Grownups, Wondery Plus subscribers can listen to Wow in the World early and ad-free right now.
Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or Wondery Kids Plus on Apple Podcasts.
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 on the weekend.
We wow on the weekend because 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 wow on the weekend.
We wow on the weekend because this is what we do.
Hello and welcome to Wee.
Wow on the Weekend.
I'm your host, Dennis.
And that's Reggie.
Yes, Reggie the Giant Pigeon.
Right, Reggie the Giant Pigeon with a black belt in karate.
We're here in my mother's basement bringing you wow and wonder on Saturdays and Sundays.
That's right, Reggie.
This show is super casual.
We're still in our gym jams, see?
Mine have little Reggie's on them and Reggie's have little Dennis's on them.
Anyway, how's about we get to it and answer some of the many, many yo many banana fana fofany questions from our devoted listeners?
That's right, Reggie.
It's time for the Q&A segment.
The Q&A segment.
All right, let's just get the old answering machine pulled up here.
Okay, here we go.
You've reached Dennis from WeWow on the weekend.
That's me.
Do you have a question?
Well, I do too.
Lots of them.
And who's going to answer all my questions?
You?
Probably not.
But I guess I can answer yours.
Leave me a message.
Hi, Dennis.
We love your show.
I'm Galilee.
And I'm Genovese.
And we're from Portland, Oregon.
We have a question.
Our question is, does dog fur grow the same as humans?
Does dog's fur grow the same as humans?
Uh, humans don't have fur.
Reggie, that's not fur.
That's hair.
Ah, quit looking at my arm fur.
Next question.
Hi, I'm Noah from Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
And my question is, in getting nosy about the science of smell, you smell. boarding school.
What boarding school did you go to?
What boarding school did I go to?
Well, Noah, I'm a proud alumnus of Count Montague's School for Nosy Little Children.
I studied many important subjects.
Snooping prying, busybody studies and the history of listening at closed doors with a cup pressed to your ear.
And I was awarded Ease Dropper of the Month seven times.
Where'd you go to school, Reggie?
Yale?
No, you did not.
Oh, whatever.
Next question.
Hi, Dennis.
I'm Emma, and I live in Charleston, South Carolina.
I don't have a question, but I have a riddle.
What do you call cheese that isn't yours?
Uh, it's, uh, it's, uh, uh, let's see.
Oh, brie.
Brie, because it rhymes with me.
Oh, no, you're right.
That can't be it.
Um, don't tell me, don't tell me, don't tell me.
Um, what are cheeses?
What are cheeses?
Uh, gargonzola.
Uh, gargonzola.
No, no.
Uh, cheddar.
Cheddar, pepper, jack.
Pepper jacks.
Pepper Jack Swiss Cheese.
Queso Fresco.
Parmesan Gruyere.
Harvardi Stilton.
Polish Sheep's Milk Cheese.
The answer is Nacho Cheese.
Nacho Cheese.
Emma, are you sure that's a cheese?
Oh, Nacho Cheese.
Like not your cheese.
That is good.
Now I'm hungry.
Yeah, we better move on so we can go make nachos soon.
Thanks for your calls, everyone.
If you've got a question for me, call and leave me a message.
The number is 1-888-7-WOW-WOW.
I just might answer your question on Wee Wow on the weekend.
Okay, that takes care of that.
All right, 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 four called The Hermit Crab Housing Crisis.
Oh, good question.
Question, Reggie.
Are hermit crabs crabs or hermits?
Hmm.
I'm going to say crabs because I don't know what a hermit is.
Is it a type of frog?
Oh, right.
No.
Well, let's play the episode.
Okay, here we go.
And play.
Wee Wow will be right back.
Grownups.
This message is for you 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.
Now back to the show.
You go get him, Scrappy.
Don't give up the fight.
You're a fierce little hermit crab with a broken shell and abs of steel.
What?
Give them your best shot.
What are you doing, Mindy?
