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Hey, Wowzer fams!
Mindy and Guy Raz here and before we start the show this week, we have a very special episode of Wow in the World to share with you.
That's right, Mindy.
You may remember, back in April we teamed up with our friends at Geocaching HQ, the Aspen Institute and Nature Conservancy to create Planet Wow, an epic geocaching eco adventure that shares the wows of our planet, and since then we've received so many phone calls telling us about the places that wow you.
You've also sent us photos of your geocaching adventures, and we're not done yet.
This week's episode of Wow in the World takes a closer look at the role we all play in taking care of our planet and how we can all work together to make this planet wow.
Listen to our latest episode called Planet Wow to learn about how you too, can help take care of our planet.
And grown-ups, don't forget to visit Tinkercast.com slash Planet Wow to learn how you and your wowzer can join us in our geocaching eco-adventure.
And it's not too late to call us with your planet wows.
Call 1-888-7-WOW-WOW and tell us about a place on our planet that wows you.
That's it.
And now let's get back to the show.
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We wow on the weekend.
We wow on the weekend.
We wow on the weekend.
Because this is what we do on the weekend.
Singing, laughing, and then we... Oh, wait, no, I said laughing twice.
Uh, whatever.
We wow on the weekend.
Yeah!
We wow on the weekend.
Clap, clap!
We wow on the weekend.
Because this is what we do on the weekend.
Hello and welcome to Wee Wow on the Weekend!
I'm your host, Dennis.
And that right there is my co-host, Reggie the Giant Pigeon.
This is the show where we chit-chat and answer questions from our fans and listen to Tinkercast podcasts.
Hey Reggie, guess what?
Mother and I just put out a bird feeder in our backyard!
Yeah, we filled it up with bird seeds, so now birds will come hang out in our garden.
Like maybe chickadees or blue jays or... Reggie, where are you going?
Uh, bye?
Sorry, devoted listeners.
This has never happened before.
I guess Reggie is gone.
Oh, never mind.
Reggie's back.
Reggie, where did you... Reginald Feathersford!
Did you just eat all the bird seed out of my bird feeder?
Reggie, that was for the other birds.
Well, it doesn't matter if you just had one bite.
You're a giant pigeon and you take giant bites.
If you were so hungry, you could have just asked me to make you a snack.
In fact, let me make you a snack anyway with a brand new cooking segment.
Dish it up on a dish.
Anything that you wish.
Take a bite.
Reggie, what?
What do you mean you don't want to do a cooking segment?
I am so a good cook.
Oh, I see.
You're too full for another snack now that you've drained my bird feeder.
Well, actually, the snack I'm making isn't for you.
It's for me.
And you don't even have to have one bite of it.
Okay, let's start over.
Dish it up on a dish, anything that you wish.
Take a bite, that's delish.
Dishing it up with Dennis and Reggie.
Today on Dishing It Up with Dennis, we're making a snack for me and only me.
And I'm craving birdseed.
Yes, that's right, birdseed.
I've got the bag of birdseed we use to fill the feeder right here.
And I'm going to take my cereal bowl here and pour all the rest of my bird seed in the bowl.
There we go.
Now I'm going to eat it with a spoon.
Veggie, no.
You said you were too full for a snack.
This is all for me.
Yes, I am.
I'm going to eat this whole bowl of bird seed right now.
Wow, so dry and fibrous.
Yes, Reggie, I do.
I love it.
Nom, nom, nom, nom, nom, nom, nom.
No, I'm not done with it yet.
I'm taking another bite.
Nom, nom, nom, nom, nom.
Okay, next up is a little segment I like to call N-Song Supercast Studios.
Inside Tinkercast Studios.
This is the part where we revisit an episode of one of my favorite Tinkercast shows.
And today we're listening to Wow in the World, Season 3, Episode 17, called Here Comes the Sun-Powered Energy.
Oh, I think this is the episode where Mindy and I bought a ton of cool junk and it had no ecological consequences whatsoever.
No, it was totally fine.
You weren't even there, Reggie.
Oh, I guess you were.
Well, whatever.
Let's just play the episode.
Okay, here we go.
And play.
WeeWow will be right back.
Grown-ups, this message is for you.
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Watch now with the whole Smurfing family on Paramount+.
That's it.
Now back to the show.
Buy the sky and sell the sky and lift your arms up to the sky and ask the sky.
Don't ask the sky.
Don't fall on me, don't fall on me.
Delivery.
Huh, who could that possibly be at seven in the morning?
Hold on.
Coming.
Sheesh.
You'd think a person would have patience, especially at this hour.
Uh, who is it?
