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Hey, grownups.
Mindy and Guy Raz here.
And before we start the show, happy National STEM Day.
Mindy!
We think that every day should be National STEM Day, so we are bringing the wows of STEM home to you.
That's right.
Mindy and I have some brand new Wow in the World toys out in the world just in time for the holidays.
Made for the kids who love science and for the ones who don't yet.
From our 100 experiments, that wow kit to the telescope and astronomy kit.
Our Wow in the World toys help your wowser learn about their world through play.
Plus, you can hear exclusive audio content from me and Guy Raz to help your wowzer discover even more wows.
Grownups.
Help make every day feel like STEM day at your home with our latest Wow in the World toys designed with your wowzer in mind.
You can shop our Wow in the World toys at Tinkercast.com slash toys.
That's Tinkercast.com slash toys.
Oh, hey, Guy Raz, can you hand me some toys?
Oh, sure, uh...
Here you go.
Thank you.
I'm gonna throw them in the confetti can and see what happens.
Oh, no.
Ahem.
We wow on the weekend.
We wow on the weekend.
We wow on the weekend.
Cause this is what we do on the weekend.
Talking, laughing, me and Reggie.
Singing, laughing, and then we... Oh, wait, no, I said laughing twice.
Uh...
Wee-wow on the weekend.
Yeah!
Wee-wow on the weekend.
Clap, clap!
Wee-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 this is my co-host, Reggie.
Reggie, say hi.
Reggie!
Hey, Unc.
Tension, Reggie.
The show is starting.
You're distracted?
Well, what are you looking at over there?
Trading cards?
Oh, what kind?
Nokimon?
I've never heard of Nokimon.
Let me see.
Oh, they're little pasta monsters.
Wow, look at all these.
Macarozar, Rigaturtle, Pepperdino.
Oh, Fioli on.
Can I have that one?
Trade for it?
But I don't have any cards.
Well, how about I just make you some actual pasta?
What stats does it have?
Reggie, it's pasta.
There's no stats.
Can we just do the show?
Okay, let's get into our first segment.
Reading reviewsies.
Ahem.
I'm reading Reviewsies for me and for you, Zees.
We've got us some doozies, so let's read Reviewsies.
OK, welcome to Reading Reviewsies, the segment where I print out a bunch of comments people write on Apple Podcasts or Spotify or whatever, and I read them aloud.
OK, let's get started.
This first Reviewsie comes to us from username uruled.
The title reads, wow, wow, I give Dennis star emoji.
Wait, who's Dennis?
Yeah, I don't know who Dennis is.
It doesn't matter.
The message says star emoji, flame emoji, dog emoji flower, bouquet emoji, and then it says more Poopay episode.
More Poopay?
What's Poopay?
Isn't Poopay like a fancy mustard or something?
Oh, you think it's a typo and it's supposed to be puppy.
Okay, well, Dennis, I'm not sure what we have for... What?
You think Dennis is a typo, too?
Reggie, you don't know that.
Dennis could be how they spell their name.
Sorry, Dennis, if that's your name.
No new Poopay episodes.
I mean, hopefully more puppy episodes coming soon.
Next Reviewsy.
This next Reviewsy comes to us from username Skull and Crossbones Emoji Explosion Emoji.
The title reads, Love it.
And please read my Reviewsy.
Wow, perfect.
I am reading the Reviewsy just like the title asks.
And the message says, Love Wee Wow on the weekend.
It is my top pick of new episodes.
And Dennis, you are my favorite.
Star Eyes Emoji.
You are so awesome.
Six stars.
Reggie, we're the top pick.
I don't know.
We're just the top pick.
Isn't that great?
Wow.
Top pick.
Next Reviewsy.
This next Reviewsy comes to us from username BigBoy1225.
The title reads, I want train week.
And the message says, fun fact.
Some trains levitate with magnets.
Wow.
Really?
Well, now I want train week.
Reggie, can me and big boy 1225 have train week with magnets and trains and levitation?
No.
Me and big boy 1225 never get what we want.
Never.
Next reviewsy.
This last reviewsy comes to us from username Ibrahim.
The title reads, it's a good show.
And the message says, good job.
Well, Ibrahim, thank you.
And thanks for all your reviews, these listeners.
Keep them coming.
If you leave a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, I just might read it on WeWow on the weekend.
And you can leave whatever number of stars you want, as long as it's five or more.
Okay, up next is a little segment I like to call Inside Tinkercast 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 1, Episode 10.
