Hey mom, what's that new discovery about the Titanic?
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That's theweekjunior.com slash smartkid.
You're listening to your favorite secret podcast, which makes me a secret host.
Today's mystery features a famous historical aviator who just happens to be a personal hero of mine.
Plus, a certain co-worker tags along on my adventure for the first time ever.
It's a jam-packed day, so stick around.
I'm Carly Q, and this is Who, When, Wow Mystery Edition.
Our past is vast and wild.
Many things have brought us to this day.
As history has been compiled, Some important details have slipped away In our spectacular shared existence.
We consider it our business To recognize a few folks you may not know, Asked all the right questions.
History will never be the same.
When I got into work this morning, everyone was talking about some big drama with my co-worker, slash time travel companion, Louis.
Wait, that's what that smell is?
Two weeks it's been in there.
Oh.
Carol and Linda filled me in.
Turns out, Louis is notorious for always leaving smelly stuff in the fridge, and he only just got permission to start using it again.
But then he left something smelly in there again.
A cheesy, stardy salad?
Absolutely disgusting.
So that's why he's always using my fridge downstairs.
Hmm, maybe I can come up with a solution to this.
Okay, we got a stinky fridge upstairs.
We got an empty fridge downstairs.
I am good at solutions.
I do like solutions.
I also like problems because it gives me a chance to Down in the basement.
I told my rat friend Nibbles about it right away.
I bet I can help Louis with this.
What do you mean it's a bad idea?
If I can get this resolved, then maybe Louis will stop using my fridge.
Okay, yes, I understand the fridge is technically butthead property, but you know what I mean.
Oh, call it cute.
Lewis, just the fella I wanted to see.
I hear there's some drama about you in the fridge upstairs.
Oh, that.
Don't worry about that.
No, you don't worry about that.
What?
I am on the case.
I'm going to get it all straightened out for you.
No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
Please don't do that.
Why not?
If I can fix your fridge situation up there, then maybe I can get you to stop using my fridge down here.
Carly Q, please do not get involved.
If I had wanted your help, I would have asked you for it.
You know me.
I spend my life trying to avoid drama.
You do?
Yes.
Which is why I need a distraction.
Something like... A new time seal file!
A new time seal file!
Event.
Summer, 1937.
Fa- Land at Howland Island.
Sp- Electroton E- To the ocean.
Hmm, this sounds familiar.
I think I know this one.
Well, I don't.
Come here, H-Dad.
Hey.
Lewis very unceremoniously grabbed my digital assistant device H-Dad right out of my hands and plugged in the keywords from the file.
I will let it slide this one time.
Electro.
And at that very same moment, I remembered what I knew.
This refers to the final flight of Amelia Earhart.
Airplane emoji.
Yes!
Did you plan that?
Amelia Earhart is my hero.
She was a famous female aviator.
And she was the first woman to fly alone nonstop across the Atlantic Ocean.
But what's the mystery?
On a later flight, Amelia and her navigator were attempting to circumnavigate the globe on a plane called the Electra.
They were supposed to land at Howland Island in the Pacific Ocean, but they disappeared at sea.
Disappeared?
Lewis, this is huge.
I read about Amelia Earhart when I was a kid and have basically been thinking about this mystery ever since then.
I'm a huge Amelia fan.
Why?
Did she have, like, a really cool pilot's outfit or something?
Well, duh.
But it's more than that.
Amelia's the original curious and brave world traveler.
I am stoked to be investigating the mystery of what happened to her.
Wow.
I haven't seen you this excited about anything since that double-crusted fruit pie.
I wonder if Amelia crashed into some sort of secret underwater mermaid kingdom.
Or if she was so overwhelmed by fame that she secretly flew to Australia to live out her life as a sheep farmer.
Or if she was abducted by aliens.
Of course.
I cannot believe this.
This is so exciting.
Did you know that Amelia was instrumental in the formation of the 99s, an organization for female pilots?
No, but I need to go back upstairs.
See you later, Carly Q.
I guess I should get some work done too, huh, Nibbles?
Unless you want to hear more about Amelia.
Let me just tell you a few more things.
A few hours and countless more facts about Amelia later, I finally got down to work.
And before I knew it... Attention, butthead employees.
It's pancake, salad, taco, hot dog, burger day!
Grab all of your favorite fruits and eat them all at once!
And then, just like that, Louis was back.
