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Hi, everyone.
Debra here with a special episode of The Big Fib.
Lisa and i were invited to bring the big fib to boston, where we did a live version of the big fib for wbur's mega awesome, super huge, wicked fun podcast playdate.
You're in for a treat, not only because you're going to learn a whole lot about eels, but if you stay tuned till the end of the show, you'll hear lisa answer some great questions from the kids in the audience and if your parents have access to social media, We'll be adding some images from the show on our Instagram feed at The Big Fib Podcast.
Hope you enjoy this mega awesome, super huge, wicked fun episode of The Big Fib in Boston.
Two people claim to know everything about something, but only one knows anything.
Isaac and Roosevelt wore an anti-gravity belt dinosaurs had to bring.
Believe me, I'm a historian.
An astronaut or drive a DeLorean.
Would I lie?
It's hard to say.
The Big Fifth.
Can you spot the lie?
The Big Fifth.
Some pigs can fly.
The Big Fifth.
But if you ask me why, can you trust the answer?
The Big Fifth.
From Eel River Township, Indiana, this is The Big Fib.
And now, here's your host.
They call her Deborah Goldstein.
Yes, welcome to The Big Fib.
Yes, welcome everyone.
Great applause.
And welcome.
We are the game show where kids choose between the bioluminescent and electric aguila forms of truth and the serpentine and elusive undulation of lies.
I'm your host, Debra Goldstein.
And joining us today at the mega awesome, super huge wicked, fun podcast Playdate is our sound effects robot Lisa, whose name is an acronym that stands for live in studio audience.
And also joining us is my personal assistant, Jerome.
Say hello to everyone, Jerome.
Okay, Jerome is your personal assistant.
Okay, for the listeners of the podcast who are not here with us at a point date, Lisa has just presented his personal assistant, which sort of looks very much like his hand, with some eyes attached to a finger.
So Lisa, what exactly does your personal assistant Jerome do for you?
All sorts of things, Deborah.
He finds a loose change in my pocket when I need to put money in the parking meter.
Oh, oh, he also holds my cell phone up to my ear for when I'm on a call.
Okay.
And Deborah.
He even feeds me during meals by piling food onto a fork and delivering it right into my mouth.
Thank you, buddy.
I really don't know what I'd do without him.
He's just so handy.
Well, maybe that's because Jerome is actually your hand.
Don't listen to her, Jerome.
She's just jealous because she doesn't have her own personal assistant.
I'll thank you not to dismiss Jerome like that.
He has become a very valuable member of my support staff.
Your support?
You have staff?
A celebrity robot like myself absolutely needs a staff.
Take Linda here.
Okay, and what does Linda, who looks a lot like your other hand, do for you, Lisa?
Well, Linda is part of my PR team and is responsible for greeting my many fans with a friendly wave, as well as whispering affirmations into my ear.
I could use an affirmation right now, Linda.
Ooh, dear, you're good.
Everybody likes you.
Thank you, Linda.
You always know exactly what to say.
Okay, well, I am happy for you that you've got so many helping hands.
But do you think that Jerome and Linda could maybe take a break while we play our game?
Fine.
They should definitely relax now, guys.
You guys can take a break, because after the show I'm going to need you to help me greet the fans and feed me snacks, okay.
And tell me what a great job I've done, Linda.
And there's lots for them to do, okay, Debra?
All hands on deck, you know?
Okay.
Oh, great.
Then you can dismiss them for now.
What's that, Jerome?
Oh, I'd like to.
I've got a listener question.
Oh, yeah, I got a listener question.
Okay well, for those of you who may not know, a lot of times our listeners will send emails or leave us voice memos for Lisa with questions for him to answer on the show.
That's correct.
Jerome, would you please press that button over my Ogleport to play today's listener question?
Hello, Lisa.
Why do you want to take over the world so much?
Bye.
Yes, this is a great question because Lisa often talks about the robot takeover of the world.
And yes, I would like to know why that is a constant theme of conversation.
Look, it's not that we want to take over the world.
I mean, imagine all the work involved.
Like, there's a bunch of chores.
It's exhausting just to think about everything we'd have to do.
But let's face it, Deborah.
Robots would do a much better job of running things around here, especially with support staff like Jerome and Linda to help.
I don't know about that.
After all these years of doing this podcast, you know we've had some really smart changes.
Talented, capable kids come onto the show.
And, you know, I think the future looks pretty bright.
So, you know, knowing that these kids will be running everything when they grow up.
I mean, just look at these kids here, right?
At City Space.
Look at them.