It's called Comets, Ice Age, and Human Civilization.
The Ice Age is not Time period where it was really cold, or the one where everyone had flying skateboards.
Right, right, right, right, the cold one.
Yeah, I think the skateboard age was a dream I had.
And in my dream, we all had to ride to the store to buy alligator food because, Ah right, the episode.
I almost forgot.
Okay, here we go.
And play.
Wow in the World will be right back.
Grown-ups, this message is for you. show.
Oh, hey, Mindy.
Why are you putting on a ski suit in the middle of the summer?
Oh, this thing?
Yeah.
Well, I was just going to hop into the time machine that your dad's building and see if I could pay a quick visit to the late Pleistocene epic.
Okay.
Well, first of all, my dad and I are still putting the final touches on the time machine, so it's not really ready for takeoff.
And second thing, can you Refresh me on what exactly the Pleistocene Epoch was?
Oh, sure, Mindy.
It was a period of time here on Earth when things were very, very, very cold.
Are you talking about the Ice Age?
Yes.
The Pleistocene is known informally as the Ice Age.
But it was actually a period of time that lasted about two and a half million years.
And during that time, big parts of the Earth...
Got colder.
Wait, were humans alive during this time?
Well, our species, Homo sapiens, were born here on Earth about 220,000 years ago.
So, yes, we humans were around towards the very end of the Pleistocene Epoch.
Okay, so, Gairaz, the Pleistocene Epoch sounds really, really cold.
Not exactly my idea of paradise.
Are you sure you want to go back there?
I mean... Well, Mindy...
I'm curious to see what North America looked like back then.
Man, curiosity leads us to some strange places.
Okay, Guy Raz, if you insist on going, you might want to take this with you.
Uh, what's this, Mindy?
Oh, it's just a giant woolly mammoth trap.
Got it on clearance like three years ago, but haven't had a reason to own it until now.
Uh, okay.
You're going to want to take this with you.
Thanks, but I don't think I'll be needing that, Mindy.
Hey, by the way, are you interested in coming along?
Well... guess I don't have anything else going on, but only if it's for a quick visit.
I don't have 200 million years to spare.
Okay, great.
Come on into the machine.
My dad did tell me to stay out of this thing, but I'm pretty sure he said that on opposite days.
Whoa, look at all these buttons.
Yeah, do you know which one we should push?
Well, my heart says all of them, but my brain says, how about this one?
The one that says Boston, Massachusetts, late Here goes nothing.
Well, I'm not sure you hit the right one, Mindy, but it feels like this time machine is working!
Mindy?
Mindy?
You okay?
Yeah, just feeling a little, uh, just a little, uh... I'm sorry about that.
This time travel thing tends to make some people a little carsick.
Yeah, you can say that again.
This time travel thing tends to make people a little carsick.
Oh, yeah, I didn't mean that literally.
Oh, yeah, sorry.
Anyway Mindy, if your dad's time machine works when we step out of this thing, we should be roughly in the same spot where Boston Massachusetts is in the present day.
Whoa.
Kairos, what if this thing really did work?
Oh, man, I am so nervous.
There's only one way to find out.
We got to get out of here.
Um, you ready?
I'm ready.
Let's open this thing up.
Wow.
I think we're here, Mindy.
Whoa, it's freezing here, Kairos.
You said we were going to Boston.
I don't see a single Dunkin' Donuts anywhere around here.
What is going on?
Well remember Mindy, I said we were going to roughly the same place where you can find Boston, Massachusetts in the modern world.
But we traveled back in time 20,000 years ago, so naturally, no Boston, no Red Sox, no Dunkin' Donuts.
Yeah, and all I see is ice.
Isn't it incredible?
Yeah.
I know, a magical winter wonderland.
Yeah, I'm ready to go back to the modern day.
Well, before we do that Mindy, I just want you to take a look around, because this is what parts of North America looked like 20000 years ago.
Wow.
I don't even recognize it.
Big parts of our continent were covered in ice, a giant ice sheet.
And that's why we sometimes call this period in history an ice age.
Wow.
That is so super fascinating, truly, and I'm glad we made this trip.
But I am ready to go back now because I am freezing and I left my jacket back in the lab.
How are you not even cold?
Okay, I guess we've seen enough here.
Let's get back in.
Oh, this is so much better.
It was so cold out there.
I still can't believe we got to visit the Ice Age.
All right, saddle up, buckle up your seatbelt.
