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.
Yeah, we wow on the weekend.
Clap, clap.
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.
We're coming to you from Mother's Basement on Saturdays and Sundays.
And look, Reggie, I was digging around down here and found Mother's old photo albums.
Want to see what I looked like as a baby?
Okay, let's see here.
Oh, look.
There I am in my crib.
And here I am in my high chair wearing a little baby bonnet.
Wasn't I just the cutest patootist?
What do you mean I look old?
Oh, I don't know.
Let's see.
When was this picture taken?
Uh, last summer.
Oh, whatever.
Let's move on.
I want to answer some questions from my devoted listeners in 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.
Hi, 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.
My name is Amos.
Dennis, how do boats float?
How do boats float?
Great question, Amos.
The answer is they float on water.
What do you mean that's where boats float and not how boats float?
Water is not a place.
Oh yeah, I guess they could float on other things too, like pudding or jelly.
What a Oh, wow.
Cool.
You think boats can float on air?
Oh, yeah.
I suppose they'd have to be going pretty fast to do that.
Next question.
Hi, my name is Leo.
I'm from Columbus, Ohio.
Hey, Dennis, what's your favorite tiger?
My favorite tiger?
There's more than one tiger?
Well, I just know the one on the cereal box.
What's his name?
No, not that.
I'm just going to call him Terrence.
Terrence the tiger from the cereal box.
That's my favorite tiger.
Well, what other tigers are there?
Okay, the Bengal tiger.
The white tiger.
The liger?
What's that?
A lion tiger?
Really?
Is that real?
Oh, wow.
Next question.
Hi, Dennis.
My name is Kira, and I was just wondering what you think I should do when I'm bored.
Well, Kira, I think you should just be bored.
Yeah, being bored is how all the good stuff happens, baby.
Because being bored is boring, so you have to start getting not bored.
Like when I'm on a long car ride, I start exploring my own brain to see what's in there.
It's true.
I have this type of game I like to play when I'm bored.
It's called a board game.
And there's this one board game where I just sort of twist around through my own mind.
I call it Twister.
Twister.
And there's this other board game where I imagine I live in a land made entirely of candy.
Can you guess what that one's called?
Reggie, no, it's called Sugar Town.
Well, fine, you can make up your own board game and call it whatever you want.
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 WeWow 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 7 called Bag of Worms.
In this episode, we're introduced to Mindy's pet waxworm, Welda.
I know!
I forgot all about Welda.
Such a cute name.
Reggie, no.
I don't think Welda the waxworm is actually made of wax.
I think they're called that because they can eat Well, I don't know.
Let's just play the episode.
Okay, here we go.
And play.
WeeWow 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.
Now back to the show.
What in the world?
Good morning, good morning to you and you and you and you.
Good morning, good morning, guys.
Good morning.
Mindy, what on earth are you doing with all those plastic bags?
Oh, this?
I'm just whipping up a little breakfast for Welda here.
Are you Welda?
Uh, Welda?
Oh, haven't I introduced you yet?
Guy Raz, Welda is my new pet. waxworm.
Isn't that right, Welda?
Okay, Roz, hand me the salt over there.
Mindy, I've seen you do a lot of weird things during the course of our friendship, but mixing up a bowl of grocery bags has got to be the Look she's eating it.
Take another bite, Welda.
Take another bite.
You love those grocery bags.
Yes, you do.
What?
I have to feed her with a spoon because she doesn't have hands.
Take another bite.
This is her favorite food.
Wow.
It's working.
You're actually feeding that waxworm a grocery bag.
She can't get enough of them.
Mindy, I was always under the assumption that waxworms fed on honey or beeswax.
Are you sure you should be feeding it grocery bags?
Kairos, she's my pet, and we've lived together for six years.
Do I not look like I know what I'm doing?
Well, I just... Let me tell you a story.
Okay.
It all started in Spain with a scientist named Frederica Bertocini.
She's part of the Spanish National Research Council.
And one day, she was just minding her own beeswax...
Literally, when she noticed a bunch of waxworms living in her beehives.
And just to be clear, what makes a waxworm different from other types of worms?
Because Welda here looks more like just a regular white caterpillar to me.
Well, that's because she is a caterpillar.
Waxworms are the larvae of wax moths, a.k.a.
And by larvae you mean the stage before metamorphosis or the transformation from wax worm to, I guess, wax moth.
Yeah, and lots of creatures go through metamorphosis.
