Friends, we are so super duper excited to tell you that we just added a bunch more cities to our 2026 live show tour.
Get ready for singing dancing, magic tricks, game shows, mystery sounds and scientists falling from the sky in a totally safe way.
We promise.
Plus, there's a chance for you to attend special meet and greet parties in every city.
So come on.
This spring, we're coming to Milwaukee, St.
Paul Atlanta, Fort Lauderdale Chattanooga Durham, San Francisco Portland Buffalo, Toronto and Ann Arbor.
We're basically gonna be everywhere.
Look behind you.
Are we there?
No?
Well, we probably will be soon.
Head over to brainson.org slash events for tickets.
And make sure you grab passes to our meet and greet party.
You get to ask us questions, take pictures with us, and I'll even do some close-up magic.
That's brainson.org slash events.
Can't wait to see you.
Brains on Universe.
You're listening to Brains on.
We're serious about being curious.
Everyone loves a mystery.
I know I do.
Like, who stole the cookies from the cookie jar?
Who indeed, Molly?
Or where's that smell coming from?
Someone microwaved fish.
Or, what's this sound?
Oh yes, I know what it's time for.
It's time for... A Mystery Sound Extravaganza.
Stay tuned.
Hello, Brains On listeners.
It's me, Bob.
Brains On Universe is now its own independent media company.
And since I love filing, counting my popsicle stick collection and thinking about decimal points, Molly asked me to be the CFO of Brains On Universe.
At first I thought CFOs stood for Kraft Food Orders, like I would be in charge of ordering honey from local beekeepers and cheese from local cheesekeepers.
But it turns out it stands for Chief Financial Officer, which means I make sure Brains on Universe has enough money to keep going.
I've been looking at the numbers and wow, CFO should stand for counting fans overjoyedly.
Is overjoyedly a word?
When I look at all the people who've signed up for Smarty Pass, it makes me feel overjoyed.
When you sign up for Smarty Pass, you're choosing to support the Brains on Universe.
And that's an amazing thing to do.
You can join now at SmartyPass.org.
Counting fans makes me overjoyed.
Optimistic.
Obviously delighted.
Can't wait to count you too.
You're listening to Brains On, part of the Brains On universe.
I'm Molly Bloom, and my co-host today is Juniper from Philadelphia.
Hi, Juniper.
Hi, Molly.
Today is a mystery sound extravaganza, so I hope your ears are ready to solve lots of mysteries.
So, Juniper, I'm wondering, do you like guessing the mystery sound?
Yeah, I really do.
I think it's really fun to guess what other people have at home and what they're using for it.
Totally.
Which ones do you find easiest to guess?
Probably the ones that come from like your kitchen, because I feel my mom really likes to cook and like bake.
So I really recognize those sounds.
So those are familiar in your life.
What about the trickiest ones to guess?
Those would probably be like the ones that are really unusual in the household that isn't really common.
Yes.
Like for me, recently that was rolling a hard-boiled egg around in a metal bowl.
Yeah.
And I was like, I've never done that before.
So what would you say is your favorite sound in the world?
This is a really hard question.
It's either goats or the ocean.
Oh, I like both of those sounds so much.
Do you know goats personally?
No, but I'm a Capricorn, so I feel like I identify with goats.
Gotcha, because Capricorn, the symbol is a goat.
Yeah.
What do you like about goats?
And like the sound they make particularly.
I just feel it's like really goofy and how they act is really goofy.
Kind of like cats-ish.
Can you do an impression of a goat?
Oh, that was very good.
Very, very nice.
Thank you.
What would a goat ocean sound like?
Maybe like the waves are like, and then the goat are like, all the time.
Honestly, I'm just picturing like goats on a surfboard for some reason.
Oh yeah, that's a good idea too.
Well, let's get to it, Juniper.
Do you feel like you're ready for some mystery sounds?
Yeah.
Awesome.
We're going to start with this one.
What do you think?
Um, I know this noise, like I know it by heart, but I don't know what it's called.
Okay.
Where are you picturing it?
I don't know.
Where I live for some reason.
What happened?
Oh, like there was a big snow a couple of weeks ago.
So maybe like someone shoveling out the ice.
OMG, Juniper.
What?
That is a really good guess.
And here's the answer.
Hi, my name's Isla, from Scotland Aberdeen, and that was the sound of me putting a snow shovel in ice.
Basically, there's three layers, snow, then ice, and more snow.
When the snow shovel goes in the ice, it makes a sound of it and it cracks the ice.
And when you push it forward, that makes the sound.
Incredible work.
Like 100% correct.
