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Hey, grown -ups. Mindy here.
And before we start the show, it's prime time.
Sorry, I meant prime day.
And you know what that means.
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And while they may be 20 % off for Prime Days, our toys are 100 % full of wow, featuring exclusive audio from me and Guy Raz, plus collectible STEM tools to help your wowzers keep tinkering after playing.
surprise the wowsers in your world with a wow in the world stem toy today or on their birthday or their unbirthday or a sunny day or a rainy day or maybe a windy day yeah yeah yeah okay they get it shop the wow now at tinkercast .com slash toys that's tinkercast .com slash toys that's it and now let's get back to the show Woof, woof, woof, woof.
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No, I got it, I'm good, I'm good, I'm good Two, three, four We wow summer Summer, summer, ever, ever, ever We wow summer Shallow number, flex your name, do cool stuff, yeah We wow summer I don't know what kind of stuff, but we'll figure it out We wow summer, yeah Hello and welcome to Wee Wow!
Summer Week! Summer fun forever and ever!
That's right, Reggie!
This is the week where we have all kinds of summer fun, but we couldn't think of...
Reggie, do you hear that?
Reggie! Ice cream truck!
Ice cream truck! Ice cream truck!
Hurry! Wait! No! Oh, thank goodness.
Oh, hi, Dennis. Hi, Reg.
Oh, Mindy. I thought you were the ice cream man again.
Dennis. Hurry. I need some ice cream right now.
Oh, sorry, Dennis. I'm all out of ice cream.
What? No. But I have some other treats if you want.
Ooh, like what? Well, let's see here.
I've got some delicious minestrone soup.
Soup? I don't want hot soup, Mindy.
It's summer. Well, I guess I could freeze it.
Ew, no. How about an ice cream sandwich?
How about a tuna sandwich?
Yuck! Uh, wait. Reggie wants one.
Here you go, Reggie.
Mindy, I want ice cream.
I have iceberg lettuce.
No, ice cream. Ooh, cream cheese?
Why do you only have deli things?
Ah, because I woke up this morning with a hankering for a Reuben, and then just one thing led to another.
Mindy, it's so hot out, and I just want a cold dessert that's not fish or soup.
Okay, well, let me just check the freezer here.
Uh, how do you feel about frozen ripe bananas?
Huh. Ooh, I got an idea.
Hooray, an idea. Okay, blender, just gonna shove these frozen bananas in here.
Uh -huh. And a couple of handfuls of peanut butter!
One, two, three! I like that!
Now we just need a little fat to tie this mixture together!
Let's see here... Ooh!
Coconut oil! That'll work!
Oh boy! It's really hard to squeeze the oil out of a coconut!
Then we mix! Mix, mix it, mix it, mix it, mix it, mix it, mix it!
And scoop it into a bowl Ta -da!
Here you go, Dennis One bowl of banana peanut butter ice cream Hold the cream Ha -ha -ha!
Ice cream! Oh, that's good, Mindy I need this recipe Actually, Dennis, this recipe and more can be found on the Tinkercast website Grown -ups, just go to Tinkercast .com slash WeWow That's Tinkercast .com slash WeWOW to check it out.
Oh, and remember, devoted listeners, don't forget to call with your summer wows.
Oh, yeah. And if you got a big summer wow memory you want to share with us, call us at 1 -888 -7 -WOW -WOW.
That's 1 -888 -7 -WOW -WOW.
And Dennis and Reggie and me will all be waiting by the answering machine for your call.
You just might hear your Summer of Wow moment featured on Wow in the World this summer.
We should listen to an episode of Wow in the World, Dennis.
Good idea, Mindy. In the spirit of ice cream, let's listen to this one.
Which one is it? It's Wow in the World season two, episode 33 called Now Watch Me Drip Drip, The Science of Slower Melting Ice Cream.
Oh yeah, that's a good one.
All right, here we go.
And play. WeeWOW will be right back.
Grown -ups, this message is for you.
That's it. Now back to the show.
What in the world? What in the...
What? Mindy? Hey there, Roz!
Check out my sweet new ride!
Mindy, where did you get an ice cream truck?
Oh, hang on a sec, Guy Raz.
I'll be right there.
Her truck is called a Midsummer Night's Cream?
You just got served.
Soft -served. Mindy, when did you get in the business of selling ice cream?
I don't know. About an hour ago.
