Beaver Skull Obsession, Aussie Widowmakers, Koalas Eating $#!%

IKEA presenterar Ljud av förändring. Welkom till IKEA. Car shopping shouldn't be a game of 20 questions. Is this the right price? Am I making the right choice? With car gurus you don't have to question yourself. It's no wonder car gurus is the number one most visited car shopping site according to Similar Web's estimated traffic data. Buy or sell your next car today with cargurus at cargurus.com. Go to cargurus.com to make sure your big deal is the best deal. That's c rus.com. Carguros.com.

Guys, you know what they say. New Year, new me. Am I right? Okay, but but seriously, this time I actually kind of mean it. I've been starting some of my mornings off with masterclass and I actually feel like it's helping me work towards my 2026 goals in a big way. On masterclass, I've been taking the storytelling and humor class with David Sederis.

It's been helping me bring funny and meaningful moments from my real life into my writing more seamlessly and purposefully. Right now, our listeners get an additional 15% off any annual membership at masterclass.com slash weirdest. That's fifteen percent off at masterclass dot com slash weirdest. Masterclass dot com slash weirdest.

At Popular Science, we report and write dozens of science and tech stories every week. And while a lot of the fun facts we stumble across make it into our articles, there are lots of other weird facts that we just keep around the office. So we figured, why not share those with you? Welcome to the weirdest thing. Editors at Popular Science. Yes, I'm Eddy. And I'm Ricky. Woo! Yeah! Welcome to the show! Yeah!

Are you guys excited? Oh yeah, thank you. Yes. It it sounded like such a it sounded like such a uh like a canned uh video game celebration. Didn't want to interrupt it. Yeah. Woo. All right. Yeah. Woo. Uhhuh. Well, okay, tell us about who you are and the stuff you make? Um uh my name is Maddie. I uh Maddie is talking on everything. Uh I Kind of almost exactly like Jess, podcast producer, uh video essay maker, uh f fan of information. Um yeah, I've d I've done a lot of stuff.

I I do a lot of things, but uh yeah. I think that's it. That sounds like you. Ricky, what about you? Um, I'm Ricky. Ricky Peacock. It's my real name and it's also my name on everything. Um, I also much like Jess. Uh Went to the same school went to the same middle school as her, went to the same high school as her. Hung out with her mom a lot growing up. You have to explain that. You have to explain that. Oh You can't just say that. Well, I mean she's a teacher and she taught.

Thank you, thank you. She's a teacher and she taught me. She taught me. And I Jess's mom was my teacher growing up and insparked and and instilled in a in a in a show all about Learning things. True. She instilled a love of learning things in me. And so you and I'm kind of helping you flesh out your sort of bona fides as the host of this show, eight years in. Oh, I suppose you're correct. Just so you know, Jess has a mom who loves to teach people to like learning things.

Um I'm a Twitch streamer. That's that's the other thing. I stream on Twitch, twitch.tv slash. Anyway. Yeah. And all the links will all be in the description as as usual. And click everyone. Click everyone. Yeah, click click them. Click them. And and okay, so you might notice Rachel is absent and that is because she is still

uh on her maternity leave taking care of a human child. So you'll Congratulations, Rachel. Yeah, it's it's really exciting. But yeah, if you caught the end of last season You'll know. She gave she gave the full spiel, but I'll be holding down the fort for the next couple episodes, next couple months. But she'll be back.

Uh and we'll be sprinkling in some of me and Rachel's favorite retro episodes too to pass the time, like from seasons like one and two, because we're we're now in season ten. This is season ten, episode one. Which is Dude, we're kicking off epic we're just kicking off season 10. That's crazy. Yeah. Wow. Wow. We gotta do so. One of the one of our bul one of the beloved characters needs to have a big life-changing moment. Oh, wait, it's it's happened.

The the the host is having a baby. This is such season ten behavior. It really is. So yeah, everything's fine. Everything's good. You'll still get your bi-weekly dose of weird facts. I'm freaking out personally. Whenever anybody goes, Everything's fine. It's very calm. I'm constantly telling myself that everything's fine and it works out. So, you know, everything is fine.

Jess, you're kind of like the you're kind of like the duck paddling on water. You seem so cool you seem so cool and collected. But underneath A lot of effort. A flurry of action. Somebody on the British Traders just made that analogy, and I thought she invented it. Are you kidding? No. I was like, that's the smartest thing I've ever heard somebody say. And now you know it's not. No, I know she's just repeating some cr she heard.

You get it from me on this episode of a podcast? That can't be possible. Season what season ten is really starting out crazy. There's a time. Just regretting this. So Are we doing good? Oh brother.

Okay, let's let's get into the facts. So this is the the normal thing Rachel says, which is On the weirdest thing I learned this week, we start by each offering up a fact or story about something that we learned over the course of reading, writing YouTube videos. Gaming, I edited this. having too many tabs open, just being on the computer, etcetera. And then deciding which one of us goes first.

Then after we all have a chance to spin our little science yarns, we decide what the weirdest thing we learned this week actually was. And that's what Rachel says when she hosts, but we don't decide That there is a winner anymore and we haven't done that for seasons at this point, but we're too stubborn to change the intro. I love that'cause we all we all Exactly. We all get a participation trophy. Typical. And knowledge is the greatest trophy there is.