So I grabbed Nibbles and H-Dad and we took off for the elevator.
Hi, Odie.
Basement companion.
So nice to see you, Lewis.
Odie.
You're never going to guess the mystery we got today.
Because I hate guessing.
Amelia Earhart.
Oh, I love Amelia Earhart.
She's one of my heroes.
No way.
Me too.
Can we high five?
Oh, just this once.
Okay, wow.
So when did you get into Mealy, Odie?
I was visiting my family back home in Manila during the summer of Amelia's flight around the globe.
I was crushed when I learned her flight path wasn't taking her to the Philippines.
But I have always been Amelia, Stan, as the kids say.
You must have been heartbroken when she went missing.
Oh, devastated.
Honestly, I wish I could come with you to investigate.
But that would be against protocol.
Anyway, let's review the time travel rules.
No changing anything in the past, and no staying past the end of lunchtime.
Very good, Louis.
What else?
Uh, we can always fast forward to other dates on the file.
Excellent.
You two have learned the rules well.
I think you're ready.
But just remember, even though you can't always do what you wish to... You know what?
Who cares about the protocol?
We're breaking it anyway.
I'm coming with you.
What?
Yes!
Wait, but then who's going to run the elevator?
Lewis, you are staying here.
No, no, no, no, no.
No, no, no, no.
No way!
You're right.
It would be a bad idea to have you run the elevator, Louis.
You probably wouldn't be able to handle it, and you'd have a terrible time.
Okay, I see what you're doing.
What am I doing?
All I mean is that if you don't think you're capable enough to run the elevator, then you won't have a very fun time doing it.
Of course I'm capable enough.
And I would have a fabulous time.
You know what?
I don't even want to investigate this missing airplane lady.
You don't?
Why would I, when I could have way more fun showing the both of you how good I'm going to be at running this elevator?
I'm not sure about this.
I just don't think you're ready for the responsibility.
What?
Me?
Responsibility is my middle name.
Well, it's actually Howard.
But I'm doing this.
This is happening.
I am running this elevator.
Now, go!
Then flip the switch, responsible Howard.
Let's do this.
The power!
Hope you have some Pepto-Bismol ready, Odie!
I'm so excited, Odie!
I hope I don't regret this!
Yay!
We made it, Odie, to... Wait a minute.
This doesn't look like the naval base on Howlin' Island.
Because it's not.
We're in Miami.
Ah, Miami.
The city of beaches and more beaches, I guess.
Hey, Nibbles.
Nibbles?
I've never heard your voice before.
What a charming young lady you are.
I'm actually 47 in rat years.
But thank you!
It's nice to finally meet you for real, too.
Okay, but why are we in Miami?
We're here before the time seal starts, near the beginning of Amelia's trip around the world.
She just landed after the first leg of the journey.
Amelia!
Miss Earhart!
Amelia, over here!
Oh my gosh!
That's her!
She's talking!
It's her real voice!
Me too, Amelia!
Wow!
How'd she get here so fast?
This is incredible.
I can't believe we're actually hearing this from her actual mouth.
Miss Earhart, Miss Earhart.
But then she's going to be done forever.
I'll take the question down front.
Yes.
What inspired your flight?
Why are you doing this?
The easy answer is that this journey is going to be the longest flight around the globe in world history.
You don't even know what you're saying.
Yes, the longest flight around the world because you're never going to come back from it.
Setting records, making history.
Well, that's only part of it.
That's for sure.
What really gets me, Amelia, going...
It's all the youngsters out there.
All the little girls and boys dreaming of being pilots themselves.
I hope that by seeing me up there in the sky, they realize they can do it too.
That you can do anything in the world that you set your mind to.
Yes, Amelia, I also believe that.
I also believe that because you helped me learn how to believe that.
Oh, Mumblecrust.
She is so inspiring.
Can't you just feel it in your bones?
I can feel it in all 206 of mine.
I gotta go talk to her.
I have to warn her about what's gonna happen.
What?
No!
No, basement companion, no!
No, no, no, come on, we've got to!
Look, Carly, it's rule number one!
You can't change the past!
I know it's painful, but what happened to Amelia happened.
It is not a problem you can fix.
We are only here to investigate.
Okay, okay, okay, I get it.
Can't have a repeat of what happened at Roswell, huh?
Exactly.
I only wanted you to get the chance to see Amelia in person.
