And now it's time for Who Smarted.
Psst, hey, smarty pants, it is I, the trusty narrator.
And in case you couldn't tell, I am sitting at the piano attempting to compose a new song.
I know, mildly exciting.
Anyway, want to hear what I've got so far?
I heard enough of you say, yes, so here goes.
Do re mi fa solati do. That's not it, I'm just warming up.
This time for real. Smarty pants, pants, pants, let's smarty dance, dance, dance.
Our smarty show, show, show, helps your brain grow, grow, grow.
And that's all I've got so far.
Aw, you're too kind. Really?
A little more? Oh, really, you shouldn't.
Anyway, it needs a little, a lot of work, but you gotta admit it's kind of catchy, right?
Catchy-ish? Yes? I say it's more than catchy, trusty.
I say it's got all the makings of a chart-topping earworm.
I would know because I am an earworm.
You've probably heard of me.
The name's Taylor Squirm.
I'm sort of a megastar, in your mind.
Uh, did you say Taylor Squirm and you're an earworm?
Is that like a real worm?
And what does a creepy crawler have to do with my catchy tune?
Well, the worm thing is just my stage persona.
An earworm isn't an actual worm.
That would be pretty gross if worms were crawling in your ear.
Eww. An earworm is a song or a piece of music or even a TV or radio ad called a jingle that is so undeniably catchy that it wiggles its way into your brain and gets stuck in your head, where it plays over and over and over.
Oh, I've had earworms. Eww.
Smartypants, have you ever listened to a song and then you can't stop singing or humming it even when it's not playing?
Often at inappropriate times, me too.
An earworm, aka a brainworm or the stuck song syndrome, as it's sometimes referred to, is a phenomenon that's been studied since 1885.
And in 1979, a German psychiatrist, Dr.
Cornelius Eckert, coined the term, orworm, which translates as earworm, to describe the experience of a song that gets stuck in your head.
Wow, it seems catchy tunes have been living rent-free inside our brains for a long time.
Absolutely. About 98% of people experience earworms and they usually last for a few minutes to a few hours.
Eww. I gotta say, Taylor Squirm, you really know a lot about earworms.
Well, I love sharing my earworm IQ with my Squirmies.
Squirmies? Squirmies are my fans.
Where are my Squirmies at?
Hey! Wow, listen to that crowd.
You are a megastar. Hey, T-Squirm, would you like to go smarty with us to learn more about earworms?
Things like, what causes an earworm?
Why do some songs get stuck in your head and others don't?
And how can you get rid of an unwanted earworm?
Get rid of earworms? One of my most popular hits is about getting rid of earworms.
Shake it out, shake it out.
Hey, I know that song. And now I can't stop thinking about it.
Oh boy. Smarty pants and Squirmies get ready to get hooked on earworms as we take another whiff of science and history on...
Hey, smarty! Who's smarted?
Who's smart? Is it you? Is it me?
Is it science or history?
Listen up! Everyone, we make smarty.
Lots of fun on Who's Smarted.
I wore winter boots every day for two years.
I hate climbing trees. I'm Deborah Goldstein, host of the podcast The Big Fib, and half of those statements were indeed fibs.
On every episode of The Big Fib, we bring on two grown-ups.
One is an expert and the other is a liar.
And it's the job of our human child contestant to help us figure out who is who, because no one can spot a liar better than a kid.
We've had episodes on everything from Minecraft to mythology and from Lego to libraries.
Join me and my robot co-host, Lisa, on The Big Fib, on Apple Podcasts or on GZMshows.com.
Hey, smarty pants! We're here at the Auditory Arena, the first stop on Taylor Squirm's concert tour, where thousands of squirmies await the start of the concert.
But wait a second, doesn't Auditory have something to do with hearing?
Yep, the word auditory relates to your sense of hearing or the perception of sound.
Researchers believe the auditory cortex in your brain is where earworms happen.
That's because the auditory cortex is active when you're listening to a song, and also when you're imagining listening to a song.
It's where your musical memories are stored.
Oh wow, it's kind of like having a song playlist in your brain.
Pretty much. And when you hear a song over and over, your brain sends the sounds to a short-term memory system in your auditory cortex.
Earworms can be triggered by a song you listened to recently, or when you've played on repeat over and over, or a song that connects to a memory.
Scientists call it involuntary musical imagery.
And you're likely to experience an earworm when you're doing a certain activity.
Ooh, smarty pants, what activity do you think helps cause a song to get stuck in your head?
Is it when you're A, sleeping, B, laughing, or C, daydreaming?
The answer is C, daydreaming.
Researchers have found that earworms happen most often when you're daydreaming, or your mind is wandering in a state of relaxation.
That makes a lot of sense.
When your brain is focused on a task, you're less likely to be invaded by an earworm.
But when you're just kind of spacing out, watching TV, or listening to music...
