Hey, Wowzer fams.
Mindy here.
And before we start the show... Oh, hey, Reg.
What's that?
A new pigeon dropping?
Isn't that the postcard you send out to members of the World Organization of Wowzers every quarter?
Can I see it?
What?
You need to see if I'm a member of the W.O.W. first?
Reg, come on.
It's me, Mindy.
Huh?
You're not seeing a Mindy on the list?
Okay, uh, try Mandy.
I think Thomas Fingerling signed me up.
Yes!
Can I get my pigeon dropping now?
What?
I gotta wait for it in the mail?
But it's right there.
Okay, fine.
Guess I'll go wait out by the mailbox.
In the meantime, to get the next quarterly mailing from Reggie grown-ups, you can sign your Wowzer up to be a member of the World Organization of Wowzers by Monday March 16th.
It's so top secret, I haven't even seen it yet.
Now, where did I put my mailbox?
Grownups.
When you sign your wowzer up to be a member of the World Organization of Wowzers, you also get birthday cards in the mail from me and Guy Raz, access to over a thousand online activities inspired by our podcast, and a welcome kit from me and Guy Raz including our autographs and a special t-shirt.
Plus, you get to help support all the work that goes into powering the wow at Tinkercast.
Tinkercast.
Grown-ups, visit Tinkercast.com slash membership to sign up today.
That's Tinkercast.com slash membership.
That's it.
And now, let's get back to the show.
Proceeded.
Three, two, one.
Detention.
The problem is on a picture of that university.
We'll see you next time. your local neighborhood all-natural, eco-conscious food pantry.
Remember, a sustainable future is just a mouthful away.
Okay, let me just check my shopping list here.
Quinoa, check.
Kale, check.
Tomatoes, check.
And... Marshmallows!
Bindi!
What?
I thought we were supposed to be making a salad tonight.
We are.
Don't worry, Guy Raz.
These are green marshmallows.
What kind of salad has marshmallows in it?
Uh, a good one.
Please, put them back.
Ugh, fine.
But I'm keeping the maple syrup.
Okay, let's see where I was.
Ah, yes.
Tomatoes.
Check.
Okay, that looks like it's everything.
Now to the checkout line.
And this one doesn't seem too long.
Here's your receipt.
And have a healthy day.
Bye now.
Thomas Fingerling?
Oh, hey there, Mr. Razzie.
What are you doing here?
What do you mean?
I work here.
You work at the Healthway grocery store?
Well, sure.
Why?
Well, nobody else could seem to wrangle G-Force.
Okay, I'm back from my bathroom break.
Excuse me.
G-Force, you work here too?
No, I'll just take the money.
That'll be $75.
What?
You should probably just give her the money.
You don't want to see her get angry.
Well, uh... I'm already angry, Fingerling.
Okay, put the marshmallows back, Iraz.
But I really think we should get these fudge brownies for the... Thomas Fingerling?
What?
Grandma G-Force!
Hi!
No!
What are you two doing here?
They work here.
We work here.
You do?
Apparently.
I just take the money.
Ah, she's just being modest.
G-Force is the fastest grocery bagger this side of the wherever we are.
Whatever.
Speaking of which, you need a reusable bag for all these vegetables, Guy Rozzy?
Oh, sure.
No, that's okay.
I brought my own bags.
They're somewhere in here.
Where'd I put those bags?
Oh, here we go.
Are those plastic bags?
Uh-oh.
Uh, what just happened?
Mindy, this is an all-natural, eco-conscious food pantry.
Really?
I thought it was a grocery store.
They take their environmental issues here very seriously.
And plastic bags?
They are a big no-no.
But, Guy Raz, these plastic bags are different.
How?
Well... There she is.
There's the lady that hates the environment.
Get her.
Oh, come on.
Well, you two better get out of here.
Come on, Mindy.
Whoa!
Well, I guess that's what we get for forgetting our reusable bags.
Well, if everyone in there had actually given me a second to explain myself, they would know that these plastic bags aren't actually all that bad for the environment.
What do you mean?
Well, I'll tell you about it on the way home.
Come on, let's ambulate and pontificate.
What?
Walk and talk.
Ah.