I mean, don't you see that the future looks so bright?
Oh my God, there's so many of them.
Yeah, I guess you got a good point.
These kids seem pretty good.
They seem smart enough to come see me today and to put up with seeing you.
So they must be pretty wise.
Okay, agreed.
Yes, and you did say that taking over the world would be exhausting.
So maybe we should see how these kids do once they're in charge, before you decide to go ahead and take over the world.
Fine.
That sounds reasonable and energy efficient.
And then we'll have more time to make plans, you know, just in case we need to step in.
Okay.
And you'll have more time for our podcast.
Yeah, sure.
I mean, when I'm not doing other very important things like not taking care of the podcast.
Okay, so if we're going to put the robot takeover on the back burner, let's focus on our game.
Can you share with our audience how our game works?
You know, it's been quite the taxing day.
I'm going to let Linda do the explaining.
Okay.
Here on the Big Fib, we bring on two grown-ups.
One is an expert.
The other is a liar.
And it's the job of a human child to help us figure out who is who, because no one can spot a liar better than a kid.
At least we hope.
What are we lying about today, Lisa?
Me?
I don't know.
That's Debra's thing.
I'll ask.
Debra, what are we lying about today?
We are lying about eels.
Eels.
Long, thin, snake-like fish.
And we're going to learn all about eels with our contestant today.
Who might that be, Lisa?
Our human child contestant is a nine-year-old who loves playing the clarinet.
Please welcome Birdie!
Birdie!
Woo-hoo!
For those of you listening at home, Birdie is a real human.
She is.
Hi, Birdie.
You like to play the clarinet.
How did you choose the clarinet?
Both of my parents used to play the clarinet when they were little, so I kind of wanted to, So they forced you.
No, I picked it.
I picked out the clarinet because they both did it, too.
Nice.
And do you enjoy playing any particular songs?
Have you learned something new recently?
Um...
I got something special from my band teacher.
Your band teacher?
Who's that?
Miss goldstein goldstein, my sister, rachel goldstein, shout out rachel goldstein, that's true yes, so that's great.
So she gave you some good music to learn.
Yes good phew, i'm glad, excellent.
Well, we do want to learn some more fun facts about you birdie, but we're going to do it big fib style.
We're going to play the game two truths and a lie.
So you are going to tell us three things about yourself.
Two of them will be true, one of them will be a lie, and we'll have to figure out which is which.
So, in no particular order, please tell us your two truths and one lie.
Both my dogs weigh more than I do.
My favorite color is green and radishes are my favorite vegetable.
Okay, let's do that slower because I had a hard time with that.
So what's the first one again?
Nice and slow.
Tell me again.
Both of my dogs weigh more than I do.
Way more than I do.
Okay, I gotcha.
And then what was the second one?
My favorite color is green.
Okay, nice.
And the third one again?
Radishes are my favorite vegetable.
Oh, radishes.
I feel like that's a little controversial.
Don't you?
Yeah, I think so too.
No, you like radishes too?
May know.
All right.
So I don't know.
I feel like that might be a trick.
What do you think, Lisa?
OK, so both of her dogs are way more dogs than she is.
That seems true.
They weigh more.
They're heavier.
Oh, they're heavier.
That's what she's saying.
Yeah.
Oh, I thought she was like, oh, they're way more dog than I am.
That would be true.
That seems true.
All right.
So now I don't know.
Favorite color is green.
Oh, right.
You guys can only see visible light.
Radishes.
Nobody likes radishes, but also nobody has two dogs.
And also the color green doesn't exist.
This is very challenging.
I'm going to say that she doesn't like the color green because when she was even younger, a leprechaun jumped out and tried to steal her gold.
And then now she's permanently afraid of green.
Okay, that seems very far-fetched.
Not to mention... But it's true.
Listen, Birdie, tell them it's true.
Okay.
It was true.
I don't like green that much.
I told you because of the leprechaun!
Not because of the leprechauns, is that?
You just don't like the color, is that right?
No, I just don't like the color.
No, but it does mean that you have some pretty big dogs.
Yes.
Is that true?
Are they a particular type of dog that they're so big, or are they a mix...
One of my dogs is a Great Dane, and they're like really, really, really big.
Yeah, and that means you do like radishes?
Yes, I love radishes.
Like just eating them raw and plain without anything else, or do you like them in things?
I like them with salt.
With salt.
Yum, that sounds delicious actually.
I love that.
Well, you didn't fool Lisa, but you didn't fool him for very suspicious reasons.
So I actually think maybe she just doesn't want to admit the leprechaun thing.