I would say that. We this this is a m a trio of millennials. There's a lot of them crawling around these days, man. W like it or not, you know? Millennial trios that have podcaster setups are a virus. This is technically a streaming setup.

Technically. Technically. So to start, we can each, as I just mentioned, give a little overview, one sentence tease about each of our facts. Uh I'll go first. My tease is I'm gonna talk about the tree that is actually a bomb. Whoa. Yeah. Scary. Yep. Uh Maddie, what are you gonna talk about? Uh beavers are essentially combating every bad climate thing humans are doing. And uh I think it's fascinating. Actually.

Actually c be beavers are actually climate heroes. This this beaver is actually a climate hero. Humans hate this beaver for this one trick. Um Ricky, what's your teaching? Uh this is the the dumbest animal on planet earth. I don't know if that's true or not. I should maybe not make such paint with such broad strokes. I think if you believe it it it should it you should stand back. That's how this show works? Oh, okay. All right. Ha ha ha.

Uh okay, I think I want to hear about the the the climate the beaver superhero. The beavers are climate heroes?

Erm what? Um yeah, absolutely. I'd happily talk about beavers. They're one of my favorite animals, and honestly, a lot of this information that I learned, I've learned in the last two weeks. Uh because I have always loved them and appreciated them, and in the back of my mind, I've always had this fact that.

Second to humans, beavers affect their environment more than any other creature. Yeah. That's a fact. And that's like from the dams and stuff? Makes sense. I'm I don't want to spoil it, but yeah, Really really putting a log before the horse. And wait a second. I thought you said you believe cuss words.

Thank you. I wanted to get in there before someone else. Oh I the the the guests are fighting back. Um No, I I uh I I found them so fascinating and uh So what happened was I was like the rest of the world. Apparently, according to box office numbers, I saw Zootopia too. Uh and without spoiling anything o other than the thing I'm about to spoil, it has beavers in it.

Uh-huh. Which I thought Well what did you what would you rate it out of ten? The movie? I don't do ratings anymore. What do you mean you don't do ratings anymore? They sc I get scared. I don't want like I don't wanna rub what? I don't wanna I you know what? When I was a kid when I was a when I was a kid, I saw the movie Hugo. I saw the movie Hugo at the River East of 21 in Chicago, Illinois. And I Gave Hugo, it was like a preview screening and I gave Hugo four stars.

And and in I was sitting right behind Thelma Shoemaker, a shoemacher, I don't know. Put in the comments. That's called engagement farming. And I rated it four out of five stars. Martin Scorsese. The as the as the theater was filling or like uh what do you what's the opposite of filling out? Emptying. Emptying out. Filling in. Filling in and emptying out.

I was pulled to the side and someone said, Hey, any of you give the movie four stars? And I said, Uh yeah. And they were like, Oh, that's great. Our Our client really wants to speak to someone who gave it four stars. And so I start chewing gum because I'm like, I'm about to tell Martin Scorsese what I thought was wrong with this movie. Uh and it uh you know, and the anxiety like almost popped my head like a grape. And I really regretted giving it four starts or even at least telling anybody. But

I was re there was a reprieve'cause they said, actually he's gotta go. And they left. They just threatened you. Never again do I want to face someone in their hardware. And it's just takes so it takes so much effort to get anything made. I just don't like rating things. Anyway, Zootopia five out of ten in my opinion. It's fine. It's fine. I'm never really uh a big Zootopia guy. Anyway. This one was great because of the beaver. They put beavers in it.

Um, there's a lot of fun. You know, they're not the movies are not made for me. They're made for kids. I do like the the animal puns on the first one. You like the animal excuse me? The puns, like the sloths being slow at the DMV. Yes, right. That's Zootopia or Zootropolis in the rest of the world. Uh yeah, there there was a couple funny jokes. Like there's a there was a really weird joke where like a lizard was in because they go they go to like a lizard water world. And now I am spoiling it.

Um Lizard Water World. The lizards are not allowed in Zootopia. All right, man. I can't This is is it a classist story? It is a classist story. And then in any one Oh yeah, I guess in Zootopia 1, there are no reptiles. But also beavers, uh so there's this kind of this uh this area where it's like beavers and water mammals live with lizards in like some sort of swamp bayou area. Um

And so the beavers are there. And I was really I just kind of locked in on the fact that They obviously animate the big two front teeth or the big four front teeth, but you really only see the two because they're kind of outside uh, you know, the larger ones are on the top and the show the smaller ones on the bottom. Those are called incisors, right? And then it got me really fixated on the teeth of the bee. And I was like, huh. And I it's nothing against the movie, but I could not

Think about anything. Um But oh wait, I didn't d I didn't say my this is all over the place. Sorry, this is me. Uh but there there's a joke. I'm doing great. I did a hundred and ten episodes of podcast where this was essentially Uh there's a joke about one of the lizards drop its tail and then someone freaks out and they go, uh. And then the lizard goes, You can keep it.

Which I got a real laugh out of me. I got a real lap out of me. That's awesome. I saw a video of a guy in their gar two guys in their garage. This was on Instagram Reels. You guys should check it out sometime. Um a lot of good stuff on there. It was an Instagram reel of two guys in a garage and on their on the shelves.