Delivery from earthsgiantlung.com.
Huh.
For me?
That can't be right.
I always buy my stuff from local shops.
I mean, earthsgiantlung.com just tempts people to buy stuff they don't need.
Uh, good morning.
Good morning.
I've got some packages here.
We've got this one and this one.
There you go.
Whoa, whoa, whoa.
Wait a minute.
You've got like 150 packages behind you.
Are you sure they're for me?
Uh-huh.
It says right here on the package, Guy Razzi next door to the gingerbread mansion.
And here we go.
This one.
Let me see that.
Wait a minute.
These packages are addressed to Mindy, not Guy Raz.
Mindy?
Oh, you mean her?
Yep, you got it.
Mindy, what is going on?
Oh, hey, Guy Raz.
How's your cabbage fermenting coming along?
Well, it's, uh... That's right, boys.
Keep on...
Mindy, what is going on?
Ah, just dealing with a little delivery from earthsgiantlung.com.
A small delivery?
There's like 150 boxes coming off that truck.
192 boxes, to be precise.
192 boxes?
And anyway, why are half of them being delivered to my house?
Oh.
Oh, so turns out, earthsgiantlungcom has a limit on how many boxes that they'll deliver to a single address, so I had to put yours down too.
Hope you don't mind.
Mindy, what have you ordered?
I mean, I know you've got a food truck and all, but I mean this can't all be cricket powder for your BBBQ truck?
Yes, of course it's not cricket powder, Guy Raz.
Why would I need so much cricket powder?
Well, then what could you have possibly ordered?
Oh well, just the other day I was sitting at home minding my own beeswax when my zoodle told me that it was cyber fun day.
Cyber fun day?
What are you talking about?
Oh, so Cyber Fun Day is the day when all of these shopping websites, like earthsgiantlungcom, have deals on everything you could ever want, and everything you didn't even know you wanted.
All these toys and glitter bombs and unicorns that poop rainbows and unicorns that poop potatoes and cheesy bake ovens and keychains and novelty gifts and inspirational decorative plates.
See?
Look, this one says, Love, Laugh, Live.
And even Dennis got in on it.
Dennis, tell Guy Raz what you ordered.
400 fidget spinners.
They were overstocked from 2017.
I will never be restless again.
Whee!
I'm bored.
Mindy, I don't understand.
Are you sure you need all this stuff?
Yes, of course I don't need it, Guy Raz.
It was all on sale.
I used the money that I made from those energy bars that Reggie and I sold to his paleo pigeon friends.
And boy howdy, we made a fortune on those things.
I walked away from that business venture with a thousand dollars.
Wait, wait, hold on, hold on.
You're telling me you made 1000 in profit from selling birdseed paleo energy bars and you decided to spend it on a bunch of a bunch of junk.
Well, you know what you always say, Guy Raz.
One bird's trash is another bird's treasure.
What?
I don't say that.
Yeah, you do.
Remember last week when Reggie and I helped you fish out all of those old plastic bottles and aluminum cans from Dennis' trash.
Yes.
Hey, Mindy.
Hey, Reg.
Over here.
Can you give me a hand?
I'm going through Dennis' trash and he's not recycling anything.
I mean, we need to fish all these bottles and cans out of this trash bin.
You want us to help you dig through Dennis' trash?
Well, as I always say, Reg, one bird's trash is another bird's treasure.
See?
Now do you remember?
Oh yeah, but I was talking about trash that could actually be recycled and turned into something new.
Huh.
Because otherwise all that trash gets dumped into a giant trash dump or landfill and well, that's not good for our environment.
Oh, I'm picking up what you're putting down, Guy Raz.
Talking about trash turning into treasure, you meant recycling.
Yes.
Oh.
And judging by these 190 boxes.
Actually, 192 boxes, but it was downing.
Judging by those 192 boxes, you've actually generated more trash.
Trash?
You know what they say, guy.
One person's trash is another person's toilet paper dispenser that plays Christmas songs.
You're calling my Wi-Fi-enabled Bluetooth-ready eggbeater earrings trash?
Well, yes.
I mean, no.
I mean, yes.
Look at all the plastic and cardboard out here.
All these things you've ordered are packed in stuff that's going to go in the trash.
Well, let's recycle it.
Well, Mindy, unfortunately, that's not going to solve the problem.
Well, of course it will.
What are you talking about, Guy Raz?
Haven't you heard?
Heard what?
Well, for the past few decades a lot of our recycling things like paper and plastic and glass has actually been shipped off to China to get recycled.
Oh, thank you, China.
Except over the past year, China has told the world that it can't take all of our junk anymore.