But now that you have... Back to the elevator!
We raced back in, and moments later, she was amazing, right?
Very much so.
We stepped out onto a military battleship.
It was chaos all around.
Sailors and other military personnel running to and fro.
Whew!
Busy day on the battlecruiser, huh?
What's going on?
What if it's been two weeks since she went missing?
Is it really still worth it to keep looking?
Hey!
Tell it to the admiral, right?
Ooh, I think I know.
This must be the HQ for the search and rescue operation.
When Amelia didn't land here like she was supposed to, all these ships must have come to start looking for her.
Exactly correct.
If I remember right, we are standing on the USS Colorado, lead ship of the rescue mission.
Wow.
Excuse me, can I help you?
Yes.
Oh, you got this.
We're here with the National Weather Service.
Your commander just told us to get on the next seaplane running a patrol.
Where do we board?
You can get on that plane right over there, ma'am.
Thank you, Zalo.
Dismissed.
Uh, excuse me, Odie?
You never told me you have the skills to pay the bills.
That was incredible.
How did you know to do that?
This is not my first time to have a rodeo, basement companion.
Quick, into the seaplane.
Get ready to fly!
She squeezed my hand as the pilot started the engine and we took off into the sky.
Whoa, I have never been in a plane this small before.
Below us, we could see Howland Island like a little lima bean floating in the middle of the ocean.
Once we leveled off, I called up to the pilot.
Uh, excuse me, Mr. Pilot, sir?
Could you tell us about the search so far?
What happened when Amelia tried to land here?
Sure thing.
Here's the sitrep.
A U.S.
Coast Guard ship was supposed to be in radio contact with Ms.
Earhart on her way in.
But something went wrong with the radio and she wasn't able to receive the coordinates for the island.
That's not good.
Not good at all.
She sent out a message at 742 am saying she wasn't receiving the radio instructions and was running low on gas.
She said too that she thought she was at the right position, but she couldn't see the island or the Coast Guard ship.
I mean, it's definitely hard to see what's on the ground when you're up here in the air.
Like right now, all the shadows and the clouds down there.
They almost look like little islands on the surface of the water.
Are you a pilot yourself, miss?
That is a very keen observation.
Might very well have been part of what got Earhart into trouble.
Okay then, here's a question.
If she thought she was close to the island but couldn't see it was there any way the Coast Guard ship could have visually alerted her.
A big blinking light or something?
No blinking light, but the ship did attempt to signal her by generating excess smoke from its engines.
But Ms.
Earhart must not have seen it.
So what is the current status of the search?
Unfortunately, the most likely theory is that she was unable to locate the island due to the radio problem and then ran out of fuel and crashed into the ocean.
And I'm not seeing anything up here today to contradict it.
In fact, it's probably time we head back in.
Alright, let's do it!
The pilot brought the plane down and we landed next to the battleship.
Odie and I climbed back onto the deck of the ship.
It really was a great view up there.
I just wish we'd been able to find a new clue or something.
I feel you, basement companion.
Maybe your computer dad has some more information?
Good call, Nibbles.
H-Dad, did you finish analyzing yet?
H-Dad, status report.
Analysis was complete two hours ago.
Clock emoji.
What?
Since when do you analyze that fast?
And why didn't you say anything?
Because nobody asked.
Shoulder shrugging emoji.
Okay, fine.
H-Dad, any other theories for what happened here?
Theory number one, Amelia crash-landed on nearby Gardner Island.
The Navy sent planes to investigate, but were unable to find anything.
Okay, and?
Theory number two, she was captured by Japanese soldiers.
This would have required her to have crashed on the Japanese-controlled Marshall Islands, hundreds of miles from here.
That seems pretty unlikely, right?
According to the radio messages, she was almost certainly somewhere near here when she crashed.
Correct that somehow Amelia survived and then changed her identity to Irene Craigvile-Bollum, a banker from New Jersey.
What?
Okay, that seems random.
After flying the whole world, you really think she'd end up in Jersey?
No.
The book that popularized this theory was pulled by the publisher after it was largely discredited.
Okay, so Amelia wasn't secretly living as Irene and she most likely did not crash hundreds of miles away where she could have been captured, so The most likely explanation is probably what the pilot said.
That Amelia's plane crashed in the water and sunk into the ocean.
Ugh.
What a loss.
Huge loss.
The worst.