Um, there was like a iguana or some sort of lizard or something that had made its way into these people's garages, into these people's garage with on the shelves or whatever. And the one guy goes, Look, he's right there, get him. And the other guy walks up and grabs the tail and they have a little bit of a scuffle for a second and then the the lizard pops his little tail off and scurries away.

And the guys are freaking out because the the he throws the he throws the tail and it lands on the the hood of the car where the hood and the windshield meet and it's just kind of flopping around next to the uh next to the windshield wipers.

And they're freaking out and guys like, oh my God, oh my god, oh my god. And then in the comments, somebody commented, I read about this in books, but I never seen it happen before. And I was like, wow. You know? Me either, I guess. But it's so it was kind of an educational video as well.

It's a r it's a really uh it's a real thing. I don't know if iguan I mean, uh I assume iguanas grow their tail back. They really need the tail. They must. My wife uh had some Crested? Oh. No. But that would be her business, not And yet Maddie yanked it off and it never blew back. Um but The they d the crested geckos lose their tails but they don't grow back. Oh I didn't know there were Oh. I didn't know there were lizards that didn't grow on back. There are?

Yeah. And that might be the weirdest thing you find out this week, but that's not that one of mine. That is that's I mean that's gotta be So much anxiety talk about like ha getting anxiety about when the user consumables, you know? It's like, is this the one time I'm gonna I'm gonna pop my tail off? Or or or should I save it for an even more dangerous predator, you know? It's it's like your master ball. Yeah.

I guess they don't inherently know that the tail's gonna grow back, but they just do it out of fear and then it does grow back. Interesting. I had never even considered the fact that the iguana maybe doesn't even know that his tail's not gonna grow. A crazy thought. But it is it it's it's actually like almost electronic the way that the tail comes off in like Right. It's like more mechanical than anything. Yeah, because you can kind of see the port.

for the tail versus the the like the literally the male part of the tail and the female part of the, you know, hind where the tail goes in. So Or comes out. It's really fascinating. But yeah, I think If I lost my tail the first time I'd be so stressed out. And then when it grew back, I'd be like, oh thank God. And then the second time I did it, I'd be a little bit less stressed out. And the third time, probably the same as the fourth, fifth, sixth. I'm like, whatever. This thing's coming back.

Anyway, we're not here to talk about lizard tails. Not even here to talk about beaver tails. That's not even in my stuff, but it's a fascinating element. Sorry, spoiler alert, no beaver tail time. Anyway, um so I'm watching Zootopia putting you back Oh my god we're only we're still getting the framework. I haven't even got I I I still have six pages of this stuff. Oh God I don't I don't it's not that much

But I'm watching Zootopia. I'm thinking about the beaver teeth, the incisors. I'm going, what's going on in the back? They have the big two uh four front teeth. What goes on in the back? Do you all know? I know that you've had you some of you have had rodents before. My guess is nothing. That was mine. Is it like molar kind of stuff back there? It's molar kind of stuff back there, is what I have written down.

Yeah, they just have normal regular molar teeth back there and then the big front incisors. I thought that was fascinating. So I leave Zootopia. In the middle of Zootopia, I go to the restroom and I Google Beaver Skull. And I am just looking at phot photos of beaver's skull. Some craven pervert in the in the bathroom of the movie theater gets out of Zootopia. immediately googling beaver skull. I was just consumed by curiosity.

And I found it um incredible. And and so obviously the teeth are prominently depicted in the film. You have that's what the thing you know about. They chew wood, take down trees, and then you have the big teeth. Um anyway, but yes, they have the molars in the background that grind up vegetation because they're vegetarians or that's not what you call animals. Uh herbivores. Herbivores or herbivores. But anyway, um and I remember about the two front teeth that they grow forever.

That did you know that? I had heard that. They grow forever. And I remembered it very distinctly an episode of The Angry Beavers television show on Nickelodeon. Where um Or cartoons. Cartoons. This guy loves cartoon beauty. All of his animal knowledge comes from cartoons. But you know what's funny is that they've they're pretty good about it. I was gonna say, honestly, not a bad so not a bad jumping off point. Yes, exactly. And th there's a in an episode of The Angry Beavers

I think there's Dag and Norbert. Dag and Dag sees a PSA about how that the the beaver incisors can grow forever if they're not worn down by chewing on trees. And if they do grow forever, they can, and this is real, grow in back into the skull of uh of the of the beaver. Which happens a lot with like ram horns as well. They can they gotta like

bang it on something to wear. That's right. That's right. Cause yeah, then they'll go they'll go into their head. Yeah. And there have been documented cases of beavers like their they're whether they're like They can't use the teeth or something for some other reason, but the teeth growing back in like a loop de loop and That's gotta be so stressful. To just literally have a thing

that if you don't take care like I have a chore each day that if you don't care of it it's going to pierce your brain. I cannot imagine the anxiety. They probably don't think about it. But they gotta be like Well, this this tooth is getting a little close to my eyeball. Yeah. Um anyway. I have a confession to make. What? I guess it's more of a question, but but it's it is it feels deeply embarrassing. Okay. Did they eat the wood?

They eat the wood question. It's a real question. Or do they just chew the wood for their house? They just chew the wood for their house. They don't eat the wood, so what do they eat? They don't eat them. Vegetation. So there's plants and vegetables? Non non woody vegetation. ¡Suscríbete al canal!