What?
Why not?
Well, we humans have generated too much of it, and recycling all of that trash has become too difficult for China.
Ooh, so what does that mean for how we recycle our garbage?
Well, it means that in many cities in America and even in other countries, they've stopped recycling.
Just stopped recycling?
Like Dennis?
Oh, Mindy, I didn't stop recycling.
I never started.
Guy Raz, if they're not recycling, then what's happening with all of that cardboard and plastic?
Well, a lot of it is being incinerated or burned.
Oh, well, that sounds like a pretty good plan to me.
Well, unfortunately it's not, because every time you burn this stuff, it creates pollution in our air.
Pollution that makes our air dirty, and that isn't good for us.
So, Guy Raz, this doesn't sound great.
What can we do about it?
Well, the first thing we can do is not buy so much stuff.
But the Cyber Fun Day sales were so good.
How is not buying so much stuff going to help the planet?
Because, Mindy, every time we buy something, it means that energy had to be used to make it.
And energy, or most of the energy we humans currently use, creates carbon dioxide.
Oh, and are you talking about the same carbon dioxide that's making our planet hotter?
Exactly.
And most of the factories that make the stuff we buy have to use fossil fuels to create or generate that energy.
Huh.
Fossil fuels.
Guy Raz, whenever I think of fossil fuels, I think of fossils like in dinosaurs.
Are you talking about those kinds of fossils?
Well, yeah.
I mean...
Hey, I have an idea.
I love ideas.
What's the status of the wow machine these days?
Oh well, it's breaking down all the time and leaking dirty hot dog water for some inexplicable reason.
Oh, and there's a bunch of pigeon feathers stuck to the windshield, but other than that I'd say it's perfect.
Uh... Why?
You thinking about taking a little fossil-fueled trip?
Well, we could go back in time to find out how fossil fuels were created.
Yes!
Okay, I'll meet you at the Wow Machine in just a minute.
But first, I gotta get my new portable airbags out of this box here.
Got him!
Well, while you're getting ready, I'm just gonna head over to the garage, okay?
Sure!
Run, run, run, run, run, run!
Okay, guys, here we are, the trusty old Wow Machine.
Oops!
Where exactly are we heading to?
Well, I suppose if we want to see the origins of fossil fuels, we need to go back to the Carboniferous Period.
Oh, I was just at a Carboniferous Period birthday party.
It's the geological age that started more than 350 million years ago.
That's the one.
Can you set the dial?
You got it.
Let's see here.
350 million years ago.
And let me just punch in the Coordinates here?
Any specific location?
We can just stay here in North America, right where we are right now.
Okay, North America.
Carboniferous period.
And here we go!
Ugh!
Ugh!
Ugh!
My tummy.
Carlos, I think I'm going to barf.
We interrupt this program for a brief barf break.
Wow in the World will return in three, two, one.
Mindy, you really should consider eating whole grains for breakfast.
Glad I got that out of my system.
So now what?
All right, let's get this hatch open.
OK, opening the hatch.
Look at all these plants, Guy Raz.
Yeah.
Man, this place sure beats my Aunt Mojo's collection of indoor ferns.
Mindy, this is what our planet Earth looked like 350 million years ago.
Amazing.
So green and lush and untouched.
I guess it's good for us that dinosaurs aren't going to come around for at least 100 million more years.
So while we have the time, let's go take a walk.
Sure.
Let me just get my mud boots on.
Hang on.
Hey!
Okay, got him on.
I'm ready.
Mindy?
Mindy?
I'm out here, Guy Raz.
Trying to find some of those fossil fuels you were talking about.
Wait up.
I just need to climb out of the wow machine.
Wow.
What do you think?
It really is beautiful out here.
I know.
It's incredible.
So, Guy Raz, I'm looking at all of these plants, and right now we are 350 million years in the past.
So does that mean that, as we get closer and closer to the present, that all of these plants will turn into the fuels that we humans will use to power our factories and our cars and our airplanes, and all that?
Yup.
Over the next several hundred millions of years, all of these plants around us will get covered by layers of soil and rocks.
That's a lot of centuries for these plants to be pushed under all of that weight and pressure.
Exactly.
Eventually, these plants will have no choice but to turn into a mushy goo.
Exactly.
And some of that goo will become petroleum or oil.
And some of it will turn into coal and gas.
Hey, Mindy, I have an idea.
Do you still happen to have that fast forward wand in your tool bag?
Actually, the fast-forward wand was a breadstick, so I ate it.
But, lucky for you, I do have my flip-forward fan.
It's right here in my adventure tool bag somewhere.