I'm really surprised that I got that right because I pretty much never get them right.
I'm so impressed.
I mean, you guys in the Northeast particularly have had a lot of snow lately.
So it makes sense that it's kind of fresh in your mind.
Are you the person who has to shovel in your family?
Me and my dad tend to shovel.
Like we shoveled out our car and then we also shoveled out –
Or a car again because it snowed recently.
So that's why you got it because there's a lot.
When you shovel, you hear that sound a lot, a lot, a lot.
Well, excellent work.
All right.
Here is the next mystery sound.
What do you think?
What?
Did you hear that sound?
That's what I think.
Yeah, I did.
It sounds absolutely insane.
Yeah.
All I could think of in that was like a ping pong table.
So I'm going to say ping pong table.
Okay.
Very nice.
Very nice.
I picked this sound and I honestly forgot what it is.
So let's hear it again.
Let's hear it again.
Hmm.
What do you think?
Well, I still think ping pong table, but like someone's having a really bad fight with the ping pong table and the ping pong table is winning.
Excellent.
Excellent guess.
Okay.
Let's hear the answer.
Hi, my name is Layla.
I'm from Los Angeles, and that was the sound of my cat scratching his scratching post.
Oscar is a black cat and has a white belly.
He has a brother named Felix, who is brown.
The cat scratching post looks like a llama.
Okay.
Well, all right.
A cat scratching post.
I was close.
Yeah, it's like kind of like someone fighting with a ping pong table, except the cat is scratching a llama-shaped scratching post.
Thank you for that sound, Layla.
You got us.
Okay, here is the next mystery sound.
I know this.
Yeah?
What do you think?
I think it's like when I was little enough to get in my bathtub, I would slap the water.
Oh, yes.
And it would make something like that noise.
Totally.
Totally.
So maybe that?
Excellent guess.
I'm going to give you a hint because I do know what this one is.
This is a food-related sound.
So let's hear it again.
Well, now it sounds like something's like boiling-ish.
Ooh, yeah, like the bubbles popping.
Yeah, like if you put, like if you like boil carrots or whatever you know, it makes that weird bubbly noise.
Or like ramen.
Totally.
Is there a food that would make that sound on its own, not while it's being cooked?
Like it just, that's what sound the food makes.
Um, I didn't know food makes sounds.
My food's always talking to me.
It's like, take a bite.
Jeez.
Whoever sent this has the, like, really one of the best mystery sounds.
It's a really good one.
You ready for the answer?
Yeah.
Okay, here it is.
My name's Thor.
I live in Seattle, Washington, and that was the sound of me shaking my jello in a glass bowl.
Wow.
Wow.
I don't really like Jell-O, so maybe that's why I was stuck.
That's why.
Yeah, it is a very particular texture.
And if that is not your thing, then it's really not your thing.
And I feel like that sound is pretty indicative of that texture.
So I apologize if that was unpleasant to you.
It's fine.
I just don't like the taste and the texture.
Very fair.
All right.
We have another mystery sound.
Do you want to hear it?
Yes.
Okay.
Here it is.
It kind of sounds like someone taking like 5000 grains of rice, putting them in a bowl, in like a metal bowl, and then shaking them around.
Okay, yes.
So rice is a really good guess.
It's not a kitchen sound.
It's a sound that you'd probably do outside while you're doing this.
You would hear it while you're doing this particular activity.
It's a solo activity.
Let's hear it again.
I haven't been outside in so long.
I forget what the outside sounds like.
It's a game with a ball, right?
It's not something with a ball.
It is something that involves wiggling, kind of moving in a rhythmic way.
And it's a pretty good exercise.
It involves your hips.
Oh, wait.
Hula hoop?
Is it that, you know, they have those little beads in it sometimes?
Mm-hmm.
Here's the answer.
Hi, my name is Eleanor, and I'm from Dallas, Texas, and that was the sound of me hula hooping.
Very nice.
Yes, we haven't been outside in a while here in the northern part of the country.
But yes, hula hooping.
Yeah, it has those little things that sound like rice or sand inside.
Yeah.
A little rhythmic.
Are you good at hula hoop?
I was, and then I stopped hula hooping because we don't have hula hoops at home, because my grandpa's a juggler, so we use his hula hoops.
Your grandpa's a juggler?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Wow.
Okay.
May I cordially request a mystery sound related to juggling at some point in the future?
Okay.
That's really cool.
I used to be good at hula hooping when I was a kid, and then I recently tried it over the summer.
It turns out I can't hula hoop at all.
I cannot remember how to do it.
I can do like three, and I used to be able to do like 18 in a row.
