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Hey, Wowser fans! It's Guy Roz here, and before we start the show, have you watched Wow in the World on YouTube?
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That's it. Now, back to the show.
The final part of this show is magnificent proportion.
Reggie, you're doing a great job on that!
Maybe just a little more frosting around the windows?
Gotta make sure we've covered every nook and cranny.
I know. I am so excited to get my gingerbread mansion in shape for hosting game night tonight.
And thanks to you, Reg, this place is looking tasty!
Mmm. These walls taste delicious, Reggie.
Now, what game do you think we should play tonight?
I mean, there's Musical Stairs, the one where everyone runs up and down my crumbling gingerbread staircase, and then the last person to fall through the stairs wins the game.
It's an intense game of survival.
Yeah, you're right.
Maybe it is a little too intense.
Oh, I know. How about bobbing for scrapple?
Everyone loves waterlogged pork scraps.
I'm running out of ideas, Reg.
Pin the snails on the zombie?
What else is there to play?
Reggie, our guests are going to be here for game night any second now.
Oh, that's them. They're here.
Uh, coming. Kicking down the door.
Thomas Fingerling! Surprise.
Ah, you should have seen your face.
Nope, not a surprise party.
It's game night. But so happy to see you, Thomas Fingerling.
Hey, where's Grandma G Force?
I don't know. Up here, Mandy, on the roof.
What? Hey, Force, how'd you get up there?
Well, I just shimmied up the drainpipe.
Thought I'd make my grand entrance through the chimney.
Oh, I don't think that's a good idea.
What? You got diarrhea?
No. No, I isn't. It's okay to have diarrhea, Mandy.
Just drink lots of fluids.
Knock, knock. Oh, the door's all smashed again.
Dennis! What's in your hands there?
Oh, nothing. Just a little gift for the hostess.
Oh, wow. A poster -sized autographed photo of you, Dennis.
Thanks. Oh, don't mention it.
Okay. I mean, you can mention it a little.
I was just trying to keep alive.
Hey, Mandy. Hey, Dennis.
Hello, Rosie! Sorry, I'm a little late to the game night.
I hope I haven't missed anything.
Oh, no, you're fine.
Everyone's still just arriving.
Okay. Well, this is for you.
A bouquet of kale? An organic bouquet of kale hand -picked by yours truly.
And look, the ribbon is your favorite color.
Polkadots! So, should I put this in a vase or hide it in a smoothie?
Maybe feed it to a rabbit or...
Whoa -ho, Mandy! I love what you've done with the place.
Though I have to say, the marshmallow sofa is not really working in that configuration, and I preferred your cup being in the cabinet next to the fridge.
I don't understand why you moved them.
Wait, Dennis. Have you actually ever even been inside of my gingerbread mansion?
No. Was that a chandelier made of candy?
A candy -lear? Look at the crashmanship on the exposed pretzel beans.
Now, hopefully that's a pressure -treated pretzel.
Hey, Mandy, mind if I change the music?
I just put together a great party playlist.
Oh, yeah, sure. Do it every one, Kai -Roz.
Has anyone seen Grandma G -Force?
I thought she was up on the roof having diarrhea.
What's that elevator music sound I'm hearing?
Oh, it's elevator music.
This song is called...
Excuse me! Excuse me!
Has anyone seen Grandma G -Force?
Mandy, she said she was coming in through the chimney.
What? First one to catch me wins a free -ham.
Oh, hell! Don't fall!
Booyah! Three fours, I said don't fall!
Oh, sorry. Couldn't hear that.
Uh... Okay, well, now that everyone's here for the neighborhood game night, how about a party game?
Oh, I love party games.
Are we gonna pick teams and then team names?
I call Team Razzmatazz.
Oh, no you don't! Yes, I do.
What kind of party game is this, Mandy?
Great question, Gyros!
What kind of party game is this?
Well, it's a... ...dancing game.
Where everyone... ...wears a blindfold?
Well, good thing I always carry a blindfold on me.
Okay, there we go. Now what?