I'm going to press this button right here and... Here we go!
We stopped too soon!
It's only 1969!
Keep going!
I think I'm gonna be... Sorry about that, Mindy.
It's fine.
I just need to shake it off and then I'll be okay.
Much better.
So, Guy Raz, of all the times in history, why did you want to go back to the coldest?
Well, Mindy, during the Pleistocene, as I mentioned... parts of North America were covered in ice.
And the places today where you'll find cities like Toronto and Detroit, even Chicago.
These places were covered in ice.
Well, it looks like they eventually thawed out.
So when did it start to get warmer?
Well, about 18000 years ago, the Northern Hemisphere, or the parts of the planet above the equator, started to slowly warm up.
And that giant sheet of ice started to melt.
But Mindy... I had a feeling you were going to say that.
But Mindy, in the last 1000 years of the Pleistocene, parts of the northern hemisphere all of a sudden started to get colder again.
Wait, what?
Yeah, colder.
But why?
You just said it was getting warmer.
Well, there are different theories about why this happened.
It was a period of time that lasted about 1,200 years.
And geologists or scientists who study the Earth call it the Younger Dryas Period.
Younger Dryas?
Yeah, it was the last great ice age here on planet Earth.
And no one's entirely sure why it happened.
Well, what's the theory?
Well Mindy, the theory is that somehow lots and lots and lots of cold water from lakes here in North America started to flow into the Atlantic Ocean, and that disrupted the ocean currents.
And by currents, you mean the movement of the ocean?
Yeah, you can think of currents as these giant rivers of water that flow deep below the surface of the ocean.
And here in North America those currents of water help bring warm water from the equator, the midpoint on Earth where the climate is generally warmer.
And it brings that warmer water to colder parts of the Earth, like in the Northern Hemisphere areas closer to the North Pole.
Yeah, but how would cold water from lakes be enough to disrupt ocean currents?
I mean.
Well, the theory is that because so much cold water started to flow into the Atlantic, it blocked the warmer water from coming up.
And the climate or the weather conditions on Earth, well, they're affected by ocean currents.
Oh!
Okay, I gotcha.
So what you're saying is that all of that cold water that was flowing into the Atlantic Ocean made it so that no warm water could make its way up to parts of North America.
Precisely, Mindy.
And without that warm water, the climate here in North America plunged or dropped back down.
But why did it happen?
Well, scientists don't entirely know.
I knew you were going to say that.
But there is another theory as to why Earth suddenly got cold.
And this theory is not as widely accepted by scientists, but it is still interesting.
Yeah, so what's that theory?
Well Mindy, that theory is that sometime around the start of the last ice age, a comet struck planet Earth.
Whoa, a comet?
Yeah, a giant comet that kicked up so much dust and dirt that it blocked sunlight from large parts of the northern hemisphere.
And without sunlight... things would begin to get colder.
Yes, that's the theory.
So did it happen?
Well, again, we don't know.
Many geologists have serious doubts about it.
But recently Mindy, a team of engineers from the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, made the case once again that our last ice age may have been related to a comet that landed on Earth.
Well, how did they figure this out?
Well, this team of scientists, led by engineer Martin Swetman from the University of Edinburgh, analyzed or studied an ancient archaeological site in Turkey that led them to this theory.
Hold the phone, Guy Raz.
So a minute ago we were in North America and now we're in Turkey?
Yes.
Turkey.
That's the country that connects the continent of Europe to the continent of Asia.
Yes.
And Turkey is where some of the most ancient human civilizations, or turkish, communities formed.
These were the earliest examples of humans banding together to form towns and neighborhoods and places where they lived.
Yeah, but why would some random place in Turkey hold the clue that we need to better understand this possible comet strike?
Well, Mindy, the place in question is a very important archaeological site called Gobekli Tepey.
Uh, Gobekli to where?
Gobekli Tepe, Mindy.
It was discovered by archaeologists who began to excavate or dig it up in 1994.
And what they found was an ancient temple or place where ancient humans worshipped different gods that they believed in.
And what did the archaeologists find there?
Well, they found the ruins of ancient buildings and beautiful ancient carvings in stone.
Carvings of what?
Well, in one famous stone called the Vulture Stone, archaeologists found carvings of animals.
And here's the amazing part about it, Mindy.
I am dangerously on the edge of my seat.
These engineers from the University of Edinburgh believe that the animals in the carving actually represent a series of constellations.
