Hey everybody, before we get to today's episode, I want to let you all know that today, April 17th 2026, is the very last day to submit to join our second annual Joke-a-thon joke tournament fundraiser as a contestant.
Yes, that's right.
This year we've got three slots in the tournament reserved for kid contestants, who will go toe-to-toe with some of the biggest kid podcasters in the game to win prizes for themselves and their school.
This year's prizes are amazing.
I'm so excited about them.
So in order to submit your application to be a contestant, you just have to go to tumblescience slash joke contestant and fill out the application.
We can't wait to have you there.
Hi, I'm Lindsay.
And I'm Marshall.
Welcome to Tumble, the show where we explore stories of science discovery.
Today, we have a tickle attack mailbag edition of Tumble.
We're tackling your tickling questions about whether or not animals can be tickled.
And we are sure to be tickled by our most recent round of listener mail and comments.
Okay, so Marshall, are you ticklish?
I mean, actually, to tell the truth, not really.
Not that much, which is actually really great.
It's a wonderful weapon because then I can wield it but not be harmed by it.
Yes, I have seen you transform into a very dangerous tickle monster.
Indeed.
Beware.
We're going to get to those tickle questions soon.
But first, let's start with our listener mail.
All right, let's start off with our Apple reviews.
All right.
Can I read this one?
It says no more evil cats and it gives us a five star review.
So thank you very much.
The cat person.
And it says, I am a bit offended that you said cats are evil.
Okay.
More than a bit offended.
I also have a cat who's above the massage chair, listening to every word you say.
So next time be aware of what you say about cats.
I love that the cat's above a massage chair.
It's just waiting, like you're comfortable in that massage chair.
You're relaxing, you're enjoying a massage, and the cat's just listening to your podcast, waiting.
Waiting for the moment to strike.
I have to say, that's not a strong advertisement that that animal is not evil.
No, it's not.
All right.
I still appreciate that review a lot.
Yeah.
I'd still probably love its evil kitty face.
Yeah.
Okay.
This one is, I love Tumble.
Hi, Lindsay and Marshall.
I absolutely love Tumble.
Please read my review in the next mailbag and review read episode.
P.S.
I don't know if you made one yet, but can you make an episode about why does our hands look like raisins after coming out from a swimming pool?
Thank you from Rachel.
Yeah, that's actually a great topic for an episode.
We should do a mailbag episode on that, because I'm actually really curious, because it seems like, Like raisins are all dried out, but you've been in the pool.
You're the opposite of dried out.
So what's what's going on there?
It's a mind bender.
And yes, we will read your review.
And we just did.
All right.
So this next one is this is so good.
And then gives me seven points. smiling, starry-eyed emojis, and it's a five-star review.
Thank you, thank you.
I love science.
Hey, me too.
And most science podcasts are like so simple or so deep.
But I want a science podcast that I can listen to and think that it is interesting, but also I can kind of like zone out.
So this is like perfect.
Anyway, I think you should do one on the science of alcohol.
Oh, I think that would be a great episode.
Bye.
I don't know.
Would we ever do the science of alcohol?
Like, what is the science of alcohol?
I was thinking it's like the science of fermentation.
There's like a molecular element to it.
But we have received other questions about what alcohol does to people.
And so we just need more specific questions so we can kind of know how to handle it.
All right, that's it for Apple Reviews.
What do we have next?
Okay, up next we've got Spotify comments.
We do love reading comments on episodes on Spotify, and the Minecraft experiment got the most comments, including a Minecraft correction.
All right, so I'll read this one.
Sure.
Sergior7US commented on the Minecraft experiment saying, I'm seven.
This is so interesting because I love gaming.
And you said pigmen, but pigmen are real characters in a game.
Okay, so it's not pigmen.
I always assumed it was pigmen.
They look like pigs.
Do they look like pigs?
Yeah, in the movie they did.
I guess.
But you know, I've been sort of called out for my only source being the Minecraft movie in this next comment.
Okay.
All right.
Luca and Ariel, still just a new account, say... It is lies, I guess.
Also...
Do not ignore Herobrine or your Minecraft world will be deleted.
Your account will be deleted-ed.
Your computer will be deleted even.
And that's all in caps.
Okay.
I do not know enough about Minecraft to say whether I think that's true or false.
I don't know what Herobrine is.
I don't know how one ignores it or pays attention to it.
Like, what are you doing to Herobrine?
Okay, I listened to an episode about Herobrine on Unspookable, another great podcast, and I really recommend that to get informed about Herobrine.
Okay, I'll check it out.
Shout out to Unspookable.
Yes.
Okay, so we also had a commenter named David Roberts commented on a lot of the episodes and he was my favorite about the songs of spiders.
There's a spider on my selling, and I'm naming him Dave Spider.
Dave, you better behave.
P.S.
