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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!
Guy Raz, hurry.
Mindy's selling cheesecakes out of her ice cream truck and I need money.
Dennis, I'm not giving you money.
Cheesecake, get your cheesecake.
Please, trick or treat.
It's July.
Cheesecake, fresh and fruity, no couch mold or pocket dirt.
Come on, Guy Raz.
I'm just a poor, poor boy with an empty coin satchel.
What?
A pittance, please.
$1.
It didn't sky-ros.
If I give you a dollar, will you just leave me alone?
Uh, let's make it 20.
Here's five dollars.
Now, please go away.
Hooray!
A reward for my bad behavior.
Come one, come all for the best cheesecake deals on four wheels.
Ah!
Well, I guess that's three wheels now.
Man.
Oh, good.
She stopped.
Oh boy.
Mindy, it's me, Dennis, a customer.
Hello, sir.
Can I interest you in one of my fine cheesecakes today?
Yes, thank you.
Mindy, what have you done with your ice cream truck?
Oh, it's not an ice cream truck, sir.
Sir?
Just read the sign on the side here.
I break for cheesecake?
Keep reading.
But if you're the police, I also break for stop signs, kittens and red lights and green lights and yellow lights and all the lights, just to be safe.
Oh, that's a great name.
Yeah, I thought so, too.
Mindy, what are you doing?
What does it look like I'm doing, Guy Raz?
I'm trying to make a buck.
Care for a slice of cheesecake?
Did somebody say cheesesteak?
Grandma!
I want one cheesesteak, well done, floppy bun, one wish.
No, no, Grandma G-Force, Mindy's selling cheesecakes, not cheesesteaks.
Yeah, I know.
Ooh, cheesesteaks.
Can I have a bite of yours, G-Force?
You can have it after I'm done chewing it up first, Fingerling.
Ah, but you always hog all the flavor.
Ooh!
Sorry, everyone.
No cheesesteaks for sale.
At least not yet.
So far, I'm only able to print cheesecakes.
Wait.
Did you say print cheesecakes?
Oh, yeah.
In my 3D, easy-bake, print-a-cake oven.
I built it myself.
Oh, wow.
You want to see it?
Sure.
Reggie!
Sorry.
Will you bring the printer up to the window, please?
Wait till you see this.
What in the... Oh, sorry, Reg.
I know it's heavy.
Here, let me take it off your waist here and... There we go.
Oh, my.
What is it?
Looks to be a sophisticated piece of machinery covered in rust.
Never mind the rusty exterior.
It's what's inside that counts.
Is it more rust?
No.
Wait a minute, Mindy.
Yeah?
Did you get this idea from those mechanical engineers at New York's Columbia University?
You know, the ones who published a new study on 3D printed food in the Journal Science of Food?
Wait, you read that study too, Guyron?
Reddit?
I devoured it.
Sometimes I like to eat paper, too.
That's not what I... Never mind.
The answer is yes, Sky Roz.
I read about this bonker ball's breakthrough in 3D food printing technology and immediately went to my laboratory of bad ideas to build a 3D food printer of my own.
Wow, that's great.
It looks like... Wait, is that my printer, Mindy?
And what's that welded on the side there?
What the... That's my toaster!
Surprise!
Mindy!
Ooh, drama!
Don't worry, Guy Raz.
I'm going to put your printer and toaster all back together the way I found them.
I just had to borrow them.
Borrow them?
For science!
Guy Raz, you love science!
And I love cheesecake!
Now, Mindy.
What can I get for five Rozzy bucks?
Well, that should be enough to get each one of you a slice of the seven-story gingerbread mansion special.
Mindy, by seven stories, do you mean seven layers?
Yeah, but each layer is eight feet tall, so you can basically live in it.
That's a lot of cheesecake, Mindy.
Uh-huh.
Question.
Yes, Grandma G-Force?
Go back to the beginning.
I'm sorry, the beginning?
She uh wants you to go back to the part about how, in the world wide web, you're making a cake with a printer toaster.
Oh well uh, technically I'm 3D printing cake in my easy bake printer cake oven.
But You know what, Mindy?
It occurred to me that not everyone here has heard of 3D printing.
Wait, is that true?
Yeah, that sounds just about right.