You're telling me they eat it, they chew it and they don't even get a little bit in there? I mean I'm sure they're eating a little bit of wood. It's like seasoning. So they're eating a little bit of the wood, but not all of it. They're not intentionally eating the wood. Okay. Okay. May I move on? Sure. Okay. Sorry, I thought this was a show about curiosity. Well, I don't have any more information than they don't eat the wood. Maddie, your curious spirit died when you Googled beaver skull.

I don't have enough information on whether they eat the wood or not. It's giving me anxiety. So just accept it accept the fact that they don't eat the wood. I'm not an expert. I'm just fascinated by this. Okay. Okay. Fine.

It is a fact that humans second to humans, beavers change their habitat more than any other creature. They obviously cut down trees, uh but they can create wetlands. And they can change the direction of rivers. Now that is fascinating. That's like wouldn't you agree? I would agree. Um, because of this, they have been dubbed ecosystem engineers and are called a keystone species, which is also a a uh thing I learned.

Um, which is a species that have a disproportionately profound impact on their environment relative to their numbers. Now, I would posit, not a scientist, but I would posit that they are not second to humans. in the disproportionate changing of their of their climate. Oh, sure, because there's so many of us.'Cause yeah, there's only like sixty million of'em or something like that. Um so we have what are we at? Eight billion? I mean yes we're doing a number.

On the uh Yeah, I I think we could do way more environmental d destruction. I think we need to get those numbers up. They're pathetic compared to the beavers. I I'm sure that we are working on it, unfortunately. Um but okay, so this would become this would then become no surprise that they are also climate allies because everything they do is natural. Unlike humans, which is mostly unnatural stuff, right? Right. We're so unnatural. Um, when you think of the beaver, you think of what?

You've already mentioned it. Damn. Okay, okay.

That was one of the first facts on this show in like season one. Whoa, I'm a bit of a historian of this show. Yeah, oh yeah, you're you're a real expert. Um beaver dams are also incredibly cool, which I didn't know but this about beaver dams that they so they they knock down all the trees, they chew on the trees, they fall, and then they drag them to make the dam.

Which makes these little ponds. Now this is all stuff we know. I'm not teaching anybody anything here. Um but I yeah I could stop right there because I think that's fascinating enough. But more interesting is what happens after they make the ponds. the the dams create big deep pools of cold water. In this they build the beaver den. And the dens are basically beaver-made islands in the middle of the ponds or sometimes along the bank. That are only accessible via underground tunnels.

You must not be an actual Angry Beavers fan,'cause that's what their house was in the show. I didn't watch it. Uh I haven't watched it in like twenty years. That explains why you didn't know that his name was Dag It instead of Dag, which you so embarrassly embarrassingly called him. Anyway, that's really awesome, Maddie. I can't wait for you to and your no research. I'm gonna go crazy. Here's the right.

But I speaking of speaking of media properties about beavers, here's a fact that I learned it from the from the film Hundreds of Beavers. They're really susceptible to Looney Tune style track.

You can make a whole dip you can make you can make a bunch of different kinds of traps and and that various beavers will you can have one that throws'em you can put'em in a can shoot'em out of a cannon. But actually some of the beavers are w really smart where They actually didn't get caught by the traps and they had the guy get caught in the trap that he tried to build for the beaver. I guess beavers contain multitudes is what I'm learning.

This film has been recommended to me by a lot of friends. You gotta see it. You're you would love it. Is it I would love it. Okay. And as a guy who appreciates the as a guy who appreciate who just said how hard it is to make something, you would watch this and go, damn. Does it positive violence against animals? Does it have No. Well, the if you include the guy like, you know, shoots a gun in a big it says like

Bam and then a big smoke and then a guy in a beaver costume falls over. You know? It's like it's it's as stupid as it can possibly be, but it's very good. I'll give it a I'll give it a Hundreds of Beavers, made by a Chicago native, in fact. It it and uh he has another another movie called something to the effect of like

The Lake Michigan monster or something that I really want to watch as well. It's really, really good. It's like it's like a live action Looney Tunes with that Doesn't it like- It's like conforming the real world into Looney Tunes logic rather than What happens in like Space Jam where they're conforming Looney Tunes into real world logic, you know? I like that. Um it's really good. Also, another cartoon, Beaver, Maddie, have you seen the Wild or Maddie or Jess? Have you seen The Wild Robot?

No, but I've heard of it. Okay. Flow. It's because animals in peril really. But the Wild Robot Robot is pretty good because it is In my opinion, mostly emotionless and mostly feels like it was made by Chat GPT. Um So you don't have to worry about feeling too strongly about it. Oh But there is a beaver in that m in that movie and in you know, the robot is in this community of animals. The the robot like gets sent by some big company and then gets abandoned in the woods and then

Becomes friends with all the animals, right? And in this animal community, the fox, by the way, voiced by Pedro Pascal, who is who's Zaddy. Am I right, guys? Um th there's a beaver in this community and he's like a old he's like the wily old coot, you know. Um as they tend to be. Can you say Wiley Old Coot on this show? Is that fine? Well, you've done it twice now. Um his whole thing is he is trying to cut down this

Tree that's like the size of a skyscraper. And like it's like it's like a mile wide. Okay, probably not a mile, but it's like hundreds of feet wide. And when we meet him, he's like chewing through this tree and everybody's like, Oh, you're still trying to chew through that big tree and he's like, You'll see, you'll all see. Uh and then at the end of the movie he chooses the tree. Not the huge spoiler. You kinda figure it's kind of Chekhov's tree, you know, when they set it up in the first act.