See, Guy Raz, a wise old owl once told me that the secret to life is to find what you love doing the most and to get paid for it.
So with that, I had to throw starting a podcast out the window and do the thing I love second most, ice cream.
Okay, first of all, that wise old owl was me.
And second of all, it looks like you've got your profits dripping all over your face.
Well, as a responsible business boss lady, I had to test out my product before opening it up to the public.
Well, let me clean that off for you.
Here, I've got a handkerchief in my pocket.
it. No! No, not the spitty handkerchief!
Now, let me see your face.
Okay, almost. Alright.
Okay, alright. Almost there.
There. All cleaned up.
It was disgusting, I rose.
That's the problem with ice cream, Mindy.
Uh, you found a problem with ice cream?
Well, as delicious as ice cream can be, these warm temperatures can melt it faster than we can eat it.
Ah, yes. The old creamy, creamy, melty, melty conundrum.
The what? But, boy, howdy, do I have some good news for you, Guy Raz, because there's some new science that says that that's all about to change.
What? And soon, our sticky finger -lickin' days will be gone for good.
What do you mean? I'm talking about a newly discovered recipe for melt -resistant ice cream.
Ice cream that will melt in your mouth but not in your hands?
Guy Raz, this could be the biggest scientific breakthrough of the 21st century.
Well, that might be a bit overstating things.
I mean, there was the discovery of stem cells to grow human organs and the discovery of water on Mars and the— Ahem!
Back -to -melt resistant ice cream.
Oh, right. So, what's the scoop?
The scoop? Uh— The scoop is that these Colombian researchers got together with these scientists from the University of Guelph in Canada and found a secret ingredient that would make ice cream nearly unmeltable, or at least melt in slow motion.
What's the secret ingredient, Mindy?
If I told you, then it wouldn't be a secret, then would it?
Since when are you able to keep a secret?
Feroz, I am not going to tell you what the secret ingredient is.
I'm gonna show you what the secret ingredient is well what's the difference pop in the midsummer night's cream truck Guy Raz just watch out for the sprinkle party down there on the floor had a little accident uh are you sure this thing is safe to ride in Mindy yes of course I'm not sure it's safe to ride in Guy Raz now go ahead and strap yourself into that vat of cookies and cream over There are no seats in this ice cream truck?!
I thought this truck was high maintenance.
My buns are freezer -burning!
My buns are freezer -burning!
Oh, wait! There's a seat that someone left on the curb over there.
Hold tight, buddy. I'll hop out and grab it for you.
But, Mindy, that's - Don't go anywhere.
I'll be right back.
Run, run, run, run, run.
Hey, guys. I just thought this chair is sitting right here.
Do you mind if I take it?
Ow! Did you just punch me?
Pleasure doing business with you guys Maybe I'll run into you again sometime Mindy Sorry, I had to fight off a pack of wild squirrels for it What?
But it's still mostly in one piece Squirrels got the sippy cup holder Mindy, that's a child's cart Now we're just going to squeeze you in...
Stop wiggling! Take it slow, Guy Raz!
Too tight! Too tight!
There. Now you're not going anywhere for the rest of your life.
We better not be going too far.
Nah, just a quick drive to South America.
South America? Mindy, what does this have to do with melting ice cream?
Nothing. What? But it has everything to do with ice cream not melting.
So, you ready to go find the secret?
Start up the engine, Mindy.
Yes. Anything for science.
Anything for science, Guy Raz.
Now hand me that wire coat hanger over there so I can start this baby up.
What? Shove that in there and...
Huh. Let me try this again.
Hmm, I wonder what...
Are we there yet? Nope.
Still got a ways to go.
Are we there yet? Gairaz, you'll know when we get there, because we'll be there.
Okay. Are we there yet?
Gairaz! What? Are we there yet?
No! We've hit a little snag in our travel plans.
Uh, snag? Well, we've made it all the way to Panama, so that's the good news.
Uh, and what's the bad news?
Well, we ran out of highway.
We ran out of what?
This Pan -American highway in Central America.
We've reached the end, and now we've hit the Darien Gap that connects us to South America.
Wait, I've heard of the Darien Gap, Mindy.
We're almost there.
We're almost to Columbia.
Not so fast, Guy Raz.
The Darien Gap is a major swath of roadless jungle and swampland that sits right between us here in Panama and our destination in Columbia, South America.