Oh, hey Guy Raz.
I'm just watching an episode of House Hunters Hermit Crab Smackdown Edition.
It's a real estate reality show mixed with professional wrestling and it stars hermit crabs.
Okay, and so why are you watching it with the TV turned off?
Oh, that's because it doesn't exist.
So I'm watching it in my head.
Okay.
So you're sitting in front of a blank table, shouting at it and cheering on a hermit crab trying to Fight for the ultimate dream shell to call home.
Here, do you want to take a peek inside and see for yourself?
Uh... Just pop the top.
Of your head?
Here, I'll do it for you.
Whoa.
And in this corner, Hulk Hermit!
With a shell so strong you could bounce a nickel off it.
Tell me what you see.
Well, I see one very confident looking hermit crab in a wrestling ring in the middle of a suburban neighborhood where all the homes are shells oh, this is where all the action happens, and in this corner we have cranky with a broken shell and an attitude to match.
What else do you see?
And now i'm seeing a Another hermit crab.
Yeah, yeah, that's Crabby Crabmeister.
He's dragging himself into the wing.
He does not look happy.
In fact, I think his shell might be broken.
It looks like it might be really heavy for him to carry.
Is that the one you were rooting for, Mindy?
Because I don't think he's going to make it.
That other hermit crab.
Oh, Hulk hermit?
Yeah, Hulk hermit.
Dastanelli has the advantage here.
Just look at his beautiful shell.
It's just stunning.
Okay, pause the imagination.
Mindy, we were just getting to the good part.
They were about to fight for the title of the ultimate dream shell to call home.
Well, that's just the thing, Guy Raz.
If you had to place a bet on which of those two hermit crabs would win the shiniest, strongest shell, in the end, who would you pick?
Mindy, without question, it would be Hulk Herman.
He just looks like a winner.
Definitely had the upper claw.
The other one?
Crabby Crabmeister?
Yeah, that one.
He was just kind of falling apart.
His shell was cracked, and he could barely even carry it into the ring.
Well, Guy Raz, the results of this match might just surprise you.
Oh, really?
Have you ever wanted something so badly that you would do whatever it took to have it or achieve it, even if it seemed like a major struggle?
Oh, yeah, like the time I tried to order a kale salad at KFC and they called the police.
That really happened?
Uh... Never mind, don't answer that.
Anyway, so it's the same thing with hermit crabs.
How so?
Well, two scientists, one from the University of Mexico and one from Texas AM University here in the US, recently spent a lot of time with hermit crabs.
That certainly seems like time well spent.
And after getting to know these tiny little hard-shelled creatures, they started to notice a few things.
Like what?
Well, like the fact that much like we humans, hermit crabs just want to have a nice place to live.
Like with a pool and a two-crab garage?
I know, like a really nice shell.
Oh.
So how do they find them?
Basically by fighting for it.
Hence the hermit crab cul-de-sac wrestling ring reality show happening inside your head.
Exactly so, as anyone who has ever had a hermit crab for a pet knows, hermit crabs basically spend their whole entire lives just looking to move on up in the world.
They're constantly on the hunt for better fitting shells that are strong and free of cracks and will last a long time until they're ready to move it on up again.
And if there are two hermit crabs living together and one of them has a nice roomy shell and the other one has a damaged, smaller shell, then the one with the crummier shell is willing to uh, to fight for the other hermit crab's shell.
You got it, Guy Raz.
The hermit crab with the messed up shell will straight up try to kick the luckier crab out of his lap of luxury shell and not even apologize.
And they're doing all of this without any lawyers getting involved?
Guy Raz, the scrappy hermit crab, will walk right up to the lucky hermit crab and start banging like crazy on his shell.
Then that hermit crab will get all annoyed and start fighting back and in the end, only one hermit crab gets to call the shell home, because they're basically like one-bedroom hermit crab studio apartments.
Well, that doesn't seem very fair.