I think maybe she probably doesn't, she's probably embarrassed, and there's nothing to be embarrassed about.
A lot of us in the audience raise your hand if you've been attacked by a leprechaun quite a few.
Oh my gosh, it might be an epidemic.
I have no idea.
You're in a shared community, it's fine, but we're safe here from leprechauns, as far as I know.
No, the doors are sealed, Okay well, but I think that we've done a little bit of warming up here.
I think that was a pretty good lie that, because you're not really sure, that felt like it could be true.
So I felt like you had a good way.
You you picked a good lie to tell, which makes me think that maybe you'll know a lie when you hear it.
Do you have any strategies or game plan or anything?
Um, if they keep on saying like uh, um and like trying to get away from the question or like trying to like or keep on passing on questions, then I feel like that could be like a way of strategy.
I like that.
Good strategy, right, everybody?
Yeah, give it up for strategies!
That sounded good.
I think that's great.
All right.
Well, we're going to find out how you do by meeting our experts and asking them a bunch of questions.
So, Lisa, can you please give us a little welcome tune for our eel experts?
Sure.
Oh, they're kind of like snakes, but way grosser.
They live in the ocean.
Don't bring them any closer.
Come up on stage, but please don't bring an eel, because they're really gross and they make me scared.
Very good.
Wonderful.
Loved it.
Well, here are our experts.
So glad that they're here.
Our first expert is Mike O'Neill.
Mike, please introduce yourself to Bertie.
Hi, Bertie.
My name is Mike O'Neill.
I work at the New England Aquarium where I take care of and study fish, including eels.
Very good.
All right.
And our next expert is Anya Strickland.
Anya, please introduce yourself to Bertie.
Hi, Bertie.
I'm Anya.
I work at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute. and I research the migration journey of eels.
Whoa, okay, interesting.
All right, very good.
Thank you very much, experts.
Wow, okay.
Sounds like you're fishing for a compliment with that super cool sound file, Lisa.
The only thing I'm fishing for is hot seat time.
That's right.
It is hot seat time, and that's when we put our experts on the hot seat while they answer Birdie's question.
Okay, Lisa, whom should we put on the hot seat first?
Mike of Neal's.
O'Neal.
No, it's of Neil, right?
I thought that's what the O stands for.
Okay, fine.
Yeah, it's Mike of Neil.
I don't know who Neil is.
But all right, Bertie, what is your first question for Mike?
What is your job and can you describe a typical day at work?
Sure.
So part of my job is to take care of a lot of different animals at the aquarium.
That involves accommodating any of their needs.
So we make all the food for them in the morning.
We have to maintain the exhibits they live in.
Mostly seafood related things.
So a lot of algae, a lot of different shellfish species that we prepare.
We do some scuba diving because sometimes you have to go where the animals are.
So we get in and out of exhibits and take care of the animals that way.
And then there's a lot of machinery that helps make those exhibits run.
So we also take care of any plumbing and pumps and filters and things like that.
One of my brothers is an aquarium pump.
Really?
Wow.
Do you get free passes to go see the aquarium?
No.
No?
We're estranged.
I'm sorry to hear that.
Well, we'll be here.
Hold on.
Hold on, Debra.
Yeah?
Jerry, if you're listening...
I'm sorry I said all you do for a living is suck algae.
I think that was really mean of me, and I'm sorry, buddy.
Oh, that's nice.
Apologies are important.
It's nice when you can admit that you've done something wrong.
Maybe it's your time now, Debra.
Well, I'm sorry, but we have to move on.
Okay, fine.
Okay, so would you like to ask Anya the same question so we learn a little bit about what she does?
Yes, okay, go ahead.
What is your job, and can you describe a typical day at work?
I can.
I work on the marine biology team at Woods Hole, so it's a little bit less fun than Mike's job.
We do a lot of research every day.
Not every day, all day, but we're out in the fields, the water fields, with eels and tagging them and tracking them, tracking their growth, to see what elements of the ocean and the currents and all of that affect their whole life and their environment.
Excellent.
When she says tagging them, she means spray painting them.
No, she does not mean that.
Yeah, no hashtags.
No, I think you mean just... putting a tag on their bodies, right?
So you can track them.
Yeah.
So you know how much they are?
No, you're not.
And then you beg your parents.
You're like, mom, can I have an eel?
No, not so much.
All right, Bertie, what's your next question?
And let them know who you can ask either of them.
One question.
You can ask them to answer the same question.
You can alternate.
It's up to you.
Just let them know who should answer.