They're all celebrating and cra and that was genuinely the most I almost cried. That was the most emotional part of the whole movie was him. He did it. It was his life's work. He ch tried to chew through the whole tree and he chewed through the whole tree. And and then all of his friends who doubted him the whole time, by the way, they all celebrated for him, which is like, I hope you guys never switch up on me like that. If you're fucking doubting me.

Like I hope I can at least trust you two to be there by my side when I'm like, you know, going on a under a uh, you know, life changing undertaking. You know, basically if you you know, you love me at my worst, you you g at my take me at my best, etc. So Jess, what do you got going on? I looked up a picture of Padler and now I kinda wanna watch the film. Is that the guy? I think so. Voiced by Matt Barry. Is he voiced voiced by Matt Barry? Yes, he is. I'm gonna chop this tree.

He does, I mean, he really does just sound like that. It was a good movie. I I I shouldn't I shouldn't have said the Chat GPT thing. It was pretty good. Yeah. He takes it back. I redact my statement. Well following spoilers for the wild robot. Um so the the interesting thing about the dam that I did not know. I thought they were just making houses.

Right. Uh but the dam in turn completely alters the ecosystem around them. Obviously, if you think about it one step further, they're stopping water flow. Right. So it can cause floods that make the dry land around them wet. Of course. And the cold water is great for the salmon populations that otherwise get either washed downstream and out to sea, or just simply die in waters that are too warm.

And it offers salmon, b baby salmon uh places to hide from predators. So they're kind of like best buds in that way. That's which is very sweet. That's really awesome. Yeah. Any uh any question or uh sorry, not any questions. I don't have the answers. So any guesses on how long the long the largest beaver dam in the world is? Like length? Sure. And and I think it's length in in circumference as well. So

Take a s take a stab at it. A hund a hundred Yard. The largest beaver dam was discovered in two thousand seven via satellite images. On Google Earth and is two thousand seven hundred and ninety feet long. That's about eight hundred and fifty meters and is seven times longer than the Hoover Day. Damn Oh my god. I did it again. You did it again. Damn. The wet vegetation that grows as a result of the dams also acts as natural wildfire break.

Which prevent the spread of wildfires, obviously. Scientists have actually been able to attribute lower wildfires in areas to the work of beavers. So if there are beavers around, wildfires That's sick. I think I just made that up. Not the fact, but the rhyme. The limerick, yeah. Uh huh. The limerick. Um here's a little bit of a limerick. Sorry. I really sometimes wonder if Jess is regretting this or not.

I'm just I'm just sitting here letting you two just go to town. Um Alexa Whipple Restoration that was laughing at me trying to get back on. Um and not the name Whipple. Uh Alexa Whipple, a restoration ecologist with the Methau Beaver Project, also found that following a wildfire, the areas with more beavers had more regular pH levels in the years.

following fires. Alexa attributed this to beaver dams and resulting vegetation trapping and settling sediment and ash quicker than the areas without. Obviously the wetter the area, the faster ash will settle. And the less it's floating all over the place. So they're essentially every bad thing that we're doing as people in in destroying the climate, they are completely undoing. And that's kind of why

And I think as chronicled in Hundreds of Beavers, man and Beaver have often been at odds. Oh. Beavers used to be everywhere. And the fur trade, along with the perception of beavers being nuisances who cut down desired trees and un and cause unwanted flooding, has resulted in them being hunted to near extinction in the eighteen hundreds. It's not right. It's not right. But don't freak out.

Because with conservation efforts, uh they are not only at the numbers they once were, but have bounced back significantly and are not endangered. And on the confer on the conservation concern list, they are marked as the least concerned. So beavers are back in a big way. Chill. Yeah. Thank God. Yes. Um, and there what and there may even be more hope, is what I have to say about this.

In a sentence that I wrote and have read before. Obviously, as humans have done nearly everything they can to kill the earth, they are now realizing how valuable the beaver is, especially in drought time. An animal that just wants to make dry lands wet? Yes, please. I wrote that part. Another little bonus fact about the beavers is that they tend to form monogamous relationships and mate for life and form I know, isn't that sweet?

Yeah. And form strong familial bonds. A beaver family can be a mixture of two or three generations of parents or kids. That's cute. That's not the main fact. I'm past the main facts. These are all bonus. But I like the bonuses. Thank you. Just thank you so much. Yeah. Did you need that little chroma validation? Not really. But I I appreciated you giving it to the channel. I'm happy to offer it, yes. And they are so close to the case.

with the other beavers that thankfully conservationists have realized this. And if a beaver family is encroaching on like a farmer's property or becoming a nuisance T uh the entire family will be re m removed and relocated. And they are kept in holding facilities until they can catch all of the others in the family. Oh man. So that they are then reunited and moved together like it's the witness protection program. That's awesome.