Hmm, no roads, huh?
Nope. And you said jungle and swampland?
Yep. So I guess we only have one choice left, and that's to turn around.
Turn this ice cream truck into hyperdrive.
What? Put this ice cream bucket on your head, Guy Raz, and hold on for your life.
You want me to... Yes.
Mindy, what does any of this have to do with the secret ingredient to melt resistant ice cream?
Brace yourself, Guy Raz.
This is gonna be a rocky road.
Sorry, sorry. I can fix that.
That was crazy. When did you learn to drive like that, Mindy?
Grandma G -Force taught me how to drive monster trucks before I could even crawl.
Of course she did. Okay, Guy Raz, you ready to explore the new science of ice cream that will melt in your mouth, not in your hand?
You know, I almost forgot why we were even on this wild adventure.
Okay, first things first, take a look over there.
Where? Over there. Whoa, all I see are a bunch of people harvesting bananas.
Yeah, that's it. Now, we're going to sneak over there and you're going to distract them while I grab all of their banana waste.
What? I'm not sure I follow.
Guy Raz, look at me.
Look me in the eye.
Okay. Now, you're just going to have to trust me when I tell you that this next part is going to be very, very important to our mission.
Okay, you ready? No. No?
Now just tiptoe behind me.
When we get close, you do something to distract them, and I'll sweep in and snatch the goods, okay?
Well, if it's trash, couldn't we just walk up and ask for it?
Why would we want to do that, Guy Raz?
Come on, let's go. Creep, creep, creep, creep.
Quick, now distract them so they don't notice me.
Uh, okay, uh... I'm a little teapot, short and stout.
Here is my handle and here is my...
Come on, Guy Raz, let's get out of here.
But I wasn't finished with my song.
I'm a little teapot short and...
Hey, she took our garbage.
So? Oh, yeah. So long.
Hey, Mindy, wait up.
What are you running for?
You're practically doing their job for them.
Quick, Guy Raz, get in the ice cream truck before they catch us.
Mindy, we're running off with their garbage.
Trust me, no one's trying to catch us.
Did you just say garbage?
You haul all this garbage?
Well, you've got bushels of inedible banana stock, so yeah, pretty sure that's the definition of garbage.
Well, then what if I told you that these bushels of banana stock garbage Garbage?
Help the secret ingredient to melt -resistant ice cream, huh?
Go on. Well, as you can see here, bananas grow on plants in places like Columbia, South America, and not in our neighborhood grocery store.
Please tell me that's not the secret.
And they grow in bunches on these tree -like perennial herbs.
Yeah. Looking at these banana plants, I can see that they look sort of like trees.
Hey, look, some of them are almost 30 feet tall and they have pretty sturdy stems, but they're not woody like an actual tree.
So what about their trunks?
Well, those aren't actually trunks at all.
What? They're pseudostems, which means that they're made up of leaves packed really, really tightly together.
And because they're packed so tightly together, that's what makes those stems hard. Yep.
And you mentioned that they're perennial herbs?
Yeah, so perennial is just a fancy -pants way of saying a plant that lives for more than two years.
And an herb is any plant that makes seeds and doesn't have a woody stem and also dies down to the ground after flowering.
But a perennial herb will come back to life year after year after year.
Like these banana plants.
Yep, or lilies or orchids.
They're perennial herbs, too.
So what about all this banana plant waste that you just snatched away from the harvesters?
It looks like they were throwing it away after plucking the banana bunches from it.
Oh, yeah. Here. This stalk is called a rachis.
And once harvesters pick the banana bunches, they just get rid of it.
But? Oh, this is a big but.
Mindy. But these researchers had a hunch that maybe, just maybe, there was more to these banana ruckus than just garbage.
So what did they do?
Well, they started to extract, or suck out of these ruckus, these teeny tiny microfibers, or threads.
Threads that have no smell or taste and are thousands of times smaller than the width of a human hair.
Do these tiny fibers or threads have a name?
Yeah, but it's a mouthful.
Okay, well, try me.
They're called cellulose nanofibrils, or cnfs for short.
Huh. Cellulose nanofibrils.
Has a nice ring to it.
So when they got these fibers out of the plant, what did they do with them?
Well, they sprinkled them on their ice cream.
Uh... Okay, so maybe it was a little more complicated than that because, you know, scientists.