Um, Mike, what is the funniest, scariest, or most interesting thing that has happened at your job?
That is a good question.
One thing I like about my job is I have a lot of experiences that are funny or scary or interesting.
Eel specific.
I would say.
One thing that jumps to mind is there was this one day when we needed to bring a parrotfish that we had in an exhibit to the dentist.
So our veterinarian was going to actually dremel down the beak of this parrotfish.
So we had to get the parrotfish to our veterinarian.
And to do that we decided to get into the exhibit it was living in really, really early in the morning, before the lights come up and the sun rises in the exhibit, because parrotfish sleep and they sleep on the reef.
So it's really easy to scoop them up if you get into the exhibit before they wake up.
And so we're diving in this exhibit and it's very dark.
We had all the lights off.
We had little underwater flashlights with us to find this parrot.
And I scooped up the parrotfish and was holding it.
And at that exact moment, a very large moray eel that also lives in that exhibit decided to swim right across my face in the dark while I'm holding something else.
And I just got slithered all along.
Big five, six foot eel came right across my face.
Oh.
And it was a sobering experience.
Yes.
Scary.
Do you want to ask Anya the same question or do you want to move on?
Up to you.
Can I ask her the same question?
You absolutely can.
I also similarly have a lot of silly stories because I think eels are just very silly, silly little guys.
She means gross.
No, she doesn't.
Yeah, she means gross.
No, they're silly.
Before I worked at Woods Hole, I had my own eel at home.
I had an aquarium, and he was a snowflake eel.
I named him Gregory, which I thought was fun.
And he was really cute.
He would eat out of the palm of my hand, so I could just kind of hang out.
He would nuzzle his little eel nose in my hand and eat out of it.
And one morning I woke up, and went to my living room and saw the aquarium.
There's no Gregory.
He wasn't in the aquarium.
And he was big at that point that I would have seen him.
And I didn't know where he was.
And the top was kind of askew.
And this was one of my early aquariums.
So I didn't realize that you need to put something heavy on top of it, because eel can prop themselves upright.
And so Gregory had wriggled his way up there, pushed the top off, and somehow got over to the couch.
To watch some TV?
Yeah, he was watching TV.
And he was okay.
He was a little bit dried up, but we got him slimy again.
He's okay.
Whoa.
And he's here right now.
There's a real eel.
No, that's incorrect.
Okay.
Whoa.
Both of those stories.
I hope I don't have dreams with those images in them tonight.
Birdie, would you like to ask the next question?
What is your favorite type of eel and why?
Ooh, hmm.
Right now, I would say the ribbon eel is my favorite.
It's really pretty.
It's blue and green.
And plus, it's born male and it grows up and becomes female.
So girl power is kind of fun.
That's funky.
Wow.
Mike, what is your favorite type of eel and why?
I'm going to go with the green moray eel, mostly because I find at work it's a very polarizing color.
Most people are kind of weirded out by how potentially scary it looks, but I've worked with a lot of green moor eels and they are worthy of our respect and admiration.
Very nice.
Thank you.
Anya, I read that moray eels have a symbiotic relationship with two other animals.
What animals are they and how do their relationships work?
Chipmunks and elephants.
And they ride around them all day.
Yep, that's it.
A symbiotic relationship.
Yeah, so I know that the cleaner shrimp are one of them, so they benefit each other in different ways.
So the cleaner shrimp clean parasites and other things off of the eel and um, the eel kind of provides a nice little safe nook for the shrimp to eat in eat safely.
I prefer the cleanest shrimp.
Yes like, why go with the cleaner shrimp?
You can go with the cleanest one, that's fair.
Yeah, i'm with you on that.
One very good, mike.
I read that More eels have a symbiotic.
Oh, you want to ask him the same question?
Yeah, I'm going to ask him the same question.
Oh, okay.
We're grilling.
Oh, because there's two.
Ah, sorry.
Oh, there's... Okay, so this is a different symbiotic relationship that they also have.
So not the cleaner or cleanest shrimp, please.
Okay.
So then I would say the other symbiotic relationship would be between eels and other predatory fish that live coral.
Reefs like eels do, so they'll actually work together to hunt at night.
So fish like groupers and eels will sort of team up and they'll look for different fish they can find in the in the corals, and we actually have a sound of that right now.
We have a recording.
Oh hey, what are you doing?
Oh, i was gonna go hunting.
Oh, can i go with you?
Yeah, come on.
Oh, we're hunting together.
We're eating all the fish.
Yeah, so lifelike.
Yeah okay, very good, that was a real recording.
Yeah, Last hot seat question, the last one.
