from the time that I was borrowing your kitchen and your blender to make a shrimp smoothie.
Anywho, forgot to put the lid on the blender.
Next thing.
I know it's exploding all over your kitchen and I had to clean it up or you'd freak out.
So I grabbed the first thing that I could find, your tweed blazer hanging in your coat closet.
What?
Worked like a charm, but I forgot to tell you about it until now.
Sorry.
But that's not even what I'm talking about.
What's grosser than gross?
Guy Raz is a killer.
Kiss from a fish with big thick, suctioned cuppy fish lips.
Lips that look like an upside-down mushroom top.
Fish lips that are covered in slime from cells that push out a never-ending stream of snot-like mucus.
Yes.
Mindy, that's just disgusting.
Yep.
Where do you come up with these things?
Science.
Science?
Yeah, I'm not even making this up, Guy Raz.
You know, science is full of wonder and beauty and discovery.
But it's also about some really gross stuff.
Uh, okay.
Tell me more about this fish.
So two marine biologists named Victor Huerta and David Bellwood from Australia's James Cook University recently spent a lot of time trying to figure out how in the world this fish called the tube-lipped wrasse is able to survive living in coral reefs.
The tube-lipped wrasse.
What a name.
What a fish.
So the tube-lipped wrasse is this colorful fish, and it's just a little over six and a half inches long, and it lives in coral reefs in the Indian Ocean.
But you can also find them in some major aquariums around the world, which is where I first noticed its crazy fish lips.
Wow, so we might be able to actually see this fish up close and personal.
Yeah, for sure.
So we all know how they would survive living in aquariums, but how they survive living in coral reefs is another story.
Huh, how so?
So you know the deal with coral, right?
You better believe it.
Coral looks really beautiful to us humans, but to some small fish and other little tiny sea-wandering organisms like zooplankton, coral can be deadly.
Yeah, because some coral is super sharp to the touch and some types of coral are covered in a slimy coating that is poisonous to small sea creatures.
Yeah and, as you know, when it comes to eating for survival, fish in the wild can't order pizza delivery when they're hungry.
Nor would they want to, necessarily.
And they don't have humans to drop in fish flakes every other day, either.
So, what do they eat?
Okay, so Guy Raz, saddle up your seahorse and buckle your seatbelt.
Well, you know, I'm always wearing one just to be safe.
What?
Oh, man, you are.
Really?
What?
Okay, what I mean to say is get ready for this, because the tubelet brass is so tough that it eats the poisonous coral for breakfast.
Wow, and what does it eat for lunch and dinner?
Guy Raz.
There are something like 6000 species of fish living in these razor-sharp, venomous coral reefs, and only 128 of them are tough enough and brave enough to eat them.
So it's super rare.
And the tubelip wrasse, I guess, is one of those species.
Yep.
So how do they do it?
I mean, because coral is hard.
Well, that's one of the big questions that these marine biologists set out to discover—
And did they find their answer?
They sure did.
And do you want to know what they found?
Absolutely.
Okay.
So first the tubelet brass puckers up and puts its slimy, mucusy lips on the coral, like it's going in for a kiss.
Ugh, are you making this up?
What?
No, this is for real.
Just listen, okay?
Okay.
So if you were to see its lips coming at you, they would look like a slimy upside-down mushroom top.
You are right.
This is grosser than gross.
And it gets even grosser.
So then it uses these little tiny detectors in its slimy mushroom lips to help it inspect the best part of the coral for eating.
Interesting.
And then when it's ready, it puckers up, making its lips almost the shape of a long tube.
And it forms a section around the spot that it wants to eat.
And then it goes in for the kiss. these marine biologists were even able to hear the sound.
That is amazing.
And it's not over, Guy Raz.
Finally, it sucks the coral's mucus and flesh right off.
And it even leaves a mark.
You can totally see the spot where the coral's been kissed by the slimy mushroom fish lips.
So how are they able to do this without getting stung by the venomous, poisonous coral?
Well, these marine biologists don't know for sure, but based on what they've observed, they think that maybe the tube lip wrasse's slimy magic, mucus-producing lips might actually form sort of a barrier or protective shield guarding it from the stinging cells.
Wow, and this makes it possible for the fish to eat the flesh or the meaty parts off of the corals?
Yeah, once the lips seal against the coral, they start acting like a vacuum cleaner, sucking up the good parts but separating the poisonous parts from being eaten.
Wow.
Crazy, right?
Yeah, well, I'm just glad that I'll never have to come face to face with a smooching tube lip rash.
Guy Raz?
Don't tell me you're going to pull one out of your pocket.
No.
I'm gonna pull one out of your bathtub.
What?
Pucker up, Buttercup.
It's coming for you.
Oh, Mindy, please.
Just kidding.
I couldn't get my hands on a two-blip wrasse.
Uh.
It's just a long-nosed pygmy shark.
Wait, come back.
I think he likes you.
Ew, Reggie.
That was disgusting.
All that kissing and mucus and mushroom lips.
Ew, ew, ew, ew, ew, ew, ew.
Reggie, when the post officer comes over tomorrow, do not talk about fish lips or anything else like that.
No, don't talk about that either.
Okay, let's wrap this up.
I need to go take a bath and pick out my outfit for tomorrow and go to bed so I can get a full 18 hours of sleep.
Ahem.
Thanks, everyone, for listening to this episode of Wee Wow on the Weekend.
If you have a question for me, call and leave me a message at 1-888-7-WOW-WOW.
That's 1-888-7-WOW-WOW.
I just might answer your question on Wee Wow on the Weekend.
All right, let's do the goodbye song now.
That's the end of the show.
I need to go and get ready for a world class interview.
But I'll do another show tomorrow.
But for now, that's the end of the show.
Grownups, if you like Wow in the World, you can listen early and ad-free right now on Wondery Plus.
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