Then... we have... Mandy, it sounds like you're trailing off there.
We put on blindfolds and then what?
Mandy, do you have a game planned?
Or are you just making this up as you go along?
Because when I host game night, I make out a planning spreadsheet where I list all of the...
Excuse me! What do you say?
Hey, first, can't you hear nothing?
What? There's chimney shut stuck inside my ears and I can't hear the sweet sound of sounds.
Sound! Sound! Yes, sound!
It is a sound game, a blindfolded guess the sound game.
Go on. And to play, one person, or pigeon, makes a sound and then everyone else has to guess what that sound is.
There. Got that shut out.
I can hear again. It's a miracle.
Any questions about the game?
What game? Grab a g -force.
Okay, then. Yeah, I think we got it, Mandy.
We're playing name that sound.
Yes, that is the name of the game that I have been planning and preparing to play with you all for months now.
Quit bragging about your phony game and get your blindfold on already.
Oh, right. Here's a blindfold for you, Grandma G -force.
You want me to put a brown, April bag over my head?
And here's a blindfold for you, Dennis.
Mandy, this is a diaper.
Yeah, sorry, I ran out of paper bags.
Reggie, my head is not shaped like a bun.
And for you, Guy -Roz, I have a bucket blindfold.
You can put it on your head.
Mandy, this bucket is filled with fried chicken.
Let me just dump that out right there.
Here you go. I was gonna eat that.
Now, is everyone ready to play the game?
I'm ready! Absolutely.
You got it, dude. Talk louder!
Okay, great. Now that you're all wearing blindfolds, I will make the first sound.
And then you have to guess what that sound is.
Okay? Here we go. What is that?
It's a goat eating a watermelon rind.
No, it's wet gummy bears and plastic rind.
Stop smacking your gum!
I almost had it. And it looks like we have a winner for round one, folks.
That was the sound of me smacking my gum.
Please never do that again.
Next up, it's Grandma G -Force.
All right, let me just get out of this chair here.
G -Force? Oh, I know.
It's a duck. Now that was just the warm -up act.
Okay, Grandma G -Force, whenever you're ready, make that sound.
Oh, I like that we all say it together.
Let's see now. Some sort of liquid.
It's a bowl of something.
Oh, bowling balls! Please stop slurping your soup.
That sound, it's...
Oh yeah. It's correct.
Guy Ross, you are two for two.
Let's keep the momentum rolling.
Thomas Fingerling, you're up.
All right. You are never going to guess what I'm going to do.
It's time to make that sound.
Three branches breaking into a million pieces.
Chicken bones, bone pan, or staircase.
Walnuts being crushed by a leather hammer.
Please stop cracking your knuckles.
That popping sound, it's unbearable.
Is it unbearable, Guy Ross?
Or is it correct? The answer is crack -a -knucks.
Guy Rossy, you are really crushing it at this game.
Okay, final round, everyone.
This one's for all the marbles.
Dennis, you're up. Oh boy.
No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
I cannot, will not, sit here anymore and listen to knuckle cracking, or gum smacking, or soup slurping.
These sounds, they're like an attack on my brain.
That's okay, Guy Ross.
We can stop playing.
I'll just sit here quietly and eat these potato chips.
Oh, Guy Ross, I'm no doctor, but I wonder if you might be suffering from a relatively newly understood condition known as mesophonia.
Meso -whatea? Mesophonia.
It's a condition where a person has a strong reaction to specific sounds.
I just read a study about it in the journal Scientific Reports.
Are you suggesting that there may be a scientific reason for the way I reacted to all those awful sounds?
I mean, maybe, but also maybe not.
See, this study came out of the University of Amsterdam, and it was led by a professor of psychiatry named Damien Danes.
And by psychiatry, you mean the branch of medicine that deals with the mind and emotions and behavior, right?
Exactaritos. And while scientists and doctors have known for a while that certain sounds can cause people to go, you know, bonker balls, there really hasn't been a whole lot of research on mesophonia.