Yeah, it's awesome. You gotta hope gotta hope they're not making the holding facilities out of wood. That's a little beaver. That's a beaver joke for you. That's a really great point. And it was that truly, Ricky, was one of those so funny. I didn't forget to laugh, but I just respected it so much. It didn't feel that funny, I'll be honest. But I appreciate the I appreciate the prompts. Um and that's my that's my and and thank you for coming to my TED Talk about.

That was awesome. They they seem to exist in direct competition with humans who want to seemingly destroy their earth. That's the rest the last thing I wrote. Maybe beavers are the only thing keeping the earth alive, you know. Honestly, beavers and bees. Go off. Yeah. Go off. Okay, we're gonna take a quick break and then we'll be back with more facts.

McDonald's är stolt sponsor av Melodifestivalten så tillåt oss att presentera ett av våra bidrag- Festivalmenyn. Soureman Onion Company Fyra Pepperschicke. Och en apple pie för 99 kronor. Festivalmaten finns på McDonald's. Car shopping shouldn't be a game of 20 questions. Is this the right price? Am I making the right choice? With car gurus, you don't have to question yourself. Cargruise has the most inventory, transparent deal ratings, and real time price drop alerts.

Plus, with Car Gurus app, you can access dealership mode, which gives you everything you need to navigate the dealership with confidence. What is dealership mode, you might ask? Well, it is a special mode on the car gurus app that puts you in control. You can compare cars side by side, check pricing, and estimate your final cost. So you can navigate the dealership with confidence.

It's no wonder Car Gurus is the number one most visited car shopping site according to Similar Web's estimated traffic data. Buy or sell your next car today with Car Gurus at cargurus.com. Go to cargurus.com to make sure your big deal is the best deal. That's C-A-R-G-U-R-U-S.com. Cargurus.com. Are you starting the year off with a wardrobe refresh?

Well, Quince has got you covered with luxe essentials that feel effortless and look polished. They're perfect for layering, mixing, and building a wardrobe that lasts. Their versatile style makes it easy to reach for them day after day. Quince has all the staples covered, from soft Mongolian cashmere sweaters that feel like designer pieces without the markup.

To a hundred percent silk tops and skirts for easy dressing up, to perfectly cut denim for everyday wear, their wardrobe essentials are crafted to last season after season. And like everything from Quince, each piece is made with premium materials in ethical, trusted factories, then priced far below what other luxury brands charge. If you listen to the show, you've heard me rave about Quince Cashmere before, and I'm gonna do it again.

That Mongolian cashmere fisherman crew neck sweater used as a layering piece this exceptionally bitter and cold winter, I've never felt warmer or more stylish. Refresh your wardrobe with Quinn. Don't wait. Go to quince dot com slash weirdest for free shipping on your order and three hundred and sixty five day returns. Now available in Canada too. That's Q-U-I-N-C-E dot com slash weirdest to get free shipping and three hundred and sixty-five-day returns. Quince.com slash weirdest.

Okay, we're back and I'm gonna talk about The trees. Um so the beavers start to freak out. Sorry. All of our facts are kind of like interconnected this week actually. That's exciting. Um Yeah, we're all aligned.

Um, but as you two know, as the listeners probably don't know, I've been in Australia for the last month or so. Uh Ricky was also here semi recently. I was. Um And the thing I was most excited about coming here was like all of the new plants and animals that I had never seen before because like sh is wildly different. Like there is stuff here that is not anywhere else. Um like I found one statistic that says seven to ten percent of all species on earth are native to Australia.

Um, just across like every every order. Uh so it's it's very diverse. And then of that, seven to ten percent of all species. being native to here, of that diversity, 80% of all plants and mammals here are not found anywhere else. So that's crazy. Yeah. There's just like a lot of stuff here that doesn't leave and it's because it's so isolated. Um And I've seen a lot of that stuff. Like I went to the zoo and I saw like platypuses and echidnas and bilbies and wombats and kangaroos and emus.

And uh I saw like cuckoo burrows, those those birds up in the trees. They live in the old gum tree. Yep, yep, which is the topic of conversation actually. The gum tree Um perhaps yes. Whoa. Uh indeed. So uh speaking of

I think the the biggest spectacle of Australian wilderness that I've seen is when I went to the Blue Mountains, which is this huge, huge, huge, huge mountain range, like two hours west of Sydney. And huge is in like it's wider than the Grand Canyon. So it's like Forty four hundred square miles of mountain. Um, and they're 470 million years old.

So that's ten times older than the Grand Canyon as well. So so kind of a grander canyon, but you know, just saying firing a broadside shot at the Grand Canyon, that's kinda all we've got in America. You know that, right? Listen, I'm in Australia for three weeks. Some things have changed, okay? You know if you come back, the Grand Canyon is gonna be ready to rock. Is that a is that a pun? Sure. Ha ha ha. And so when I went in these in in the Grander Canyon

Uh there were a lot of like weird plants and animals that were really cool. I saw like big ass colorful birds. I saw like a little a little reptile skink lizard. Cockatoos were everywhere. They were super loud and weird and Are they just making noise like cr is it just always noise? Yes. Wow. Yes. That sounds nice. It was it the the cockatoos are like

Like they are like not nice chirping. I owned a cockatoo when I was a kid. You did? Might have been a cockatiel, I don't know. The cockatoos are like the really like big Commenters, tell me which one I own more than like in in the middle. He's a damn professional. Oh, this man. This man. Uh but uh I think I think the the the you know The most notable thing about the Blue Mountains, as far as flora and fauna go, are the expansive eucalyptus forests.