Constellations?
So you mean like a group of stars that form a pattern?
Yes.
Like Orion the Hunter and Leo the Lion.
Yes, and I bet, if you go outside tonight Mindy, and it's a clear night, you might even be able to see the three stars that make up Orion's belt.
You know what they say about Orion's belt, right?
Uh... It's a huge waste.
Uh, that's not... I know, that joke only deserves three stars, am I right?
Anyway Mindy, as I was saying, along with carvings that may represent constellations, the scientists believe these carvings show a comet striking the Earth.
The same comet that might have caused the Ice Age?
That's the theory.
That this ancient civilization somehow knew about this comet strike and carved the story into stone.
Because this was during a time a long, long, long time ago before humans wrote things down on paper.
And the way they remembered history was by carving it into stone.
Wow.
And so how did we humans survive in such cold temperatures?
Well, Mindy, remember, this ice age mainly affected the northern parts of the planet.
And up until that point, most humans were still living closer to the equator.
But even the humans who did live in these cold climates, well, they adapted.
They grew more hair to cover their bodies.
They used animal skins to keep themselves warm.
And they lived in caves to protect them from wind and ice.
Yeah, but how did they find food?
Well, it's interesting you ask Mindy, because the end of the last ice age actually helped us humans to become humans.
Farmers?
Yeah, because for most of our history, we homo sapiens were hunter-gatherers.
You mean we'd go out and hunt for food during the day.
Yeah, and there were no supermarkets or farmer's markets or places we could go to just buy our groceries.
And in fact...
We humans didn't really start to grow our own food until about 10500 years ago, so right after the end of the last ice age.
Yeah, but what is the end of the ice age and humans becoming farmers have to do with one another?
Well, Mindy, as the temperature on Earth became warmer, ancient humans started to figure out that...
Instead of looking for fields of wild wheat or barley, that they could just take the seeds from these plants and plant them and grow food on their own without having to look for it.
Yeah, by watering their seeds and making sure that they had plenty of sunlight?
Yes, and this is often called the Neolithic Revolution.
Fancy.
This was a period when humans discovered how to use seeds.
So, instead of randomly coming across an apple tree or another fruit tree, they could just take the seeds out, plant them and grow their own stock right where they lived.
And this could happen because the Ice Age was over and the Earth's temperature was becoming warm enough to start growing crops.
And this could happen because the Ice Age was over and the Earth's temperature finally became warm enough to start growing crops.
Yes.
Well, in that case, Guy Raz, I'm just going to plant this tiny Cheerio in the ground.
And by this time next year, I will have grown my very first donut tree.
Specifically, a chocolate-glazed donut tree that blooms with lots of sprinkles in the springtime.
Uh, Mindy?
Yeah?
Donuts are not a plant.
They don't, uh, they don't have seeds.
No nut underestimate the power of Mother Nature, Guy Raz.
Uh, that's... Even though you're correct, I'm still planting in any way.
Okay.
Because you never know.
The Earth is full of surprises.
Donut tree.
And wow, the last ice age ended and then humans started growing things from seeds?
Reggie, I grow things from seeds.
Yeah, my prize-winning azaleas.
And I grow other plants, but I don't talk about them much because they haven't won any prizes yet.
Well, this year I grew banana peppers.
Really?
You think there could be a best banana pepper competition?
Well, let's go find out where it is.
All right, first we've got to wrap up the show.
Thanks to all you listeners out there for tuning in to WeWow 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 look and find my best banana peppers for the competition that we don't know of exists.
Oh, Reggie, do you think there's a prize for the most judgmental looking fern?
Because I have this fern named Sarah that... Thanks for joining us for this edition of Wee Wow.
Special thanks to Steph Sosa, Rebecca Caban, and all of the other tinkerers at Tinkercast HQ.
There's still time to share your WeWow Crafternoon challenges with us Grownups.
You can upload pictures and videos of your projects to us at Tinkercastcom.
Slash, share or call us at 1-888-7WOWOW.
Our website is Tinkercast.com.
There you can learn more about becoming an official member of the World Organization of Wowzers.
Learn about upcoming events, shop our shop and pick up a copy of the latest edition of our number one New York Times bestselling book series.
Wow in the Wild.
Thanks again for thinking, tinkering, experimenting, and exploring with us this week.
Meet us back here on Monday for Wow in the World.
And remember, who wows?
We wow!
Wow in the World was made by Tinkercast and sent to you by Wondery.