It looks so satisfying.
That's one of my goals is to get better at the hula hoop.
Our next sound comes from a parent of a Brains On listener, one with a cool job that involves helping lots of people stay healthy.
So here is that sound.
Whoa, that was noisy.
So helping people stay healthy.
What do you think?
Is it like one of those like?
I don't remember what they're called, but they're kind of like mini jackhammers that they put into your teeth to get cavities out, or something like that.
That's literally what I was thinking.
I don't know the answer to this one either.
And I was definitely thinking like a drill.
Yeah, like a drill at the dentist office.
We're going to have the answer right after this quick break.
We are working on an episode about baseballs.
Baseball has some really great cheers for fans in the stands, like G-O-O-D-E-Y-E.
Good eye, good eye, good eye.
But you know what needs some cheers?
Science.
We want to hear your cheers and chants for science.
Juniper, what is your cheer or chant for science?
My cheer for science is S-C-I-E-N-C-E, science.
Yes.
I love spelling in cheers.
It's one of my favorite things.
I approve.
So listeners, please send your cheers or chants to us at brainson.org slash contact.
While you're there, you can also send us questions, ideas, and mystery sounds.
That's brainson.org slash contact.
And keep listening.
Today's episode is sponsored by Everyplate.
Everyplate is the go to dinner solution for busy families juggling work, school and activities.
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We'll be right back.
I'll see you next time.
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Today's episode is sponsored by Bombas.
It's the time of the year we think about, what am I going to do differently this year?
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We're back and we're trying to figure out what this sound is.
Okay.
What do you think?
I think I'm on the lines of the taking care of people thing, like the mini jackhammer thing.
But at the end I did hear kind of like water falling.
So maybe that was just an accident or maybe that was part of the noise.
It's hard to say.
Yeah, I heard that flapping this time too.
Like maybe...
Well, maybe it is the drill for the dentist, and the dentist took it out of the mouth and then that was the person being like blah blah, blah.
Maybe.
I think I'm going to stick with the jackhammer thing.
Yeah, me too.
Let's see if we're right.
My name is James Hull.
I'm a pharmacist in Oakville, Ontario, Canada.
What you just heard was a blood pressure cuff inflating.
Blood pressure cuffs are used to measure blood pressure.
Keeping a healthy blood pressure helps reduce the chance of cardiovascular disease like heart attacks and strokes.
Oh, okay.
Have you ever gotten your blood pressure checked?
Yeah, I think so.
I went on a trip last night and we got to go to a fire station near us with my friends at Girl Scouts and we got to take the blood pressure on some of us.
Oh, very cool.
When I think of blood pressure, I think about the old-fashioned ones where they're like And they're pumping it up by hand.
But yeah, there's all those like cool machines now that do it.
All right, Juniper, we have another mystery sound from a parent who also happens to be a scientist.
Here's that sound.
Now, I really like watching like spooky shows.
So to me, it kind of sounds like someone pouring like hydrogen or like dry ice in something.
Oh, yeah.
Excellent guess.
We're going to play it again.
See what you think.
Yeah, I think I'm going to stick with the dry ice.
Excellent choice.
Here is the answer.
Hi, my name is Alanafe, and that was the sound of my mom scooping out dry ice.
Seriously, Juniper, that's incredible.
I literally never get these right, so it's like the magic of the studio.
I mean, those two you got right were like hard and you got them like so specifically right.
I am so impressed.
Yes, so that was the sound of dry ice.
Here's Alinafe's parent, Erin Banda, to explain more.
Hi, I'm Alinafe's mom.
I work in a lab that studies what happens to our cells when they have the wrong number of chromosomes.
We use dry ice to keep things like cells, DNA, RNA, and protein cold for our experiments.
My favorite part about working in a lab is that it's kind of like always working on a mystery.
Nobody knows the answers, but we're trying to figure them out.
Here's a fun fact.
Did you know that you share 60% of your DNA with a banana?
That's pretty cool because I love bananas.
I'm anti-banana on every level.
Oh, okay.
My dad is anti-banana, like very much so.
It's to the point like growing up, we couldn't like say banana around.
Do you feel that strongly against bananas?
No, no, no.
I mean, I can hear the word banana.
It's just, they're just not my banana.
I understand.
I understand.
Well, so now we know dry ice is used for science and also spooky TV shows.
Very true.
All right, so Juniper, I've gotten to pick these mystery sounds today, which is super fun.
And I understand, though, that you have brought a mystery sound for me, and I'm so excited.
Can I hear it?
Yes.
Okay.
Whoa.
Whoa.
Okay.