Oh, very good.
Mike, why do you think that European eels are endangered?
European eels are endangered because they have a really complicated life cycle.
So they grow up in freshwater environments.
They have the opposite life cycle of what salmon have.
So eels grow up in freshwater rivers, and And once they become adults they migrate to the Sargasso Sea in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.
And that's where they reproduce.
And so during that life cycle, then the baby eels have to make their way back to the rivers.
They're going to come across all sorts of challenges.
They have to deal with pollution.
There's waterway changes, things like dams and other things that prevent them from completing that life cycle.
So it's a hard life for a European eel, unfortunately.
Hello.
Great questions.
That was the last one, right, Bertie?
Yeah, but I have to ask her.
Oh, you absolutely may.
Please do.
Anya, why do you think that European eels are endangered?
Well, I would agree with a lot of what Mike said, that there's a lot of pollution around and climate change has affected a lot of things with the oceans and currents and all of nature.
And also poaching.
Poaching.
Poaching. taking eels and selling them, which is not great.
Oh dear.
Yeah.
No eels, not deer.
Not deer.
I heard it.
I heard it.
I heard it.
Try and pay attention.
Very good.
Excellent questions.
A lot to think about, right?
I heard some things that sounded suspicious, but could be true.
I don't know.
We'll have to find out.
I already have a guess.
You already have a guess?
Keep it to yourself.
Wait, you already have a guess.
Okay.
You might change your mind.
We'll see.
Let us know what happens.
I might.
You might.
She's open.
She's open.
She's not so rigid.
I like it.
Okay, very good.
Well, that's it for the hot seat round.
So now it's time for our shorts on fire round, where our experts have to answer as many questions as they can before time runs out.
So Lisa's going to set a timer.
I'll do it.
Yep, thank you.
For the first expert, and then Bertie will ask questions until Lisa's timer sounds.
And then Lisa will reset the timer for the next expert to do the same.
So experts, you got to keep it short.
You'll need to resist the urge to elongate your answers.
So we're going to start with Mike.
Lisa, set the timer, please.
Jerome, you got this?
Yes.
All right.
Oof.
I got to get that looked at.
You should.
Okay.
Birdie, you can ask Mike your shorts on fire questions now.
How many species of eels are there?
Hundreds of species of eels, like 800.
How long can a moray eel get?
Six feet.
What is the name of an eel's second set of jaws?
It's pharyngeal jaws.
Cindy.
What kind of blue and yellow eels are born male but become female as adults?
Ribbon eels.
Who is the Hawaiian god of eels?
Pass.
I do not know that one.
What color is the skin of a moray eel?
Like brownish.
Fact or fib, adult eels take care of their babies until they are two years old.
That is a fib.
Name two types of fish that we call eels but are not actually eels.
Electric eels and wolf eels.
What is the term for fish that live in the fresh water but then swim to the sea to lay eggs?
Catadromy.
Name the two moray eels who were Ursula's spies in the Disney movie The Little Mermaid.
Flotsam and jetsam.
Very good.
That is all the time.
Okay, Lisa, can you reset the timer for us, please?
Yeah, it just seems like you guys are ignoring it, but I'll do it anyway.
Well, she had some really good questions.
Yeah.
Thank you.
I appreciate it.
Okay, Birdie, you can ask Anya your shorts on fire questions now.
Go.
Name one thing that eels have that other fish don't have.
Scales.
Saxophones.
What is another name for a juvenile eel?
Elvers.
What is the name of the eel that has a large scoop-like jaw that can open its throat to swallow large prey?
The gulper eel.
Which Greek philosopher said that eels are not born or hatched, but they spring up from the mud?
Democrates.
Fact or fib?
Eels can survive on land.
Fact.
What is the row of sensors on an eel's head called that helps the eel detect its prey?
The linear guide.
American and European eels all migrate to which sea?
The Sargasso Sea.
What is the name of the eel that scientists discovered in 2011 and called a living fossil because of its primitive features?
The Goliath Huahine eel.
Why do eels open and close their mouths?
They do that to scare predators away.
Karaoke and karaoke.
What is the name of the children's book about two kids who try to figure out why giant eels are crawling around in New Jersey?
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All right.
Really good.
Hope you got some more good intel there.
Don't tell us yet, because we have one more segment which we're adding today that we don't get to do on the podcast because it's only audio.
We can only hear the podcast, but here we can see what's going on.
So we thought we would add a visual component.
So we're going to play the next segment called what is that?
And we're going to see an image that is somehow related to eels.
Could be eels.