Does anyone know what 3D or three-dimensional means?
I don't even know what language you're talking.
Okay, well, to start, a 3D or three-dimensional object is something that has three dimensions.
So take Mindy's ice cream truck, for example.
It has width from end to end, it has height from top to bottom and length or depth from front to back.
Wow, I never knew her truck had so much depth.
Now, So my actual ice cream truck is an example of a 3D object.
But to give you an example of a two-dimensional or 2D object, I am just going to draw a picture of my ice cream truck on Guy Raz's forehead like this
What?
Okay, let me just see here.
Stop wiggling.
I'm trying to draw.
Please.
Is this permanent?
There.
Now.
As you can see, this ice cream truck drawing only has two dimensions, width and height.
Huh.
Neat.
Mindy, did you really need to draw an ice cream truck on my forehead?
Can someone please get me a napkin?
Okay, Roz, you can just lick it off your forehead.
It's edible ink.
The point is, if what you're looking at is flat, then it's got two dimensions, or 2D.
And if it's not, It's got three dimensions or 3D.
Okay, time for cake.
Yeah, we want cake.
Not quite yet.
Let's talk 3D versus 2D when it comes to printing.
Okay, fine.
Let's hear it.
Now, before I improved Guy Raz's printer, it only printed two-dimensionally on paper, like his tax forms here.
See?
No depth.
You have my tax forms?
But...
What if I printed a whole stack of 1,000 tax forms?
Yahoo!
Then the tax forms would have width, height, and length, making it a 3D tower of tax forms.
I do not like the taste of tax forms.
Me neither.
I got a texture thing with paper food.
Huh.
What if we wrap the tax forms in bacon?
Hmm?
Oh, well, I like that.
Okay, let's keep it going here, Mindy.
All right, now, let's talk about 3D printing.
3D printing has been used to make everything from toys to musical instruments to cars.
Really?
And it does this by printing layer on top of layer, on top of layer of materials like plastic and metal.
Huh.
And as those thin layers build on top of each other, a three-dimensional object begins to form.
Wow!
Sounds very nice and fancy.
And once we discovered that this could be done with materials like plastics and metals well, scientists started to wonder if they would be able to do it with food.
Oh!
A food printer.
You don't say.
Food printing technology has actually been around for almost 20 years.
But up until now, it's been super gross and no one has wanted to eat it.
In other words, it was limited to a small number of uncooked ingredients and was generally not very tasty.
But fast forward to today and you'll see that food printing technology has come a long way.
I wanna get off this carousel of progress.
Which brings us to a new study from a group of mechanical engineers at Columbia University.
This group of mechanical engineers was led by food robotics engineer Jonathan Blutinger.
What?
Robot food?
Uh... Robots don't need food.
No, Tommy, she said food robotics, not robot food.
Oh.
Now, Dr. Blutinger and his team set out to create the first ever 3D printed cheesecake.
And I'm setting out to create the first ever, second ever, 3D printed cheesecake by copying what they did and adding my own twist.
Ooh, copying the smart kids' homework.
Nice.
This was the first time the food was assembled and cooked by the 3D printer.
In the olden days of food printing technology, a food had to be cooked or fried separately before it could be eaten.
And now?
It's a one-stop shop.
Wow.
How does it work, Mindy?
Well, I could tell you.
Yes?
But I'd rather show you.
Oh, Mindy, you rascal.
Guy Raz, would you care to join me in the truck here to serve as my sous-chefing assistant?
Are you sure there's room for me in there, Mindy?
I mean Reggie's taking up a lot of space and I'm a little worried another one of your wheels is going to fall off and
Okay, okay, I'm coming.
Now, Reggie, would you do me the honor of plugging in my 3D Easy Bake Print-A-Cake Oven?
It's fine.
It does that all the time.
It definitely should not do that.
When Dr Blutenger and his team tried this in their lab, they gathered seven key ingredients in the form of edible inks.
Like the one you use to tattoo an ice cream truck on Garage's forehead?
Okay, once again, my name is not Garage.
It's Guy Raz and... Yes, exactly.
So, Mindy...
What were the seven ingredients?
Oh, great question, Dennis.
Uh Kairos, when I list the ingredients, take their ink cartridge out of the printer and squeeze it to demonstrate okay.