Make this a song.
Marshall, please, please and thank you.
Emojis.
Well, David Roberts, ask and ye shall receive.
I am granting your request.
Here is I'm actually really proud of this song.
Oh, Spider Dave.
All right.
I'm so excited. as well you should be.
There's a spider on my ceiling, and I call him Spider Dave.
He's just a common house spider, only a few millimeters in length.
He eats bugs so he can stay here, at least that's what I think.
But at night when I go to bed, I have this song to sing.
Oh Spider Dave, you'd better behave.
Don't crawl on my bed now, don't jump on my face.
I'm sure you can see that we both must agree.
Don't crawl on my bed now or else you must leave.
Now, now this spider on my ceiling.
He walks and crawls about, He makes a messy cobweb And he never makes a shout, But still at night.
I'm worried.
As I'm about to go to sleep, Did he listen to my pleas now?
And do we both agree?
That old spider.
Dave, you'd better behave.
Don't crawl on my bed now.
Don't jump on my face.
I'm sure you can see that we both must agree.
Don't crawl on my bed now Or else you must leave.
Now, stop creeping about.
You better get out.
You crawled on my bed now.
You jumped in my mouth.
You better get out.
You jumped in my mouth, You better get out.
You jumped in my mouth.
Did you actually eat a spider for the end of that song?
I will not disclose that fact, leave it to your imagination was incredible.
I think that might be the only song ever made in response to a Spotify comment on a children's podcast.
Maybe.
I don't know.
Or the first ever.
This could be a trend.
Okay, well, so that does it for comments.
We do love getting comments and we do read them all, even if we don't read them on the show.
So please leave comments.
And if you want a question on the show, go ahead and send it to us via email at tumblepodcast at gmailcom.
All right, we're going to take a quick break.
And when we come back, we'll tackle some tickling questions.
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Okay, we're back.
So since almost the beginning of Tumble, when we started taking listener questions, we've gotten questions about tickling.
I mean, I think tickling is a very curious subject.
Yeah, it's like when you're being tickled, you're like, why is this happening?
I know the moment when I learned that apes are ticklish.
All apes changed my life.
Yes, you've been a different person since then.
Someday I'll get to tickle a baby chimpanzee.
That would be amazing.
Well, it's funny.
You should mention that, because the person that I have lined up to answer our listeners' tickling question actually had a job where he tickled a chimp.
Wait, so there are professional chimp ticklers?
It could be part of a job description.
Part, but the whole thing?
Let me play you this clip.
Can I do that?
Yeah.
Clint was just a lovely, lovely, lovely chimpanzee.
Always happy to see me.
We used to just spend half the time where we're supposed to be working playing together, including tickling.
He loved to be tickled.
He'd back up, show me right where he wanted to be tickled, and he'd tickle me back.
Don't ever let a chimpanzee tickle you.
Are they good ticklers?
Yes.
Oh, my God, yes.
See, I think that's an argument for letting a chimpanzee tickle you.
Like, do they tickle you so hard that your life is in danger?
Like you're laughing so much, like maybe you'll suffocate?
Well, that was Dave Levins.
He is a psychologist and an expert on tickling.
So I thought that he would be the perfect person to answer our kids' questions.
Okay.
Well, so what do listeners want to know about tickling?
Well, let's start this question that we got in an email from Lily, Liam and Brody G.
Their question is why can humans be tickled but dogs can't?
We love your podcast.
Thanks, guys.
Why can humans be tickled but dogs can't?
I guess dogs aren't ticklish.
I never really thought about it, but I guess they're not.
Well, Marshall, you'll be wrong.
This is what Dave told me.
Dogs, evidently dogs are ticklish.
They're not universally insensitive to tickling.
They show it differently.
They don't guffaw.
Basically, if you start probing gently along their flanks and that leg starts jerking up and down.
Probably that's their tickle response.
Wait, so that's them being tickled?
I always thought that was just like, oh my God, that feels so amazing.
You're the perfect person. that meant.
Oh my gosh.
Well, there we go.
I guess I was wrong.
Dogs are ticklish.
They just don't laugh in a way that we notice.
They do not guffaw.
They do not guffaw, or at least not when humans are listening.
Okay, so we got another question about animal tickles from Penny, who asks...
Are other animals besides humans ticklish?
And if they are, do they have tickle fights?
Well, I guess we already know dogs, but what else?
Well, a lot of animals will laugh or engage in something like laughing behavior.
When you tickle them, turns out, you know, lots of critters seem to enjoy being tickled.
The curious thing to me is that there are relatively few animals that actually tickle others.
But people tickle others and great apes tickle others, humans' nearest living relatives.
It's a rare thing. for animals to tickle each other.
But great apes, you put them around an infant and they'll start tickling away.
They like to tickle and they like to be tickled.
That pairing is unusual.