In fact, some would argue that maybe it's not even that big of a deal at all.
Not a big deal? Mindy, when I heard those sounds, I wanted to...
..do... Now, that's what I call some good fried floor chicken.
Kai -Raas, knowing that many people in the world go just as bonker balls as you do when they hear certain sounds, Dr.
Danes decided to head to his lab to figure out why.
Why? Why do some people feel like their heads are going to explode whenever they hear the perfectly natural sound of someone chewing potato chips or slurping soup or smack and gum?
And did he have any ideas as to why?
Maybe even a hypothesis or an educated guess?
You know it, Kai -Raas.
So Dr. Danes thought that the answer could lie somewhere in the human brain.
So, to get closer to the answer, he decided to conduct an experiment.
Oh, I love an experiment.
For this experiment, Dr.
Danes invited 44 people into his lab.
21 of those people with mesophonia and 23 people without it.
And then, while monitoring or studying their brains, he had them watch some videos.
What kind of videos?
Well, two kinds, actually.
The first videos showed people making some common sounds that really seemed to bother people with mesophonia.
You know, lip -snacking, heavy breathing, stuff like that.
And the other videos?
The other videos were of things that do not normally affect people with mesophonia.
Things like a person meditating or even a gross scene from a movie.
Well, I know I'd much rather watch a gross scene from a movie than have to listen to Dennis eat potato chips.
No offense, Dennis.
Oh, none taken. In high school, I was voted most likely to annoy someone with snack food.
What Dr. Danes found was that both groups of people reacted pretty much the same to the videos of meditation and gross stuff.
But what about the videos of the lip -snacking and the heavy breathing?
Ah, well, that's where things got interesting.
See, only the people in the mesophonia group reacted badly to those videos.
The other group, they were basically just meh.
Huh. And earlier, you mentioned that Dr.
Danes was monitoring or studying their brains.
So what did he discover?
Well, he discovered that his hypothesis may have been correct.
That when watching the videos of the lip -snacking and heavy breathing, the group of people with mesophonia felt intense anger and disgust in their heart rates when bonker balls.
Those are the same feelings and reactions that people express when they might be experiencing extreme emotions or fear.
I know these feelings, Mindy.
Just gripping their nails.
Who's doing what now?
Well, there we go. That was a stubborn one.
Look at this toenail fingerling.
How many layers you see there?
Looks to be about 17.
Hold down, Guy Rosie.
It's just the sound of Grandma G -Force clipping her toenails.
But? But back to the study, Guy Ros.
What Dr. Danes discovered when studying the brain activity of these people was that the parts of their brains that are responsible for helping to control fear and emotions, well, those parts, they went into hyperdrive.
So, in other words, some of the survival -related parts of the brain felt attacked or in danger.
Exactoritos, which led Dr.
Danes to suspect that people with mesophonia might have parts of their brains that are wired a little bit differently than people without it.
So I suppose that when a person with mesophonia hears a sound like Grandma G -Force clipping her toenails.
Say what? Oh, schnell.
That person might receive an extra strong signal to their brain, causing them to respond in an extreme way.
Bingo, Guy Ros. A person with mesophonia might react to Grandma G -Force's toenail clipping sound the same way that another person might respond to the sound of a loud fire alarm.
And when you say a person, uh, are you referring to me?
What? No, no. Yeah, you are, Mindy.
Danes! What? She is!
Yeah, I am. And what's even more interesting is that people with mesophonia are often bothered by a lot of the same sounds, and in many cases, sounds involving the mouth.
I'm talking sounds like slurping, crunching, coughing, throat clearing, tap tapping, tongue clicking, lip smacking, heavy breathing mouth sounds.
Just thinking of these sounds makes me want to scream!
Do these scientists know of anything that can be done to help people with this condition deal with these sounds?
Well, not just yet, Guy Ros.
See, the study of mesophonia is still so new that scientists haven't even agreed on a specific definition for what it is yet.
Ugh. I mean, before they can know how best to detect it and treat it in a person, they at least have to agree on what it is exactly.