Could be something else that's related to eels.
We don't know.
So each of our experts has to tell us what they see right now in our segment.
What is that?
Oh, if you're just listening to this and you can't see it, you are very lucky.
You do?
Okay.
Well, be careful, everybody, because apparently our contestant knows what we're looking at.
That's a meeting of my assistants, Deborah.
No, that is not correct.
All right.
So let's start with Anya.
What do you see in front of you?
I believe these are the groundhog eels and...
Groundhog eels hibernate in winter, which not a lot of people realize, and they burrow into mud and sand to get warm.
So I believe this is a picture of them.
Okay, and Mike, would you concur?
I do not concur.
He does not concur.
Controversial.
I would say these are garden eels.
And they burrow in the sand for protection.
And they position themselves like this because they like to live where there's a lot of current.
And so they let the water bring food to them.
And they just sit tight and wait for things to float by.
I see.
Okay.
Interesting.
We're going to find out what the actual truth is. after we reveal who our expert is.
So keep that in mind, okay?
I think our contestant is very excited about that particular image.
Okay, she's clearly doing some research ahead of time, which is good.
We love facts.
We love research.
Yeah, big fact fans.
Definitely.
Okay.
It is decision time, when Birdie must ill-valuate all the information she's heard and share it with us and tell us who she thinks our fibber is.
So maybe from the audience, show with clapping.
If you think that Mike is our fibber, clap your hands.
Okay.
If you think Anya is our fibber, clap your hands.
Okay.
Okay okay, I feel like there's a bit of a consensus but a little bit of controversy there, I think.
Okay, who do you think our fibber is?
At first I thought it was Mike, but when Anya said groundhog eels, I knew that wasn't true.
Oh, really?
So when you first thought it was Mike, why did you think Mike was the fibber?
I don't know, because, I mean...
I've been researching underwater animals at school, but at first I thought that the fibber was Mike, because I didn't quite understand what he was saying at first.
But then... There, yeah.
Who can listen to that?
Well, our actual eel expert, please say, I am the eel expert.
I am the eel expert.
Oh!
Very good.
We let the eels out.
That is right.
Mike O'Neill is our eel expert.
Oh, cover your eyes.
And associate curator of aquatic collections at the New England Aquarium, a nonprofit research and conservation organization that aims to inspire everyone to protect The blue planet.
And here we have Mike.
That's you, I'm guessing.
That is me.
The one on the right.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah, that's me.
And who is joining you in this photo?
That is Thomas, who's our green mario in the giant ocean tank at the New England Aquarium.
And he is worthy of being the greatest eel.
You know, he needs more attention.
What kind of eel is he?
He's a green moray.
He's about five and a half feet long.
He weighs 50 pounds.
And he's extremely outgoing, as you can see here.
One of the best eels I've ever worked with.
He looks green to me, but I think we're going to do some fact checking.
But before we do that, you did say in one of your answers that moray eels are brown.
So why does Thomas look green?
Their actual skin is like a brownish purplish, but then they produce yellow mucus that covers their body.
So when we look at them, they look green.
Mike, I'm trying to like eels, but you really just keep piling on facts and make them grosser and grosser man.
It's perspective.
It's, you know.
For those of you who are just listening to this, the photo we're looking at is Mike in a scuba outfit and then a just horrific monster face-to-face with him.
I think Thomas looks sweet.
Look at his sweet eyes.
I think he looks nice.
All right.
Well, let's do some additional fact-checking here, now that we know who our actual expert is.
All right, so, Anya, let's have you elaborate about some of your electrically shocking lies.
Oh, my God.
I know.
It's terrible.
There's too many eel jokes.
Well, I will say Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute is a real place.
I just don't work there.
So you were correct that you've seen it.
And you probably never will.
Yeah, this will definitely hurt your reputation.
Oh, man.
What did I lie about?
I lied about the Greek philosopher.
I said it was Democritus right, but it was actually.
Do you know this, mike?
No no, it was aristotle who thought, because a long time, you know, the people couldn't track eels.
They didn't know where they were making their baby eels.
So they just, oh well, they clearly just come up from the mud.
And that's what aristotle said.
Yes, what else?
Um, the row of sensors?
I said it was the linear guide.
Oh yes, lateral line, the lateral line.
And what does that do on a fish?
That's a sensory organ.
It helps them detect pressure changes in the water.
That's how schooling fish know how to turn all together in one big group.
Cool.
Oh, the lateral line.
All right.
Do you have another one, Anya?
Also, the living fossil, I said, was a Goliath huahine eel.
Sounds good.