Bam! That's when I hit you.
You are never, ever, ever getting the song out of your head.
Okay, Taylor, now that we know where earworms happen in the brain and that they happen when your mind is relaxed, the next thing I need to know is, why do some songs stick in your brain and others don't?
Perfect timing to ask that question, because I'm just about to do soundcheck.
Todie the Rody, who helps out on my tour, is gonna run through a checklist of what makes a song get stuck.
Sure thing, Taylor. Hey, smarty pants and squirmies, earworms are called sticky music for a reason.
They usually have a fast-paced, upbeat tempo.
Check. Easy to remember melodies.
Check. Easy to sing lyrics, which are, of course, the words in the song.
Check. Check. And parts of the song are repeated.
A lot. Check, check, and check.
Oh, and very musical people tend to have more earworms, because it's easier for them to imagine tunes.
Singers, songwriters, and advertising creatives who make jingles for ads use those exact characteristics to compose songs people will remember and can't stop remembering.
I know I do. Right. That's how certain songs become hits.
You can't forget like, Hey Macarena, happy by Pharrell Williams, and let it go.
And do you want to build a snowman from the movie Frozen?
Do you want to build a snowman?
And, of course, songs for little kids are designed to be earworms in order to get kids to learn or develop their verbal and auditory skills.
For example, the alphabet song.
Old MacDonald had a farm.
And the wheels on the bus.
Those songs get really stuck.
And not just in the kids' head.
And the right parents. Oh.
Hey Smarty Pants, do you want to write your own earworm?
I bet you can. Just come up with some simple song lyrics.
Make up a catchy little melody and keep it fast and happy.
Oh, and be sure to repeat parts of your song.
Yeah, like my song. Smarty Pants, Pants, Pants.
Let's Smarty Dance, Dance, Dance.
Our Smarty Show, Show, Show.
Helps your brain grow, grow, grow.
Ah, yes. That reminds me.
A song doesn't have to be good for it to be an earworm.
Hey! Oh, I wasn't saying your song isn't good.
I just didn't want the Smarty Pants to think they had to write the next big Taylor Scrum hit song.
Mm-hmm. Gotcha. Okay, Smarty Pants, with all these potential earworms wiggling around in your brain, it might be a good time to learn how you can stop an earworm from getting stuck in your head.
You feel me, parents? Oh.
So, Taylor, what do you do if you get infected by an earworm?
Well, there are a few earworm remedies that could help.
Do you know which song supposedly stops an earworm?
Is it the Happy Birthday song, Baby Shark, or Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star?
Oh, oh, oh, I know the answer.
Baby Shark and Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star are definitely earworms that will get stuck in your head.
Toty, stop! The earworms are wiggling into my head.
Twinkle, twinkle, Little Star.
Great. Now I can't stop singing it.
Sorry. The song that can stop an earworm is...
Coming up right after this quick break and a word from our sponsors.
Hey, parents. Trusty here.
I love making it easy for people to learn new things.
Shocker, right? So when my friend told me he was about to spend almost $1,000 on language lessons to get ready for his trip to Spain, I said, hold on there.
Why don't you try using the Language Learning app, Babble?
I told him he'll save enough money to practically pay for his plane ticket.
Less than a month later, he was ordering tapas and sangria like a Barcelona native and telling me, gracias, trusty.
Babble's 10-minute lessons, designed by over 200 language experts, fit perfectly into his busy schedule.
Their speech recognition technology even helped him nail that tricky Spanish R.
R. Rrr. Oof, I need to use Babble.
And so do you. It's awesome.
Choose from 14 award-winning language courses all backed by a 20-day money-back guarantee.
I love Babble so much that they've agreed to make an exclusive offer for our listeners.
Get up to 60% off your Babble subscription at b-a-b-b-e-l dot com slash smarted.
That's Babble dot com slash smarted.
Rules and restrictions may apply.
Start your language journey today.
This message is sponsored by Greenlight.
As a creator of education for kids and families, I'm always looking for fun ways to teach kids life skills, whether those kids are in my family or my smarty family.
That's why I recommend Greenlight, the debit card and money app for families.
With Greenlight, kids learn to save, invest, and spend wisely while parents can monitor their money habits.
The Infinity Plan offers even more, including family location sharing, SOS alerts, and crash detection for young drivers.
With school starting again, I love the chores feature, which helps kids get into their fall routine by rewarding them for completing household responsibilities.
Whether you're teaching financial literacy or ensuring your family's safety, Greenlight is the easy way for parents to raise financially smart kids.
Ready to empower your family?
Sign up for Greenlight today and get your first month free when you go to Greenlight dot com slash smarted.
That's Greenlight dot com backslash smarted to try Greenlight for free.
Hey there smarty listeners, who Smarted is sponsored by Squarespace, the all-in-one website platform that empowers you to create your online presence or launch your passion project.