Uh, because the vast majority of the b blue mountains, which are made of sandstone, by the way, uh all of all of these mountains are pretty much like all covered in trees. And for the most part, those trees are eucalyptus trees. Uh and we did like walk by one. And grab the leaves and like smell the leaves and I was like, Oh, that's eucalyptus. Um and the eucalyptus forest. What did you say? Confirmed. Yep, that's eucalyptus.

Mm, yes, confirmed. So uh the eucalyptus forests are why the blue mountains are blue, because if you Look off in the distance at the mountains, they have like a blue haze, and that's obviously why they're called that. Uh and it's because there are like these oil droplets, the eucalyptus oil droplets that are kind of like emitted from the trees. And

Uh so the sunlight like scatters differently through those droplets and like through dust and other stuff in the air and it makes it look blue. Uh and that's like not dissimilar to why our sky is blue. Basically like sh the shorter blue wavelengths of light are scattered more easily through all that junk in the air, uh in the sky and then also like in the blue mountain haze. So and like longer red orange wavelengths are not scattered. So

Kinda neat. I didn't know that. That's really funny. I I learned that while I was there and that's extremely cool. It's a really cool thing, yeah. Um save you all a trip if you haven't been to Australia. Now you know. Don't go to the blue mountains. You know the biggest mountains are blue. Next. And the smog is why the sunsets are so pretty. Oh LA is in my fact as well, actually. I can't wait. Stay tuned. Uh so yeah, as as we were like googling all this blue mountain. Stuff.

Uh, cause day day one we got there, it was like a hundred degrees hot. Day two, fifty degrees and foggy. Insane. Whoa. It was crazy. I'm glad we did our hike the first day because you couldn't see sh on day two. But so yeah, we got soup on day two. But we were googling stuff.

Uh, and that's how we learned about the blue the blue haze and the eucalyptus. And my partner goes, Didn't Americans try to plant a bunch of eucalyptus trees in America back in the day and it all went to sh and the branches fell off randomly and then they exploded. And I was like, huh? Whoa, are you gonna tell us that did happen? And I I I Googled it and he is correct.

Whoa. Yeah. Yeah, my and my partner's Australian, so he apparently just learned about the st the stupid Americans planting their Australian trees and you know. Yep. So back in the mid 1800s, California, California, here it comes, was facing a timber shortage and they wanted to build. Sorry. Okay. Yep. Uh

They wanted to build like railroads and stuff, right? And they didn't have enough trees to like and forests to like farm lumber. So they heard about the j the giant strong eucalyptus trees in Australia. Uh it was being colonized at the time. They were like, yo Let's uh let's get some of those.

So they planted the first seed in California in 1853. By the 1870s, there was eucalyptus craze. People were like obsessed with planting eucalyptus trees. They were convinced it was the solution to their problems. There were there were these people called forest tycoons that were like trying to make their fortune.

by planting forests and farming them for lumber. So yeah. And they were great. The trees were great'cause they would grow in really dry soil that was previously unable unable to like hold onto any vegetation. So instead of like dry grasses, all of a sudden people had like 20, 30, 50 foot trees. with like shade and shelter and windbreaks and stuff like that. Uh and that goes a long way when you have a hot Californian summer.

And aside from that too, like their strong root systems improved soil quality for other kinds of like farms and stuff, and they drained swampy areas too. So like less stagnant water, malaria rates dropped because fewer mosquitoes, stuff like that. Wow. And because eucalyptus didn't naturally grow in the US, they had no natural pests or diseases. So it was like everything coming up eucalyptus.

Yeah, and it that's where it ends and it worked out. Yep, and we had them all the credits the credits roll and everyone lived happily ever after. And I'm looking at a eucalyptus tree right now outside my apartment. But then But then uh they tried to start cutting down the trees and use them for railroad cable ties and when they would try to dry the wood, it wouldn't dry all perfect and nice like it did in Australia. It would

twist and warp and then it would get really dense and hard. So you couldn't you it was like impossible to even nail a spike through it like a railroad spike. Um and it did the same thing when they would like try to use it for framing and fence posts and everything. And why? It's because they were trying to do things the American way and fast track it. Blash it.

Yep. Uh and eucalyptus doesn't really become usable as a timber until it's like really, really, really old, like hundreds of years old basically. So it's not like worth using as like a farmable timber. Uh but Uh, it was already everywhere and they had already planted a bazillion eucalyptus trees. And oops.

Uh and yeah, sure, there were like some positive benefits like the ones I mentioned, but they're still a kind of an invasive species. And sure, there are still many eucalyptus trees in California everywhere, and they look and smell delightful. Uh, but they do randomly drop their branches seemingly out of nowhere, and it's kind of, it's very funny. It's like an emotional response.