You see, Guy Raz, these bags are biodegradable.
Biodegradable?
You mean they break down in nature?
Yeah, just like a banana peel or compost or an apple core.
The bag breaks down just like that?
Yeah, they're based on these plastic bags that were developed at the Japan Agency for Marine Earth Science and Technology.
That was a mouthful.
You mean Jamstack?
Yeah, that's much easier to say.
Anywho, I was excited to try out these new biodegradable bags that they developed.
I just didn't realize people would freak out so much.
Uh-huh, and how long does it take for these bags to fully disintegrate?
Well, this research found that the bags lost 80% of their mass in just over a year.
In other words, 80% of the bag disappeared in over a year.
Huh.
That's super fast, considering that normal plastic bags can take tens or hundreds or even a thousand years to fully break down.
So, how does it all work?
Well, Guy Raz, I could tell you.
Yes?
But I'd rather show you.
Look, we made it back to my gingerbread mansion.
Oh, yeah.
I freshly baked the front door this morning.
Come on, follow me.
Home sweet home.
Literally, because it's gingerbread.
Wendy, why is there a giant tank of water in the middle of your living room?
Oh, that's just for science, Guy Raz.
For science?
You needed a bus-sized tank of water in your living room for science?
Yeah.
You wanted to know how these biodegradable bags worked, so we're going to run a little science experiment, just like they did at Jams Tech.
A science experiment about plastic bags in this aquarium?
Yeah.
Part of developing these biodegradable plastic bags meant that the researchers had to observe how they broke down in seawater.
OK.
And we're going to do the same.
Wait.
This is seawater?
Yeah.
Reggie and I brought this seawater home from our trip to the beach last week and I was going to use it to cook potatoes for our salad tonight.
So let me just see if I understand the experiment here, Mindy.
Okay.
We're going to take some of your plastic bags, put them in this giant tank of seawater and then observe them as they break down over time.
You know it.
Let me just climb up this ladder here.
Okay, now I just gotta pull the bags out of my pocket and drop them in the seawater.
Dropping in the bags.
But Mindy, didn't you say that it takes just over a year for these plastic bags to break down?
Uh-huh.
So we're just gonna stand around here for a year?
Of course we're not just going to stand around for over a year, Guy Raz.
That's what the Wow Machine is for.
Wow Machine, where are we going?
Well, we're going in here.
In the seawater tank?
You know it.
We're going to get up close and personal, Guy Raz, to see just how this plastic bag breaks down in the ocean.
Come on, follow me.
The Wow Machine's in the garage.
Okay.
Mindy, what is going on?
Sorry, Reggie's been making a couple of tweaks to the wow machine.
Hey, Reg!
Reggie!
The wow machine ready yet?
Eh, that's good enough for me.
Come on, Guy Raz.
Okay.
Yeah, we'll be back in like 13 minutes.
You can reinstall the temporal stabilizer when we get back.
He'll be fine.
Stop worrying, Reg.
Come on.
Hop on in, Guy Raz.
All right.
Closing the hat.
Strap in, Guy Raz.
It's time to shrinkify.
Shrinkify?
Yeah.
In order to see how this bag gets broken down, we have to shrink down to the microscopic level.
If you say so, Mindy.
I do say so.
All strapped in?
Uh, there's nothing to strap in with, Mindy.
Well, then you better hold on to something, because here we go.
All right.
Now let's see if we made it.
All right.
You want to open those blinds, Guy Raz?
Oh, sure.
Opening the blinds.
Whoa.
Oh, yeah.
Where are we, Mindy?
Can't you tell, Guy Raz?
We're in my giant living room seawater aquarium.
And that giant jellyfish-looking wall in front of us?
That's our plastic bag.
Whoa, we really are small.
Yep, we're on the microscopic scale now, buddy.
You could fit about five million wow machines in the head of a needle at this size.
And so, when does this plastic bag start to break down, Mindy?
Eh, in a couple of months.
Let me just see if I can speed us up with a little bit of good old-fashioned time travel.
Now, where did I put the fast-forward button?
All right, here we go.
Fast forward.
Okay, you should be coming up on three months right about now.
Phew.
Okay, let me just see here.
What was that, Mindy?