I can tell you what it is.
It's the panic I feel every time I hear another person slurping or smacking or chewing.
Yes, but what might result in a feeling of panic for you might result in extreme fear or disgust or even rage in someone else.
Interesting. And in another person, it might result in just a strong annoyance.
This is all to say that there's still so many more questions than answers when it comes to mesophonia.
Mende, can we get back to the game, please?
It's Reggie's turn and I want to hear what he does.
Okay, everyone, blindfolds on.
I got this type of bag over my hand.
And I want the diaper this time.
Here, Janice, you take this boring old blindfold.
Fine. Okay, Reggie.
Whenever you're ready, make that sound.
What's happening? It sounds like needles on my brain.
Make it sound. That's what happens.
It sounds like the devil doing math problems.
Hi. I'd recognize that sound anywhere, Reggie.
That's talons on a chalkboard.
Oh, it's over. Hey, what's everyone freaking out about it?
It's just a sound. It's like a fingernail scratching on the inside of my skull.
Use it to my ears. Two dinner plates having a knife fight.
Hey, does this mean I win the game?
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After the beep, get ready to record.
Hi, Neneen Garaz. My name is Oluse and I live in Charlottesville, Virginia.
And my Wow in the World is that some giant jellyfish have tentacles that extend one -third the length of a football field.
Bye, Neneen Garaz, and up she shows.
Hi, Neneen Garaz. This is John from Austin, Texas.
And did you know that ghost ants have see -through stomachs?
Love your show. Bye.
Hi, I'm Dylan from Walsam, Massachusetts.
My Wow is that sharks have about 3000 teeth in their mouth at once and can lose up to 100 teeth a day.
Say hi to Reggie Courtney.
My name is Esme and I live in Bent, Oregon.
My Wow is that a snail has more teeth than a saber -toothed tiger and a shark.
Say hi to everybody.
Bye, I love your show.
Hi, Neneen Garaz. My name is Julia and I'm from Pemberton, BC.
And my Wow in the World is that the sun can fit more than a million Earths inside of it.
Say hi to Reggie, Thomas Finkling, and Grandma Geforce for me.
Surprise! Oh, snap.
Hi, Neneen Garaz. My name is Wyatt and I live in Eugene, Oregon.
My Wow in the World is that after Komodo dragons eat an animal, they throw up any teeth, bones, or hair.
Say hi to Thomas Finkling for me.
Who's doing what now?
Hi, my name is Geneva.
I am nine years old.
I'm from Cravale, Oregon.
My Wow in the World is that cats can't chase treatment.
Say hi to Reggie for me.
Guys, then I come from Chicago and I'm five years old.
My Wow in the World is that Greg has section cups and hooks that spin around on them to fight whales.
Hi, my name is Amy.
I live in Sable, Massachusetts and my Wow in the World is that a Cape ground squirrel uses its tail as a sunshade.
Hi, Neneen Garaz. My name is Alanya and I'm from Toronto, Canada.
My Wow in the World is that the wood frogs can hold its pee for up to eight months.
Isn't that bonker balls?
Say hi to Reggie, Grandma Geforce, and Dennis for me.
Oh, ham! Ah, hush puppies.
End of messages. Grownups, if you like Wow in the World you can listen early and ad -free right now on Wondery Plus.
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Wow in the World is written by Mindy Thomas and Tom Van Calken with help from me, Guy Ross.
Original sound design and music editing is done by our senior producer, Jed Anderson, and Tyler Thole.
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 Bodie 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 the rest of our team of Tinkerers including Anna Zagorski, Rebecca Keban, Kit Ballinger, and Henry Moskal.
To keep the Wow's rolling, visit us at Tinkercast .com.
There you can learn more about becoming an official member of the World Organization of Wowzers.
Learn more about upcoming events, shop our shop, and pick up a copy of our new number one New York Times bestselling book, The How and Wow of the Human Body.
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.
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 2 What's in a Wow.
Thanks again for listening, and until next time, keep on wow -ing!