Caterpillars turn into butterflies, tadpoles turn into frogs, maggots turn into regular flies and hamsters turn into rabbits.
What?
Making sure you're paying attention.
You know Mindy, all this talk about caterpillars and butterflies reminds me of a picture book that I love to read, called The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle.
Do you know that book?
Oh, yeah, I love that book.
But in that, the very hungry caterpillar eats fruit and cake and sausage.
My caterpillar, or waxworm, if you will, is way more civilized.
She wears clothes and eats grocery bags.
Yeah, let's get...
Back to that.
How did this scientist, what did you say her name was?
Oh, Frederica Berdochini.
How did Frederica find this out?
Well, like I said, she was cleaning the wax worms out of her beehive like nobody's business, plucking them out and putting them in a plastic grocery bag, maybe to use as like fish bait for later.
And anyway, when she went back...
Back to the worm bag a little while later, she found it full of holes.
Wow, so the wax worms had eaten their way out?
You know it.
And so, being the savvy scientist she is, Frederica decided to take this clue and explore it further.
How so?
Well first, knowing that three heads are better than one, she brought this discovery to some scientist pals at the University of Cambridge in England.
Their names are Paolo Bombelli and Christopher Howe.
And?
What did they do?
Well, they did some experiments and discovered a special protein in the waxworm's belly that attacks the chemicals that make up the plastic in the bag.
Wow, that sounds very similar to the way that the acid in our stomachs work to break up the food that we eat.
Yeah, exactly.
I think I might be starting to see where this is going, Mindy.
Oh, yeah?
Well, as we know, Plastic bags are not good for the Earth, right?
Right.
And I think I read recently that there are a trillion of these bags used every year.
Yeah, which according to my calculations is about 2 million grocery bags used every single minute.
Crazy, right?
Yeah, really crazy.
And, like the plastic water bottles that we were talking about on another episode, plastic bags probably take a lot of energy to make.
Yeah, apparently the amount of energy it takes to make 12 of these bags is enough to drive a car for a mile.
It's too bad we can't power cars on grocery bags.
I know, and it turns out there isn't much we can do with them.
And that includes recycling.
Yeah, I know that there are some plastics that we can recycle, but the plastic in grocery bags isn't one of them.
That's because they're made out of a plastic called polyethylene and it's really hard to break down.
Especially when we humans are producing 8 million tons of it every year.
But it seems like what you're saying is that these scientists discovered an enzyme or a little, teeny tiny, microscopic baby protein inside the waxworm's belly that can break it down.
Just like your mom did on the dance floor of your senior prom, Guy Raz.
Anywho, so yeah, that's what they think they've discovered.
Basically, they've come to the conclusion that if wax worms eat the bags, their bellies will break down the stubborn polyethylene and turn it into another useful type of liquid used to make things like polyester fabric or even antifreeze for your car.
And that liquid is called ethylene glycol. which coincidentally was what my parents almost named me.
Uh, that would be a mouthful.
Speaking of mouthfuls, check out Welda over there going to town on that bag.
Now that's a very hungry caterpillar.
Yeah, and I know what you're thinking, Guy Raz, and I need you to calm down because before you get all excited, thinking that you can just start going all around town using and tossing all of your grocery bags like they're going out of style because wax worms like Welda here will eat them, just know that this theory is still being tested and it has a long way to go before it can be proven, but it's still pretty exciting to think how just a little curiosity, as basic as paying extra attention to wormholes in a grocery bag, could possibly lead to fixing a huge problem right here on our planet.
I can't hardly wait until this thing becomes a reality, Mindy.
Me neither.
In the meantime, Guy Raz, I'm just going to climb into this grocery bag here, feet first, and then all I need you to do is pick it up by the handles and then take me to the store, because my legs are too tired to walk.
Thank you.
Ooh.
Reggie, whatever happened to Welda the Wax Worm?
Did she show up again in another episode?
Oh, right.
She probably turned into a wax moth.
That's nice.
Hey, Reggie.
Would you carry me around in a grocery bag, like how Guy was going to carry Mindy around in a grocery bag at the end of the episode?
Please?
Okay, great.
Let's wrap this up and go see if we can find a big enough grocery bag.
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.
Oh, Reggie, should we do the goodbye song?
Okay.
That's the end of the show.
Now carry me around in a grocery bag and I'll do another show tomorrow.
But for now, that's the end of the show.
Bye.
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.