Oh, uh, okay.
So the seven ingredients that were used for this experiment were Graham crackers.
Okay uh, let's see here.
Uh, graham crackers... Peanut butter... Peanut butter... Nutella...
This one here.
Mashed bananas.
Strawberry jelly, frosting, and cherry drizzle.
And I've added one secret ingredient.
What's the secret ingredient, Guy Raz?
Let's see here.
The cartridge just says secret ingredient.
I'll never tell.
Oh, rats. ingredient is shrimps.
Shrimps?
Wait, wait, wait.
So you mean to tell me that those engineers from Columbia University filled ink cartridges up with ingredients and they printed food?
Just like that?
Well, sort of.
Oh, okay.
Uh, I think I can help explain this, Mindy.
You see, first of all, the engineers made a special printer, not a modified paper printer stolen from my house.
Hey!
But In many ways, it worked just the same.
The edible ink cartridges were full of the soft squeezable ingredients, although some of the ingredients were more squeezable than others.
Yeah, the Nutella, peanut butter and strawberry jam were already pretty smooth, but the graham crackers had to be crushed up and made all squishy and soggy with water.
Oh, I don't like that.
Hmm?
The next thing these engineers did was to create a computer model of the cheesecake they were trying to create.
Um, oh, Mindy, do you mind if I pull up your cheesecake model on the computer here?
Oh, sure.
Huh?
You got a cheesecake model standing right in front of you, boy.
I'm talking about me.
You're not a cheesecake.
Anywho, the computer model of the cheesecake held the instructions for the printer, like the size and shape of the cheesecake and the order of the layers.
That's right.
And once they had the instructions and a Printer loaded with the edible ink, they got to work.
Using different combinations of the seven ingredients we mentioned, they set out to create the perfect slice of cheesecake.
But it wasn't easy.
Well, they should have used the 3D Easy Bank Printed Cake Oven.
Right, Mindy?
That's right, Dennis.
Right.
Now, one of the biggest challenges the engineers faced was getting the shape of the cheesecake just right.
Because the engineers quickly found that some of the ingredients were not very sturdy.
Ew!
Nobody likes a floppy cheesecake.
Or a leaky cheesecake.
I'm not even sure I like cheesecake anymore.
Anywho, in order to print a cheesecake that wouldn't fall apart, the team experimented with the order of the layers.
They wanted to see which combination would be best.
Oh, like graham cracker, then Nutella, then mashed bananas, then peanut butter?
Right.
Or Nutella, then Nutella, then strawberry jam, then more Nutella.
Ish.
And after eight different failed experiments, the researchers discovered that the winning combo involved using the sturdier ingredients, like the graham crackers, Nutella and peanut butter, to support the softer ingredients, like banana puree and strawberry jam.
Oh, I see.
Oh, wow.
And as they alternated the layers, they held it all together with a sort of graham cracker paste.
Mmm, paste.
Now I'm hungry.
Okay, are we done talking about this?
When are we going to get to the showing part?
Uh, well, how about right now?
Guy Raz, would you please hit the print button for us here?
Okay, on the count of three.
One, two, three!
So fancy.
See?
My printer is printing layers of Crab Cracker and Nutella and peanut butter.
Oh, I see.
And it's alternating those layers with layers of banana puree and strawberry jam.
Wow.
Neat.
Give me that.
I want to eat it now.
No, no, Grandma G-Force, it hasn't been cooked yet.
Well, I like my steak raw.
Oh, okay, again, it's cake, not steak.
And second of all, Guy Raz is right.
It still has to be cooked.
How do we cook it, Mindy?
Uh, Guy Raz, do you see the button for the laser?
The laser?
Uh, let's see.
Oh, is it this button shaped like a cat with lasers shooting out of its eyes?
Laser cat!
Yep, that's the one.
The engineers from Columbia University also used a laser, but the button for mine is way cooler.
I'll say.
OK, laser-eyed cat face.
Do your thing.
It took the researchers 30 minutes to cook their cheesecake, but I modified my laser cooker with the guts out of Guy Raz's microwave to make mine faster.
You what?
Sorry, Guy Raz, but I'd already used the guts out of my microwave for my reverse freezer oven.
It's done!
Mandy, I thought this was gonna be a seven-story cheesecake.