Let's see here.
Battery-operated marshmallow rotator.
Nope.
Oh, hey, look, I've got your cat Alice in here.
Alice?
Hi, Alice.
Okay, got a George Foreman grill.
Not gonna need that.
Oh, here it is.
My flip-forward fan.
Looks a little rusty.
Huh.
And it's wet.
Why is this thing wet?
Uh, salsa.
Oh, yes.
I forgot.
I poured some salsa in my adventure tool kit last week, just in case I came across some chips.
Maybe.
But the good news is it seems like the flip forward fan still works.
Let me just fire this baby up.
Whoa, whoa, that thing is glowing.
Hold on to your donkeys, Guy Raz, because the world around us is about to flip forward one million times faster.
Flip forward fan, activate.
Whoa!
Whoa!
Everything around us is speeding up!
Look!
Yeah!
All of these plants are being buried by layers of rocks and soil!
Some of it's turning into coal and some of it's turning into petroleum.
And look over there!
Those plants are turning into natural gas.
What I learned at that Guy Raz, I'd say we're witnessing an anaerobic decomposition.
Which is a scientific term for, well, natural materials being broken down into new materials.
This is bonker balls, Guy Raz.
We are literally watching fossils being turned into fuel.
And in 350 million years from now, humans will discover this fuel underground.
Fuel that will be used to power our cars and airplanes and factories, and even the lights we use in our homes.
Whoa, that is incredible, Sky Ross, but this flip-forward fan is starting to flip us out of control.
Time to hit the emergency stop button.
Oh, that was close.
Whoa.
Check it out, Guy Raz.
It looks like my flip-forward fan brought us all the way up to the 1800s.
This is when humans started to dig this stuff out of the ground.
Whoa.
Wait, and look over there.
Is that a giant oil well?
Yeah, it looks like a huge slow-motion hammer going up and down and up and down.
And when that giant hammer thing moves back and forth, it seems to be sucking up oil from deep down in the ground and bringing it to the surface.
Let's go check it out and see if we can take a sample of some of that oil.
Come on.
I love free samples.
It's so black and gooey.
How would we humans turn it into energy?
Well, once this oil is refined or cleaned up a bit, it turns into material that is very easy to burn.
And once it burns, it gets really hot.
And all of that heat is used to generate or create steam that makes a giant wheel or turbine go around and around in a power plant.
Oh, yeah, like that one big power plant in our town, the one with the giant smokestack.
That's exactly right.
And when that turbine goes around and around, it makes electricity.
Which is why we can have lights on in the house and TVs plugged into the walls and factories that can make all that stuff you ordered from earthsgiantlungcom.
Which seems like a really good thing, but it also means that we're burning these fuels.
And when we burn stuff... We create carbon dioxide.
That's right, the same carbon dioxide that's making our planet hard.
Man, so if we keep this up, no more winter?
Well, it's a little more complicated because it also means that as our planet gets warmer, our weather gets a little crazier.
Oh yeah, so like how some places on the planet might get too much rain, while other places don't get any rain at all.
Exactly.
This is what people mean when they talk about climate change.
Oh man, well I have noticed that we've been getting some pretty crazy storms in the past few years.
And Mindy, unless we humans start to work on this problem soon, we could get even crazier storms in the future.
Huh?
Oh, well, I've got an entire adventure toolkit full of inventions.
What can I do to help out?
Well, I'm glad you asked.
Want to head back to the WoW machine and I'll show you something I just installed in my house?
You installed something without my help?
Yup.
I got to see this.
Just open the hatch here.
OK, I'm in.
All right, let's get back to the present day.
Let me just punch in our coordinates.
And here we go!
Look at that.
We lost an entire side panel.
Okay, so what was that cool installation you wanted to show me?
Oh, yeah, it's on my roof.
I put in this special safety ladder to help us climb up.
Come on.
Shimmy, shimmy, shimmy, shimmy, shimmy, shimmy, shimmy, shimmy.
Whoa, are these solar panels?
Not just that.
Look over there, Mindy.
You put in a wind turbine?
Yep.
Can I ride it?
Just had them set up a few days ago.
All the energy I'll ever need right here using the good old-fashioned power of wind and the sun.
And I'm guessing that these are those renewable sources of energy that don't burn fossil fuels and create carbon dioxide.
Exactly.
You don't need to burn anything to get electricity from the sun and the wind, because they're always here.
So that means that energy that's generated from wind and sun are clean.
And more and more countries around the world are trying to use sun-powered solar energy and wind-powered wind energy.
Dennis, get a load of this wind turbine.