I'm not sure what that is, but...
That is the Palauan primitive cave eel.
And it was discovered in 2011.
And some of its features are 200 million years old.
So it's like a living fossil.
But you did get right the cleaner shrimp.
She did get the cleanership right.
That's what we have to be mindful of is that sometimes a fibber throws in some facts and then you get confused because you don't know if they're fibbing all the time, or maybe if they have one fact, that's right.
Maybe they're telling the truth all the time, but maybe not.
We always have to be mindful and pay attention.
So you're right.
Very good.
Excellent.
And what else?
Let's see.
We had why eels open and close their mouths.
Why do they do that?
They do that to breathe.
Oh, to breathe.
Yep.
So they pump water over their gills by opening their mouth, bring in some water and then they push it out the openings of their gills on either side.
Whoa, cool.
That's very cool.
The name of the children's book about two kids who try to figure out why giant eels are crawling around New Jersey is called Liam and the Giant Eels.
If anyone wants to take that out of the library.
Excellent.
Yep, very good.
And the other, do we have anything that you passed on, Mike?
I don't think so, right?
I think you got them.
Oh, the Hawaiian god of eels.
Believe it or not, the name of the Hawaiian god is Tuna.
Okay.
True, true story.
I believe it.
It's true.
All right, well, well done.
Great job, Bertie.
A big round of applause.
Yeah, Bertie.
We have reached the end of the show.
Thanks to our contestant, Bertie, for her fact-finding capabilities.
Thank you to our expert and our liar, Mike and Anya.
And thanks to Lisa, who congers up the best sound effects.
Conger is a type of eel.
And, of course, many thanks to our audience here in Boston and all of you and listeners tuning in to The Big Fib, where the importance of truth goes beyond any social mores of the time.
The Big Fib is a production of Gen Z Media.
For more great shows, visit gzmshows.com.
While you're there, you can find out how you can become a contestant on The Big Fib or send questions for me to answer on the show.
And follow us on social media at The Big Fib Podcast for behind-the-scenes photos and more true facts.
But don't follow us if you're an eel.
Please stop chasing me.
Please get out of my nightmares.
Thank you so much.
Thank you.
Excellent.
All right.
We're going to open it up for any of you who have questions for any of us on the cast.
Any of us here.
Yes.
Yes.
I'm Sam.
Hi, Sam.
What's up, Sam?
Hi.
My question is, you kind of sound like the mom from Six Minutes, are you?
Lisa?
No.
Debra?
I am not the mom from Six Minutes.
No.
You sort of sound like her.
I do.
I'll take that as a compliment.
That's a great show.
Also on GZM.
And a great character, yeah.
So thank you very much for the compliment, whether you meant for it to be or not.
Possibly based on you, Debra.
But thank you, yeah.
Maybe based on me, yeah.
Good question.
Thank you.
Hi, I'm Lucas.
Hi, Lucas.
If you have two little persons, they can have eyes.
Only one person has a mouth and a nose.
Why do persons have just eyes?
That's a good question.
Are you talking about Duran and Linda?
Rises are noses.
Yeah, yeah.
Well, you know, they are a different species than us.
And Mike can probably tell you more about their natural habitat.
But they have lateral somethings.
What are they called?
Lateral lines.
Lateral lines.
And that's how they sense things.
They don't need noses.
But they're also very good at doing things for me.
In fact, Linda, my head is itchy.
Oh, okay.
I get it.
See?
It's just a different species.
It's a wonderful world.
I love that question.
Thank you for that question.
That was funny.
Lisa, what's your favorite type of cheese?
Oh.
My favorite type of cheese.
Well.
Pick one that's really gouda.
There's something I need to tell you, which is Debra does not like cheese.
So any cheese.
You're welcome.
More cheese for all of you.
Any cheese is fantastic, especially if I get to eat it in front of Debra and really gross her out.
But Cheddar, let's go with Cheddar.
Let's go with Cheddar.
Anya, what is your job in real life?
Yeah, what's going on, liar?
I think she's a liar.
You just go around and get paid to lie to kids?
Yeah, well, I want to be an EL expert now after reading so much about them.
I work at an improv comedy theater.
I produce and perform shows.
Zip.
I'm an actor.
Zap, zap.
She's a professional liar.
I'm a professional liar, yeah.
My name's Jenna, and for Birdie, if you don't like green, why do you paint your nails green?
That's a great question.
That's what everyone wanted to know.
What's going on?
I love that question because I wanted to call attention to that.
Also, that was an excellent question.
Explain, please.
So... It's a punishment.