What?
What's that sound?
That's the Wow Machine's proximity alarm.
I have a bad feeling about this.
Here it comes.
Whoa!
What in the... Guy Raz, behold, the bag-eating microbes.
A microbe?
You mean those microscopic teeny tiny little creatures that live on and inside our bodies?
Yeah, but they don't just live on our bodies, Guy Raz.
They also live out in nature.
They're like nature's invisible workers.
Some live in the soil, where they break down dead plants and animals, turning them into nutrients that help new things grow.
And in the ocean, some microbes make oxygen for us to breathe.
And these ocean microbes?
Well, they're the reason these bags are able to be broken down.
What do you mean?
Wait for it.
Wait for it.
Uh... Wait.
Mindy, is that microbe eating that plastic bag?
Uh-huh.
And that is how the plastic bag is able to lose 80 or most of its mass in just a little over a year.
Because they break down this biodegradable plastic in the same way that other microbes break down other tough materials.
You know it.
See, these scientists from JAMSTEC knew that there were other microbes out there that eat oil and wood, even some metals.
So they had an idea.
Yeah?
If they can eat up those other things, then maybe they could add this newly developed biodegradable plastic to the menu too.
Huh.
Look, here comes another one.
Wow.
Ooh, these microbes sure are hungry today.
You know, Mindy, they actually look kind of cute.
Yeah, some of the most adorable little microorganisms I've ever seen.
But, Mindy, where does all that plastic go?
I mean, you know, after it gets eaten by these microbes.
Well... Does that answer your question?
Uh, did that microbe just... Toot out that plastic bag?
Yeah, it did.
Oh.
Gross.
It's not gross, Kairos.
It's science.
These microbes are taking the plastic bag, digesting it and then converting it into chemicals like carbon dioxide and water.
Whoa.
Yikes.
We better get out of here, Guy Raz, before this becomes a feeding frenzy.
Good idea, Mindy.
Strap in.
Uh, once again, Mindy, there are no straps.
Oh, yeah.
Well, then, uh, hold on to something.
Because here we go!
Okie doke.
Hey, Reg!
See?
I told you it would be fine.
Ah, sorry about the water.
Hey, Reg!
Where are you going?
He's not mad at me.
So, Mindy, what does this new technology mean for the future of plastic bags?
Well, single-use or plastic that you use once and throw away, is still a pretty big problem for our planet.
Particularly in the ocean.
Yeah.
Have you heard of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch?
Yeah.
It's a huge area in the ocean where ocean currents trap plastic and other trash.
Right.
And it's super big, too.
Like twice the size of Texas Big.
And super dangerous, because animals mistake the plastic for food or get tangled in it and the garbage never really goes away.
Yeah, but if more of that trash was made out of the same sort of plastic that these plastic bags are made out of?
Then a lot of them would break down in just over a year.
And post less of a threat to the environment and sea life.
So how far away are we from replacing our everyday plastic with this biodegradable stuff?
Well, we've still got a long way to go.
I mean, there's a lot of plastic in the world right now, but it is a good first step.
You gotta start somewhere.
Reggie, you came back!
Well, Guy Raz, looks like we're on mopping duty.
Oh, boy.
Come on, if we get started now, we can still get back to the grocery store in time to get all those ingredients for tonight's salad.
All right, fine.
Hand me that mop.
That's the spirit, buddy.
But maybe we should bring a couple of my reusable tote bags this time.
You know, just to be safe.
Not a bad idea.
Wow in the World will be right back.
Grown-ups, this message is for you.
Hey, grown-ups.
Spring is right around the corner.
And as schedules fill up with activities and travel, let IXL help you stay on top of your child's learning.
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At Tinkercast, making learning fun is our bread and butter.
So we love that IXL has games, awards, and celebrations to keep students motivated and engaged.
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Get IXL now, and Wow in the World listeners can get an exclusive 20% off IXL membership when they sign up today at ixl.com slash wow.
Visit ixl.com slash wow to get the most effective learning program out there at the best price.
That's it.
Back to the show.
Hi, thanks for calling Wow in the World.
After the beep, get ready to record.
My name is Perrin, and I'm nine years old.