If we all start using this stuff, we could stop putting all that carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
Whoa, that's so cool.
Can I ride it?
And hopefully we can slow down how hot our planet will get.
Oh man, Guy Raz.
This reminds me of this story that I just read about this 16-year-old girl named Greta Thunberg.
Greta Thunberg.
Greta Thunberg.
Yeah, she's a student in Sweden who's trying to get kids from all over the world to tell their grown-ups to stop using all of those old fossil fuels.
Go on.
And a few weeks ago, kids around the world marched through their cities and their towns, holding signs and making noise, demanding that grown-ups listen to them.
Because all of the kids in the world today will have to work extra hard to clean up the mess left behind by all the grown-ups who've been using all this fossil fuel energy for the last 200 years.
Exact Doritos, Sky Roz.
And if we start making different choices about the way that we live now well, we can make a pretty big difference for the future.
Starting with a few simple decisions.
Yeah, what are you thinking?
Well, for starters, we should try to buy as much food as we can in its natural state.
So just to be clear, you're not talking about individually wrapped bags of pre-sliced grape-flavored apple slices.
Well, uh, no.
Actually, we should just try to buy apples and slice them ourselves.
Or fresh vegetables and fruits, instead of buying stuff that's packaged in plastic bags and cardboard.
Oh, yeah.
What else?
Well, Mindy, you could start by cutting down on all the stuff you order from earthsgiantlung.com.
I mean, do you really need a solar-powered marshmallow turner?
Well, it is solar-powered.
So Yeah, I guess that's true.
But the factory that made that marshmallow turner had to burn fossil fuels to make it and then it had to burn more fossil fuels to send it on a ship and then a truck to get to your house.
So you know.
So if I wanted to do my part, then I could just focus on buying only the things that I truly need.
Exactly.
And instead of all those packets of ketchup and soy sauce we use, we should politely ask restaurants to offer a single dispenser for everyone to use.
And instead of those disposable coffee cups we get from Herman Melville's House of Coffee, we could could buy a reusable coffee cup and use it again and again.
Huh.
Well then, I guess I'll have to figure out what to do with all these cardboard boxes that I got from Cyber Fun Day.
Well, besides cutting down on all the stuff from now on?
For sure.
But in the meantime, Reggie!
Hey, Rich.
I've got a bunch of cardboard here with your name on it.
I was wondering if you might be interested in building a brand new shredded cardboard nest.
Oh, you are?
Perfect!
Guy Raz here is looking to do the Earth a solid, so he will help you shred every one of these boxes with his scissors and bare hands.
And soon enough you'll have a cozy comfy brand-new state-of-the-art Earth-friendly, recycled cardboard nest Reg.
Come on, Guy Raz.
You're slacking on the job.
Time to start shredding for the planet.
What have I gotten myself into?
There's so many types of renewable energy out there.
Yeah, like solar power and wind power and hydropower and girl power and horsepower and cat power.
Oh, right, right, right.
Not all of those are renewable energy sources.
Well, anyway, we should probably go buy some more bird seed now since we ate it all.
Yeah, actually, I think I like it now.
It's bird tested.
Dennis approved.
Okay.
Let's wrap up the show.
Thanks to all you listeners out there for tuning in to Wee Wow on the weekend.
If you have a question for me, call and leave me a message at 1-888-7-WOW-WOW.
That's 1-888-7-WOW-WOW.
I just might answer your question on Wee Wow on the weekend.
Okay, let's go.
So Reggie, does bird seed come in other flavors like ranch or spicy nacho cheese?
Really?
It doesn't?
Well, it seems like birds might want some variety.
Okay.
Well what if we buy bird seed and then put hot sauce on it and call it Dennis and Reggie's Flamin' Hot Bird Seed?
Ooh, I wonder about...
Grownups, if you like Wow in the World, you can listen early and ad-free right now on Wondery Plus.
Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Wondery Kids Plus on Apple Podcasts.
Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music.
And before you go, tell us about yourself by filling out a short survey at wondery.com slash survey.
Thanks for joining us for this edition of WeWow.
Our show is written by Ruth Morrison and Jed Anderson.
The role of baby Dennis is played by Jed Anderson.
Well, then who plays the role of big Dennis?
Never you mind.
Original sound design and production is done by Tyler Tholl, with contributions from Jed Anderson and Henry Moskal.
Original music for WeWow is composed and performed by Tyler Tholl.
Special thanks to... all of the other Tinkerers at Tinkercast HQ.
Be sure to visit Tinkercastcom, 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!
Wee wow!
All right!
Wee wow!
Wow in the World was made by Tinkercast and sent to you by Wondery.