This is hard.
Okay.
I'm going to say what I heard.
Maybe something will emerge.
I heard like a slapping sound and also like a springy sound.
And it happened a bunch of times.
You said you like kitchen sounds.
Maybe you're chopping something with a spring loaded chopper.
This is a really tricky one.
I think I need a little time to mull it over.
So why don't we check out what's in the mailbag and then, when we come back, maybe I'll have a better guess.
Hello, this is the mailbag, where we look at the awesome stuff that you have sent to us.
All right, so let's see what we have today in the mailbag.
That's my little mailbag song.
Okay.
Okay.
Incredible.
Okay.
This is a drawing from Celine from Houston, Texas.
It is Celine and I having a picnic together.
Blue, there are fluffy white clouds.
Selene really captured my curly hair and my glasses.
We're on two lovely green hills and there's a picnic basket and two apples, one for each of us.
Selene has an awesome red shirt and pink pants very stylish.
Thank you for this amazing drawing.
All right, here's another amazing drawing.
It says this is Kalia's drawing interpretation of the worm quest from the episode What's Up With Worms.
Kalia's from Medford, Oregon.
This is a really great picture.
It is, okay, so there's a worm.
There's a couple worms.
Very cool.
There's challenges.
There's trees.
There's clouds.
There's us.
It is a very dramatic and exciting drawing.
Thank you for making it.
Okay, there's one more drawing I got to talk about.
Okay, this is from Eleanor who lives in Berlin, Germany.
And Eleanor writes, this is a picture of a person sneezing.
And oh boy, is it ever.
There's incredible action lines around the person's head.
This person's eyes are squeezed tight as they sneeze.
And there's all sorts of green germs coming out of this person's nose.
It's very dramatic.
There's even a red germ.
Who looks angry?
Incredible work, Eleanor.
You really captured a sneeze.
If you have drawings you'd like to send to us, or really anything.
You got questions.
You have maybe a song you wrote.
You have a joke to share?
We want to hear it.
So go to brainson.org slash contact.
And that's it for today's Mailbag.
Okay, we are back.
And I'm guessing this mystery sound that Juniper brought in for me.
I guessed a spring-loaded chopper.
Is that at all close?
Okay, so we have... It's a knife.
We have... Oh, okay.
So we have, like this metal slip in our kitchen on the side of our fridge and I took the knife off and I kept putting it back on and taking it off and putting it back on.
So it's like a magnet?
Yeah.
Oh, that's so good.
Okay, so I was kind of close.
Wow, excellent mystery sound.
Thank you.
Very good.
Okay, Juniper, I have a few more sounds for you before we go.
Your ears open and ready?
Yes.
Here is the next Mystery Set.
Okay, so in the background I heard sizzling, but then at the same time I heard like the corks on the top of wine bottles popping.
Oh.
So I don't know what would make that noise.
I would say the sizzling part is the key part of this sound.
And it is a kitchen sound.
Oh, it is a kitchen sound.
Do I hear it again?
Yes. other thoughts?
I don't know.
Something on a skillet that's like, you know, like one of those like those noises.
Why don't you take a guess?
What do you think is being sizzled in a skillet?
Maybe like a carrot.
Carrot.
I love it.
I feel like you have carrots on your brain.
I do have carrots on the brain.
I love carrots.
They're really good.
All right.
Should we see if it's a carrot sizzling?
Yes.
All right.
Here it is.
Hi, my name is Shepard, and that was a salad of butter bubbling in a pan.
Oh.
Butter.
Num, num, num.
Yes.
Key to cooking, butter, oil, fat.
So you could eventually put a carrot in there.
Yeah.
And it would be delicious.
Carrot with butter.
Mm, mm, mm.
Okay, I'm hungry.
Let's hear the next mystery sound.
Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah.
Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah.
Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah.
Okay, this one makes me laugh.
I think this might be my favorite sound of the day.
Uh-huh.
I think so, too.
What do you think it is?
I think it's someone either putting their mouth in front of the fan and going, da-da-da-da-da.
Oh, yeah.
Or they're just going in front of the microphone and going, da-da-da-da-da-da, da-da-da-da-da-da.
I love it.
I think we should hear it again just, you know, because it's fun.
Ha-la-la-la-la.
Ha-la-la-la-la.
Incredible.
Any new thoughts?
Maybe.
This one keeps popping up in my brain.
It's like a baby is in front of a dog.
And the dog is just staring it down like it's really mad at the baby for going blah blah blah blah, blah in its face.
I really like that.
I love a story.
Like a mystery sound that tells a story.
Here is the answer.