Yeah, this one looks teeny tiny.
I could eat it in one bite.
I can't even fit inside that cake.
Yeah!
Oh, it's a seven-story cake, all right.
It's just that this 3D, easy-bake, print-a-cake oven Also has a shrink wand built in.
All right, that makes sense.
What will they think of next?
Okay, Mindy, now make mine.
What do you mean, make yours?
Well, I have lots of dietary restrictions.
I need a cheesecake with no peanut butter or Nutella.
Oh, uh, do you have a nut allergy, Dennis?
No, I just don't like them.
I also don't like bananas or graham cracker mush.
Ugh.
Tennis?
It's okay, Guy Raz.
See, the researchers actually think that this technology could be useful in making foods for people with special dietary needs.
Really?
Yeah.
Even though this particular experiment was dessert-based, they believe that food printers like my 3D Easy Bake Print-A-Cake oven here could be suitable for making healthier foods.
Foods using plant-based meat products and meals requiring careful preparation because of food allergies.
Wow.
I know.
You know what else we could do with this thing?
What?
The Great Robot Bake Off.
What?
Great Robot Bake Off.
It's a new TV show I just invented.
Oh, yeah.
A show where robot bakers compete in a series of baking trials to find out which robot baker is the best robot baker of them all.
It's amazing.
Is it, though?
I'm going to go get my camera.
Oh, boy.
And I'm going to go build four more 3-D, easy-bake, print-a-cake oven competitors.
And I'm going to go set up a giant tent in Garage's vegetable garden.
What?
No.
Heck, I'll be in the judge.
Meet you back here in five.
Wow in the World will be right back.
Grown-ups.
This message is for you, grown-ups.
It's mindy and guy ross 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 wowser learn about their world through play plus can hear exclusive audio content from me and Guy Raz to help your wowzer discover even more wows.
Grown-ups, 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 tinkercastcom slash toys.
That's tinkercastcom slash toys from Ithaca, New York.
And my world is that beavers don't actually live in dams.
They actually live in waters that they often have to swim underwater to enter.
Say hi to Thomas Fingerling, Grandma Geforce, and Reggie for me.
Hi, Mindy and Guywad.
My name's Octavia.
Greenbergs can fly backward.
Say hi to Reggie and Grandma G first for me.
Oh, isn't that nice?
Bye.
Hi.
My name is Benji, and I live in Barrington, Rhode Island.
My wow in the world is that astronauts can make nutritional yeast out of their breath.
Bye.
Love your show.
My name is William, from Ohio, and my wow in the world is that some Category 5 hurricanes can spin up to 185 miles per hour.
Say hi to Reggie, the annoying dentist, Thomas Fingerling, and Grandma G-Force.
Oh, yeah.
Bye.
Hi, my name is Ruth, and I live in Fountain Hills, Arizona.
My wow in the world is that watermelon consists of 92% water.
The world weighs more than all the people on Earth.
Hello, my name is Eden Barnett.
I live in Aquas Georgia, and my wow is that the fastest ant in the world is the silver ant that lives in the desert.
Hi, this is Ellie from Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and my wow in the world is that most meteors are small enough to fit in your hand.
Wow in the World is written by Mindy Thomas and Tom Van Kalken with help from me, Guy Raz.
Original sound design and music editing is done by our supervising producer, Jed Anderson and Tyler Thull.
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 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 Steph Sosa, Henry Moskal, Ruth Morrison, Rebecca Caban, Kit Ballinger, Sana Ali-Mohamed, Anna Zagorski and all of the other tinkerers at Tinkercast HQ.
To keep the wows rolling, visit us at Tinkercast.com.
There you can learn more about becoming an official member of the World Organization of Wowsers, learn about upcoming events, shop our wow shop, find our best-selling books and learn about all of our other amazing podcasts from Tinkercast.
Grown-ups.
You can follow Wow in the World on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter at, And our email address is hello at, tinkercastcom.
And if you're a kid with a big wow to share with us, call us at 1-888-7-WOW-WOW for a chance to be featured at the end of our show or an upcoming episode of Two What's and a Wow.
Thanks again for listening.
And until next time, be fun wowing.
The world was made by Tinkercast and sent to you by Wondery.