Nibbles could see how sad I was, and she gave me a little rat hug.
If you've never been hugged by a rat, I don't really recommend it, but it is something that I like.
Thank you for that hug, Nibbles.
I needed that.
Incoming message from Butt Headquarters.
Attention, employees.
Today's All Your Favorite Foods for Lunchtime Lunchtime is coming to a close.
Visit the infirmary if you have an upset tummy, and then get back to work.
Sounds like it's time to head home.
Yeah.
And so with one last look at the ocean, we went back to the elevator.
It was really nice breaking protocol with you, basement companion.
Do we need to let Louis know that we're coming back?
Yeah!
Hey!
Welcome back, you two.
Hello, Lu... Why are you covered in confetti?
Oh.
Uh... You didn't go back in time to some roaring New Year's Eve party, did you?
Who?
Me?
Lewis?
I was only there for a minute!
Truly!
From 11.59 to 12.01 a.m., That's two minutes.
Details.
What happened with Amelia Airplane?
Amelia Earhart.
That's what I said.
I think we lost her to the reality that it was actually really hard and dangerous to fly planes back then, especially that far over open water.
But it just goes to show how brave and inspiring she was to try.
Well said, basement companion, well said.
Well, speaking of brave and inspiring, I'm going to go see if I can work out this fridge drama upstairs.
Right about that.
No!
Please, Carly Q, I am begging you, do not get involved in this.
Yes, yes, yes, that is what I was basically going to say.
I almost messed up the timeline today more than once, so I think I've learned my lesson.
That if you interfere with my fridge drama, you'll mess up the space-time continuum and universal timeline.
Mmm, that sometimes we just have to learn from our own mistakes.
I was worried you weren't going to be able to handle this right, or that you'd somehow fail and mess it up worse.
But I've got to let you sort this out for yourself.
I mean, hey, you ran the time elevator.
I did indeed!
And if I need help, I will ask for it.
I appreciate that you're worried about me, Carly Q. But you can't fix everything all the time.
Oh.
Thanks for coming with me today, Odie.
Thanks for inviting me along.
Amelia Earhart would be proud of your adventures.
Back at my desk, I knew it was time to get some work done.
But I had to take a moment first to reflect on things.
Not just on the adventures today, but on all the adventures I've gone on recently.
What a joy to explore the world and all its histories and mysteries.
And I sure hope you've enjoyed coming along for the ride.
Because the truth is, the best way to honor Amelia, I think, is to try being a little bit like her.
Brave, curious, and always eager to explore.
We'll be back soon with another season of Who Went Wow Mystery Edition.
But until then, yours forever in mystery solving, this is Carly Q signing off.
And remember, you never heard this.
H-Dev, initiating end credits mode.
Who Went Wow Mystery Edition is an original Tinkercast production with help from Gen Z Media.
Handshake emoji, high five emoji.
For Tinkercast, the executive producers are Guy Raz, Mindy Thomas, and Meredith Halpern-Ranzer.
The shows are written by Aaron Weissman, Danielle Nicky, Tom Van Kalken, Kenny Curtis and Mindy Thomas.
Carly Shiraki is a producing consultant.
Big shout-outs to Jed Anderson, Steph Sosa, Henry Moskal, Jessica Bode, Natasha Crandall, Rebecca Caban, Sona Ali-Mohamed, Anna Daniker, Anna Zagorski and the rest of the team at Tinkercast.
Megaphone emoji, applause emoji.
Who Went Well's theme song was composed and performed by The Pop-Ups.
For more information on their three-time Grammy-nominated all-ages music, find them at thepopupscom.
Producers for Gen Z Media are David Kreisman, Ben Strauss, Original music was created by Jennifer Rohkamp and voice direction is handled by David Kreisman.
Our main cast features Carly Shiraki as Carly Q, Brendan Salerno as Lewis, Melissa Vandershiff as Nibbles the Rat, Kenny Curtis as H-Dad and Angela Desai as Odie.
Want to explore Who Went Wow's mysteries even further?
You can find free activities and resources to extend the wow at whowentwow.com.
And if you have a time-sealed mystery you want Carly Q to explore, email us at hello at tinkercastcom.
H-Dad, powering off.
Inventions Asked all the right questions.
History will never be the same.
Who When, Why?
Was made by Tinkercast and sent to you by Wondery?
Shh, it's starting.
GCM shows Imagination Amplified.