Hi, my name is Cora, and I'm from Skokie, Illinois.
And the sound you just heard...
Was my dad patting my little brother's mouth.
Okay.
Excellent work.
It was a baby.
So that's a little baby.
And the dad's patting the mouth while the baby goes, wah, wah, wah, wah, wah.
That's hilarious.
I love that.
It makes me so happy.
Thank you for sending that sound.
All right.
We've got a couple more.
Here is the second to last mystery sound.
What do you think?
When I first heard of that, I thought of that thing.
It lifts up like big boxes of something, like big boxes of paper and it makes that weird clunk noise.
Very nice.
I'm going to give you a hint.
Something's being lifted up, and it's something that you might hear at your home near a car.
Or you're in somewhere where you put your car.
I think I'm going to stop there before I get in the way.
Well, now that you gave me those hints, it's either like a tow truck or it's like one of those car lifts, like in the parking lot, where they lift up your car.
Do you want to hear it again?
Yeah.
Yeah, I think I'm going to stick with the car lift answer.
Okay.
Here is the answer.
Hi, my name's Maddie.
And my name's Edith.
And we are from Walnut Creek, California.
And the sound you just heard was us closing our garage door.
A garage door.
Because that weird mechanical sound like, yeah, it's your car.
Yeah, yes, excellent guessing.
Yeah, lifting up a car on a lift, it probably makes a similar noise, honestly.
Okay, here is the last mystery sound of the day.
What do you think?
When I first heard that sound, I thought two things at once.
Which was someone roller skating, like someone has a microphone down where their rollers are going, or like their blades if they're ice skating.
And it's like just like recording them going across the floor, like that kind of noise.
Juniper, you're really good at this.
Let's hear it again.
Would you like to stick with your answer?
I think I have another idea.
Okay.
Which is like a crowd warring that's like, ah.
Like someone that's really rooting, like a ton of people that are really rooting for this person on the sports team.
Nice.
Okay, so you're hearing sports.
You ready for the answer?
Yeah.
Here it is.
Hello, my name is Ashwin.
I live in Washington DC and that is the sound of my hockey team practicing with pucks and sticks.
Thank you.
Juniper!
I mean, I was so close.
I'm giving it to you because the first time you're like, skates, uh-huh, check, check, check.
Sports, yes, absolutely.
Maybe not a crowd, but his team was there.
So 100%, full credit from me.
Very good work guessing today, Juniper.
And thank you to all of our listeners for sending in these mystery sounds.
If you have a mystery sound you'd like to share, you can always send it to us at brainsonorg slash contact.
Please upload the sound and your explanation of what it is.
Thank you so much.
Mystery sounds are everywhere.
You just have to keep your ears open.
They are fun to hear and even more fun to guess what they are.
That's it for this episode of Brains On.
This episode was produced by me, Molly Bloom, Mark Sanchez, and Sandon Totten.
Special thanks to Emily Nickerson and John Thomas and engineering help from Alex Kazenza.
Want to give a big shout out to Tenova and Remy.
BrainsOn is an independent media company.
To keep the BrainsOn universe going, join SmartyPass.
You can do that by heading to SmartyPass.org.
Now it's time for the brains.
Honor roll.
These are the incredible kids who keep his show going with their questions ideas, mystery sounds, drawings and high fives.
Henry from Columbia, South Carolina.
Keegan from Toronto.
Alexandra from Anchorage, Alaska.
Marshall and Ansley from Cincinnati.
Ruby from Dublin, Ireland.
Avery from North Carolina.
Griffin from Derry, New Hampshire.
Madeline from Duluth, Minnesota.
Olivia from Forest Hills, New York.
Wolf from Beverly, Massachusetts.
Max and Toby from Washington, D.C., aria from guthrie oklahoma leo and charles from mountain view california nora from daphne alabama eliana and noah from san raymond california phoebe from belton texas cove from american fork utah charlotte from australia zebby from manchester united kingdom francis from philadelphia trey from rockwell texas jay from dayton ohio audriana from pittsburgh amber from brooklyn bailey and rory from california wesley from columbia missouri Thank you so much for joining us.
Thank you.
Adam from Tarzana, California.
Camillo from Boston.
Tim from Georgetown, Ontario.
Ruby and Dahlia from Calabasas, California.
Gideon, Harper and Cyrus from Altadena, California.
Avery from Pickering, Ontario.
Theo from Durham, North Carolina.
Henry from Inverness, Florida.
Dalton from Putnam Valley, New York.
And Henry from the Philippines.
We'll be back next week with an episode all about flowers.
Thanks for listening.