I live in Atlanta Georgia, and my Wow in the World is about a girl named Bella J Dark, who published a book named The Lost Cat when she was only five years old.
Hi, my name is James and I'm from Pennsylvania.
My wow in my world is that the most children delivered on a single birth is nine babies.
And it's also the first time that has ever happened.
Hi, my name is Addison and I live in Wynwood, Washington.
And my wow in the world is that lightning can be different colors.
And those colors are blue, yellow, violet, red, orange, green, and pink.
Bye.
Love your show.
Say hi to Reggie for me.
My name is Jade.
I'm from Minnesota.
And my wow is that cats use their whiskers to like When it's dark.
They use them to get around places and steal objects.
Hi, I'm Mindy.
Hi, Guy Raz.
My name is Hazel.
I'm from Edmonton, Washington.
My wow in the world is that Komodo dragons are the biggest lizards in the world and they can be 10 feet long.
Say hi to them.
Grandma Dee Shore.
Oh, fine.
Thomas McGregor.
Ooh, cool, dude.
And Dennis.
Mother!
Come quick!
Bye.
My name is Dev.
I'm six years old.
I'm from Massachusetts.
My role in the world is honey badgers to protect yourself from bees and seal honey.
Hi, Mindy and Guy Raz.
My name is Camilla, and I'm ten years old.
I'm from...
Washington, D.C., and my wow in the world is that the letters DNA stand for deoxyribonucleic acid.
Say hi to the annoying dentist for me.
Hello, I am from South Africa, and I am Luke.
My wow in the world is that your teeth are connected to your jaws.
Hi, my name's Cassidy, and I live in Toledo, Ohio.
My wow in the world is did you know that a dog's nose print is just as unique as a human's fingerprint?
Hi, guys.
My name's Mindy.
My name's Callie.
And I'm her brother, Keller.
And we're from Toledo, Ohio.
And we have two wow in the world.
My wow in the world. is the winds on Neptune can blow faster than 1,200 miles an hour.
My wow in the world is a silverback gorilla can lift over 1,763 pounds.
Say hi to Dennis and Reggie for us.
Bye.
Oh, wow.
End of messages.
Thanks for listening to this episode of Wow in the World.
If you're a kid with a big wow to share with us, call our wow hotline at 1-888-7wowwow for a chance to be featured at the end of the show.
And while you're at it, head over to Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
Leave us five stars and tell us what wows you about our show by leaving a review or send us a comment on Spotify.
You just might hear your reviews-y read by Dennis on WeWow on the weekend.
Visit us at Tinkercast.com and become a member of the World Organization of Wowzers.
With that, you'll get year-round mailings in your mailbox weekly activities, birthday cards and more.
On Tinkercastcom.
You can also shop our Wow Shop, get tickets for upcoming live events, find our books, toys and science kits and learn all about the other amazing podcasts from Tinkercast.
Once again, that's Tinkercast.com.
Wow in the World is written by Mindy Thomas and Tom Van Kalken with contributions from me, Guy Raz.
Original sound design and music editing is done by our senior production director, Jed Anderson, with help from our audio producers Tyler Tholl and Henry Moskal.
You can also hear Jed Anderson in the voices of Dennis Thomas Fingerling, Reggie and many of the other silly characters you hear on our show.
Jessica Bode keeps our facts straight as our fact checker.
Steph Sosa keeps our heads on straight as our executive producer.
And Meredith Halpern-Ranzer powers the wow at Tinkercast.
Our theme song was composed and performed by three-time Grammy nominees, the Pop-Ups.
Find them at thepopups.com.
Special thanks to our team, including Kristen Yang Thuy Mac, Ali Paksima, Linda Rothenberg and Anna Zagorski, and all of the other Tinkerers at Tinkercast HQ.
Grownups, you can follow Wow in the World on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter at Wow in the World.
And our email address is hello at Tinkercast.com.
Thanks for listening.
Find episodes of Wow in the World every Monday to What's in a Wow every Friday, right here and on YouTube.
And don't forget, we wow on the weekends with Dennis every Saturday and Sunday right here in the Wow in the World podcast feed.
Until then, keep on.
Wow in the World was made by Tinkercast.