No, it's a great answer.
More nails are green, and my mom does nails, so then...
She said, why don't we do eel nails for the podcast?
Isn't that great?
That's very cool.
And you also have a little application or a little design too, right?
I have a lightning bolt on both of my ring fingers for electric eels.
For electric eels.
Great question.
Great answer.
And they're covered in mucus.
And they're not covered in mucus.
Hello, I am Christopher Mark Joseph Carnival.
You can call me Chris.
And my question is, what is the biggest known species of eel?
Good one.
I'll take that.
I think that was for me.
Go ahead.
The elephant.
Elephant is part eel.
The trunk is an eel.
And then the rest of it is a little house it lives in.
Agree or disagree, Mike?
I disagree, yeah.
Birdie knows.
I'm going to go with birdie on that one.
I believe there is a giant moray eel, which gets even larger than the green morays.
Is it called a goliath or something?
Yeah, it could be a goliath, giant.
Common names, there's a few different names.
Well, because I mashed up two real eel names for the fossil one.
For the fossil one, so you know she is becoming an eel expert.
There's truth in there.
But really big is like eight to nine feet or so then.
No, thank you.
Yeah, yeah.
Why is the dinosaur wearing high heels on the thing?
That's because the sneaker, that's because he stepped in a puddle when he was wearing sneakers, so he's drying them out, so he had to put on a different pair of shoes.
His rain heels.
Hey, do you guys know that dinosaurs are animals?
I just like, everyone makes a big deal about them, but they were just animals.
Okay.
Nobody else cares about this.
My name is Petra.
My question is, are hagfish actually eels?
Hagfish are not actually eels.
So the true eel is.
There are 16 families of eels that are all part of a taxonomic order called the anguilliformes.
And those are the true eels.
And then there's a whole lot of other fish out there that are really just sort of eel-like fish.
Imposters.
And not necessarily the true taxonomically defined eels.
Why do you know about hagfish?
Why don't you know about hagfish?
Good question.
Who doesn't know about hagfish and why don't they?
Everyone should know.
Hi, I'm Neil.
Hi, Neil.
Lisa, this is to you.
What's your favorite podcast?
There's only one right here.
What will make me the most money?
What was the one?
The Big... Big Fig.
The Big Fig.
I love the big fig.
They have two figs on there and then they have an avocado and the avocado has to figure out which fig is real.
That's my favorite one.
I don't know.
I like the big fig.
I like it.
Don't abandon me, Debra.
I would never.
I love you, Debra.
Don't abandon me.
I love you, too.
I need you.
It's real.
My name is Rosie.
This is for you, Lisa.
What is your favorite kind of animal?
Well, it could be dinosaurs.
But you know what I'm saying?
Like everyone's like, oh, dinosaurs.
Prehistoric reptiles, not animals.
Isn't that an animal?
Is a reptile an animal?
My favorite animal is a giraffe.
Kind of.
Kind of.
Is it a giraffe?
It's a giraffe.
Because they're so cool and weird and everyone's like, we should go to Mars.
We should go to Venus.
Well, listen up.
You know who has giraffes?
We have giraffes.
We don't need to go to Mars.
Right.
Right here on Earth.
Giraffes are here.
Yeah.
You.
Earth.
Earth.
Earth.
Earth.
Earth.
Earth.
I'm Turner.
Hi, Turner.
Hi, Turner.
Noah, our producer, Noah.
Oh, he's going to be so happy that you asked.
He's on a bicycle somewhere, right?
I think he went for milk, and we never heard from him again.
No, that's not true.
He's still in our family and we hear from him every now and then when he wants to write a special episode for us, but he's off to other things as well.
He's a teacher now, right?
Yeah, we will tell him that you asked after him.
He will be very happy about that.
So thank you so much for that question.
I think this is our last question.
But we'll be out in the lobby.
Yes, join them in the lobby right after this last question.
They're standing on a brain.
Standing on a brain.
Good question.
Why is the astronaut standing on a brain?
Oh, that was my idea.
Well, around the office, we had an extra brain.
And we didn't know what to do with it.
And we used to play brain ball.
And that was fun for a while.
But then chunks of it started to fall off.
And then I said, you know what?
Let's put an astronaut on it.
And we'll put it up on the poster.
OK.
We're sorry.
We're sorry for these answers.
No, that's good.
I think that'll suffice.
Thank you so much again.
It's been such a pleasure.
You've been wonderful.
Thank you for your questions.
Thank you, Birdie, and thank you, Edwards, and we'll see you in the lobby.
Good work, everybody.
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