I never said hermit crab life was fair, Guy Raz.
Well, what's so bad about having a cracked shell anyway?
I mean, isn't there beauty in imperfections?
Well, that's one of the things that these scientists set out to discover.
So one of the things that they began to notice was that when hermit crabs have broken shells, they themselves are in pretty bad shape as well.
Like Their health?
Yeah, they become really unhealthy and weak.
And all of this is because of their cracked shells?
Yep.
A bad shell can make a hermit crab really miserable.
And by miserable, Guy Raz, I mean crabby.
You get it?
Uh... You get it?
Uh-huh.
Ugh, never mind.
But does it make the hermit crab even more determined to want to leave his or her shell and find a new one?
Well, that's exactly what these scientists were thinking.
So...
They started to experiment.
And what did they do?
Well, they set up a hermit crab wrestling arena.
You're making this up, Mindy.
Well, not entirely.
They got a bunch of hermit crabs off the coast of Mexico.
Some had broken shells, and some shells were fully intact.
And...
And what did they do?
They gave them all awesome wrestling names.
No, they didn't.
Okay, fine.
But they did put them in a tiny wrestling ring.
And in one corner of the ring, they put one scrappy hermit crab with a sad little broken shell.
And in the opposite corner of the ring?
They put a strong, healthy hermit crab with a pretty good shell.
And in the middle?
In the middle was a glowing strong shiny, roomy lap of luxury shell the scientist had attached to a thread
A hermit crab's dream home.
You know it.
And then they fought for the new shell?
They did.
And the thread attached to the shell was also attached to a pulley and a dynamometer, which is a special device that measures force or power.
And that was so they could measure which hermit crab was the strongest?
Yep.
And then they had pairs of hermit crabs wrestle each other.
And once again two with broken shells, two with intact shells.
And who do you think came out the strongest?
Mindy, I'm going to place all my money on the underdogs here.
I'm going to guess that the broken-shelled hermit crabs proved to be stronger.
Well, you'd think that what doesn't break you makes you stronger, But that's just not the case here.
I really thought this story would have a happier ending.
Who says that this is the end?
These scientists discovered that, in the case of hermit crabs, what doesn't break you makes you scrappier.
Meaning.
While they don't have the muscle strength to beat their opponents in a fight, what they do have is the sheer, raw willpower to match their opponents when going for what they want.
Okay, so you're saying they can win the fight for the best shell just because they're willing to fight so intensely for it?
Yep.
And as it turns out that, after living for a long time in these old, broken shells, These hermit crabs value the better life that a new shell would bring them so much that they're motivated to fight harder than even the strongest hermit crabs around,
And they ultimately win the title of world's best shell.
Not always, but their chances of winning are way better than their general health and muscle strength would suggest.
So now I'm dying to see who wins the hermit crab dream shell in that reality show you were watching in your head.
Ready to pop the top?
Nope.
Okay, I'll do it.
But using tenacity and sheer aggression, I give you your champion, the underdog, Krabby Krabmeister!
I did it.
He will trade his crab shack for a spacious four bedroom shell with a swimming pool and indoor tennis court.
Such luxury!
I knew he had it in him.
It's just too bad they can't share.
Yeah, I agree.
But you know what they say about crabs, Guy Raz?
They're very shell-mish.
Crab-solutely, Mindy.
Oh, wow!
That episode made me really emotional, Reggie!
Just like that underdog hermit crab.
Reggie, no.
Not because I smell like a crab.
Because I'm scrappy and independent and it's only a matter of time before I get my dream home with a pool and indoor tennis court.
Well, let's wrap this up.
Thank you 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.
Hey, Reggie, should we do the goodbye song?
Okay.
That's the end of the show.
I'm not scared because I'm a really strong crab.
And 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.
Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Wondery Kids Plus on Apple Podcasts.
Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music.
And before you go, tell us about yourself by filling out a short survey at wondery.com slash survey.