All right.
So it's the great apes who are the best ticklers in the animal kingdom next to us.
Sounds like they're the only ticklers.
Yeah.
Best and only.
And so how did dogs learn that they were ticklish if nothing was tickling them before humans showed up?
Well, they were wolves before humans showed up, right?
I guess.
Are wolves ticklish or is that too dangerous to find out?
I wouldn't sign ourselves up for that tickle study.
Yeah, no tickle fights with dangerous carnivores.
But Dave does say that there is a real potential for somebody who wants to study, tickling across all types of animals.
Yeah, I'm telling you, it's a wide open area for study.
If I was starting my career, I would see this as a completely viable way to really make a mark on science.
There's nobody out there, you know, who is systematically going through and seeing which animals like to be tickled.
What we don't know about this area, we don't even know what we don't know.
Somebody could make a career out of just being a comparative tickle-ologist.
That's kind of an amazing job, a comparative tickleologist.
So you hear that kids who want to be scientists when you grow up, which I hope is at least some of the people listening right now.
Tickling.
You could be a world famous pioneer, world expert tickle studier.
Tickleologist.
And you just study each animal and how it responds to tickling.
And you would, of course, start with worms.
All the way up.
All the way up.
Okay.
So here is a question from Reed and Sage.
Why do we laugh when we get tickled?
One of the ways that tickling sort of works is this surprise factor, this inability to anticipate something.
What's going to happen next?
If you're sitting around at a picnic and you feel something crawling on you, you'll jump.
You get a real startle response from that sort of a thing.
And other animals have that same sort of immediate recognition that this isn't caused by me.
The fact that so many animals seem to find tickling pleasurable, even though they themselves don't tickle others, might present an avenue for a different way of thinking about a sense of self, you know, one that's based in touch.
So what is he talking about here?
Like tickling defines our sense of self?
Yeah, it's like the idea of self how you know who you are and how you know that you're not someone or something else.
What defines you from the rest of the world?
Okay, but what does that have to do with tickling?
Ah, Marshall.
This is why it's really tough to talk about tickling science.
So psychologists are interested in tickling because it only works when someone else does it to you, which means it's a really good way to study how people have a sense of self.
So psychologists have set up such fascinating experiments, using tickling as a way to study human consciousness.
Wow.
Okay, well, that's That's pretty wild.
And it seems like.
I mean, it does seem to me like tickling.
Is actually this like profound and deep thing?
Like if it's something that all apes can do, like we've been doing it for millions of years.
Absolutely.
And now I'm going to try to tickle you again.
Go ahead.
Go for it.
Do it.
I dare you.
All right, well, thanks so much to all of our listeners.
Those were really some amazing, tickling questions.
And please, if you have any science questions, please keep them coming.
Yes, email us at tumblepodcasts at gmail.com.
Or we have a page to submit it on our website sciencepodcastsforkidscom, where you can upload your audio file, which we love to hear.
Include your name, your age, your question and tell us what you think the answer is and how scientists would find out.
Thanks today to our expert, David Levins, who is an emeritus reader in psychology at the University of Sussex in England.
It just occurred to me that he has the same name as the spider in the song.
He's not a spider, I swear.
Anyway, if you want to support Tumble so we can keep making more episodes, join our Patreon.
Starting at just 1 a month gets you ad-free access and 5 you get birthday shoutouts which you're going to hear in just a little bit.
Just go to patreon.com slash tumblepodcasts.
I'm Lindsay Patterson.
I'm the executive producer, and I wrote this show.
And I'm Marshall Escamilla, and I produced this episode and wrote the Spider Dave song.
Tumble is produced by Tumble Media.
Thanks for listening, and stay tuned for more stories of science discovery.
All right, everybody, here we are at the end of the episode.
And by now we all get the memo.
It's time for the birthday shout outs to go to our supporters on Patreon.
But before we get to that, we've got some new patrons to shout out to Gabby, Amber and Flint.
Thanks so much for supporting us, you guys.
And now, on to the birthdays.
First of all, Flint, you had a birthday in March, on March 3rd.
Mom and Dad love your creativity and endless exploration, and I hope you had a happy birthday.
A happy birthday on April 18th to Max.
Mom and Dad love you and are so proud of you always.
And we've got another April 18th birthday to Davey G with lots of love from mom dad, auntie Vicki and the grand folks.
A happy birthday to Alex on April 26th.
Mommy, daddy, and Grayson love you.
Thanks to all of you and to everyone who supports Tumble on Patreon.
We really do appreciate it a ton and I hope you all know we couldn't keep making the show without your generous support.
If you'd like to get a birthday shout out of your own like these fine folks, just go to patreoncom, slash tumblepodcast and pledge to support us at the 5 level or higher.
Once again, that is patreon.com slash tumblepodcast.
Tumble Podcast.