What? Anyhoo, they added teeny tiny CNF fibers in different amounts to scoops of ice cream mix.
And what did they find?
They found that with just the right amount of CNF fibers mixed in, that the ice cream lasted longer than the ice cream we're used to eating.
And by lasting longer, you mean...
I mean that it lasted longer in the freezer without going bad, longer in the store, and longer in these researchers' hands because it wasn't melting like crazy.
The secret to melt -resistant ice cream.
And that's not all.
There's more? They also discovered that these CNF fibers from the banana plants helped low -fat ice cream have a creamier texture, meaning that low -fat ice cream can now be as delicious as regular ice cream.
Healthier ice cream?
Now you're speaking my language, Mindy.
So what's next? Well, the next step is to be the first to get this melt -resistant ice cream onto freezer shelves and into grocery stores all over the world.
Wait, did you say the first?
Yeah, the competition is starting to heat up and that could melt some scientists' dreams. What do you mean?
Well, just last year, these Japanese scientists accidentally stumbled upon a discovery that a certain chemical found in strawberries could also help keep ice cream from melting for hours.
You know, now that I think about it, I faintly remember reading a study out of Scotland last year where scientists found a protein that could help keep ice cream from melting on a hot day as well.
Yeah, but you know what I always say?
Bunker balls? No, I always say, why wait for science when you can just do it yourself?
Oh, no. What could possibly go wrong?
Guy Raz, hand me those banana stalks in a straw.
Oh, what? I'm going to suck the rachis out of the stalk and add it to my own recipe and then make us some melt -resistant ice cream right now.
I'm pretty sure that's not how it works, Mindy.
Here goes nothing. Oh boy.
Do these look like tiny fibers to you?
Uh. Close enough. Spitting them into the ice cream.
Ugh. Mindy, that doesn't.
Mixing it up. Guy Raz, waffle cone, sugar cone, or parking cone?
Parking cone? Pine cone it is.
Huh? Ah! Ice cream keeps falling off!
There. Okay. Here you go, Guy Raz.
I call this flavor Banana -conda.
Huh? Now step outside the ice cream truck and see if it doesn't melt all over your hands.
Anything for science.
Anything for science.
Anything for science.
Any updates? What's happening?
Is it melting? Well, uh, Mindy, it appears that your experiment has left me covered in ice cream soup.
Man, wonder where I went wrong.
Well, it all started when you rolled up in this falling apart ice cream truck and then drove me through swampy jungles to South America and then...
Speaking of which, we should probably head back.
I'm losing business down here.
This place is bananas.
Well, let me at least get back into the truck before you take off.
Oh. Wait, wait, the truck won't start?
What are we going to do?
Well, I'm afraid there's only one thing we can do, Guy Raz.
Reggie! Grownups, if you like Wow in the World, you can listen early and ad -free right now on Wondery+.
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Thanks for joining us for this edition of Wee Wow!
Our show is written by Ruth Morrison and Jed Anderson.
The role of baby Dennis is played by Jed Anderson.
Ah, well, then who plays the role of big Dennis?
Never you mind. Original sound design and production is done by Henry Moskal and Marion Lozano, with help from Jed Anderson and Tyler Tholl.
Original music for WeWOW is composed and performed by Tyler Tholl.
Special thanks to Jessica Bode, Rebecca Caban, Dr. Natasha Crandall, Kenny Curtis, Lizzie Fralick, Kristen Yang, Meredith Helpin -Ranzer, Thuy Mac, Erica Medina, Henry Moskal, Jodi Nussbaum, Ali Paksima, Guy Raz, Linda Rothenberg, Steph Sosa, Mindy Thomas, Joanna Weber, Anna Zagorski, and all of the other tinkerers at Tinkercast HQ.
Be sure to visit Tinkercast .com where you can become an official member of the World Organization of Wowzers.
Learn about upcoming events, shop our wow shop, find our best -selling books, and learn about all the other amazing podcasts from Tinkercast. Thanks again for thinking, tinkering, experimenting, and exploring with me this week.
Be sure to check out episodes of Wow in the World on Mondays, two What's in a Wow on Fridays, and Wee Wow on the Weekend with Dennis on the weekends.
And remember, who wows?
I wow. No, baby Dennis, we wow.
All right. Wee wow.
Wow in the world. Wow in the world.
Wow in the world was made by Tinkercast and sent to you by Wondery.