I am in love with their new Squarespace, Blueprint, AI, and SEO tools.
They make designing a personalized, professional looking site so easy, and it makes it easy for the search engines to find your site.
Plus, if you're launching a commerce site, they're built in, by now, pay later options, make it even easier for your customers to go, kaching!
And their AI-powered content creation tool is like a helper that creates text for your site that matches your brand's tone and style, making it even easier and faster to showcase your portfolio, start a blog, or sell products.
Ready to build your dream website?
Head to squarespace.com for a free trial, and when you're ready to launch, go to squarespace.com backslash smarted to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain.
Now back to who Smarted.
Ah! Make it stop! I don't want to twinkle anymore!
In that case, you're going to want to sing the Happy Birthday song.
Really? Go ahead, try it.
Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you.
Happy birthday, dear one of the smarty pans, whose birthday is today.
Happy birthday to you. Oh well, it worked!
My earworm is gone, and I'm no longer thinking of a song about flickering celestial bodies that shall not be named for fear that saying the name will make the earworm come back.
But how? How does it work?
For some reason, certain songs like the Happy Birthday song and God Save the King, a.k.a.
the national anthem of the United Kingdom, are called Cure Songs, and these very familiar Cure Songs are known to be able to get earworms out of your head.
Of course, you do run the risk that the very familiar catchy cure tunes become an earworm too.
Oh boy, I do not need the Happy Birthday song stuck in my head.
Hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm,
hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm Hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm,
hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm Hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm,
hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm,
hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm In a different tempo, faster or slower, or you can walk faster or slower than the beat of the song to stop an earworm.
You can try mixing up the lyrics to the song on purpose, or just sing, hum, or listen to a different song.
You can also focus your attention on doing something else, like going for a walk, doing a puzzle, or playing a game, or just talking with a friend.
Last but not least, try ignoring your earworm.
It will eventually go away on its own.
Gotcha. That all sounds good to me.
Alright, Taylor, you ready to go out there and give the Squirmies what they came here for?
I sure am. Hey, mind if I watch from the side of the stage?
Not at all. Wish me luck, trustee.
Good luck, T-squirm. Not that you need it.
Smarty Pants, Pants, Pants, Let's Smarty Dance, Dance, Dance, Our Smarty Show, Show, Show, Helps Your Brain Grow, Grow, Grow.
Hey, that's my song! I'm sorry, I can't get it out of my head.
Smarty Pants, Pants, Pants, Pants.
Do you love Who's Smarted but don't love all the ads?
We get it, but we also need the ads to pay for the show.
However, there is a way you can listen to Who's Smarted without any ads while still supporting us.
Just subscribe to Who's Smarted Plus and for a few bucks a month, you'll get every episode ad free plus an extra new episode every week and monthly bonus content.
Our annual subscription even comes with a 7-day free trial.
Subscribe now on Apple Podcasts or on our website, WhoSmarted.com.
Just click Subscribe. And teachers, click on Educators to get Who's Smarted Plus for free.
Thanks for smarting with us.
A big shout out to Super Smarty Fans Sahana in Boston, Massachusetts.
We hear you love Who's Smarted because you get to learn about topics you didn't know about while also getting to learn more about topics you did know about.
Plus, you think the trusty narrator is very funny.
Wow, Sahana, I couldn't agree more with all of that.
Thanks, Smarty Pants. This episode, Ear Worms, was written by Leanne French and voiced by Gia Davis, Adam Text Davis and Jerry Colbert.
Technical Direction and Sound Design by Josh Hahn.
Our associate producer is Max Kamaski.
The theme song is by Brian Suarez with lyrics written and performed by Adam Text Davis.
Who's Smarted was created and produced by Adam Text Davis and Jerry Colbert.
This has been an atomic entertainment production.
Hey, parents. Trusty here.
I love making it easy for people to learn new things.
Shocker, right? So when my friend told me he was about to spend almost $1,000 on language lessons to get ready for his trip to Spain, I said, hold on there.
Why don't you try using the language learning app Babbel?
I told him he'll save enough money to practically pay for his plane ticket.
Less than a month later, he was ordering tapas and sangria like a Barcelona native and telling me, gracias, trusty.
Babbel's 10-minute lessons, designed by over 200 language experts, fit perfectly into his busy schedule.
Their speech recognition technology even helped him nail that tricky Spanish R.
Rrrr. Rrrr. Oof, I need to use Babbel.
And so do you. It's awesome.
Choose from 14 award-winning language courses all backed by a 20-day money-back guarantee.
I love Babbel so much that they've agreed to make an exclusive offer for our listeners.
Get up to 60% off your Babbel subscription at b-a-b-b-e-l dot com slash smarted.
Rules and restrictions may apply.
Start your language journey today.