Uh like they do it if they're stressed from heat. Like lizards or whatever. Yeah, it is like lizards. It straight up is like lizards. Or they'll do it if like they're Aging and they like just want to drop a branch. And these are huge trees. Like I just looked them up because I was like, Did have I ever seen one of these before? I don't know. You must have. Sure. You must have. I must have. They're all over LA. Yeah, I'm sure if you know what to look for, you'll see'em. Um and uh

So in in Australia, these trees are known as widow makers because the falling branches have killed people. Dang. Like even just last year and the year before, like a handful of people were killed by Branches. That's that's a hey, that's a badass name for a tree, man. I don't know if they get more badass than that. That kinda sounds a lot like I mean, it must have been the same exact time because la uh California is very young as a place.

uh in terms of like yeah you know people kind of building them out as cities. But with they also did the same thing with palm trees. And like they're not native here. Yes. So So but like that's that's part of it, right? Is like they have these two invasive trees that are also very flammable, like very very easy to light on fire. Um, and that is like perhaps the most troubling thing about

At least eucalyptus. I don't really know much about the palms and how they were introduced. Well, the the palms are also j in a very, very similar way. They're just not from here. They uh They planted them here because they like the look of them. They don't offer any shade because they're like a hundred feet tall and they have like four leaves. And the leaves are massive. And they do also much likely you could let this fall in the street.

Right. Um I don't think they're making widows, but they're certainly causing car accidents. Yes. At least inconveniencing people. Uh so so yeah, the eucalyptus similar and also saturated with that very flammable eucalyptus oil.

Uh the stuff that makes the Blue Mountains blue, it also fuels forest fires in Australia and in the US. For instance, the nineteen ninety one quote unquote Oakland Firestorm. That's what they literally they literally called that. Uh burned for five days, largely fueled by eucalyptus trees. So killed killed twenty five people.

injured 250, destroyed fifteen hundred acres of land, which included two two thousand eight hundred and forty-three single-family homes, four hundred and thirty-seven apartments. Uh and in today's money it's an economic loss of over three billion dollars. Smokes. That was another that one was in bad taste. That was un completely unintentional. Almost really stepped in. I mean it's not intentional, I promise. And one of the people who lost their house in this disaster was Will Wright.

The guy who made the Sims. Oh, I I was I was I literally was like, Are you talking about the Sims Spore guy? Are you talking about Spore? Yes. He lost his how the Spore Aren't there spores on the eucalyptus tree? Or no? I was trying to make a connection. Well there is a connection. There's a connection because when he made SimCity 2000, he added a scenario about like the city's recovery from the fire. Wow. Look at that. Yep.

This does like bring to mind the LA fires from a year ago. Yes. Uh which were not mainly kicked off by or like even mainly fueled by eucalyptus, but They did undoubtedly play a part, you know, like they're everywhere. They're probably burned in some capacity. Uh some legislators have pushed for cutting down eucalyptus inflammable trees that like, you know, fuel fires like this, but that's not really a full solution either.

Like a full landscape of native plants wouldn't have stopped the fires in their tracks, you know what I mean? It's more about building fire safe buildings, establishing better fire and water protocols. Having beavers. Perhaps having beavers. Beavers. We were all getting there at the exact same moment. We weren't the beat. Yeah.

Uh and you know, like clearing out brush and and stuff like that. So it's not like a one one stop shop solution. But anyway, uh shout out to Australia's Blue Mounds and its eucalyptus trees. Uh without which We wouldn't have a random city fire recovery scenario in SimCity two thousand uh or something, you know. Wow. And look at that. That's my fact. And thank you for that. Yep. All right, we're gonna take one more quick break and then we'll be back with more facts.

Now that the holidays are over, you might be feeling like you've got a big spending hangover. You know, the drinks, the holiday, food, travel, gifts, it all adds up. Luckily, Mint Mobile is here to help you cut back on overspending on wireless this January with 50% off unlimited premium wireless. All plans come with high-speed data and unlimited talk and text.

delivered on the nation's largest 5G network. You can even use your own phone with any Mint Mobile P and bring your phone number along with all of your existing contacts. Seriously, Mint Mobile makes it seamless to switch over from other carriers, which, when you're saving this much money, is basically a no-brainer. This January, quit overspending on wireless with 50% off unlimited premium wireless.

Plans start at fifteen dollars a month at mintmobile dot com slash weirdest. That's mintmobile dot com slash weirdest. Limited time offer, upfront payment of forty five dollars for three months, ninety dollars for six months, or one hundred eighty dollars for twelve months. Plan required,$15 per month equivalent. Taxes and fees extra. Initial plan term only. More than 50 gigabytes may slow when network is busy. Capable device required. Availability, speed, and coverage varies.

See MintMobile.com. Guys, you know what they say. New year, new me. Am I right? Okay, but but seriously, this time I actually kind of mean it. I've been starting some of my mornings off with masterclass and I actually feel like it's helping me work towards my 2026 goals in a big way. I've been really wanting to sharpen my writing, especially when it comes to weirdest things segments and my YouTube video essays.

So on masterclass, I've been taking the storytelling and humor class with David Sederis. It's been helping me bring funny and meaningful moments from my real life into my writing more seamlessly and purposefully. And it's not just writing. With Masterclass you get thousands of bite-sized lessons across 13 categories that can fit into even the busiest of schedules.

With plans starting at$10 a month, billed annually, you get unlimited access to over 200 classes taught by the world's best business leaders. writers, chefs, and more. You can also turn your commute or workout into a classroom. With audio mode, you can listen to masterclass lessons anytime, anywhere. And classes really make a difference.

eighty-eight percent of surveyed members feel that masterclass has made a positive impact on their lives. Right now, our listeners get an additional fifteen percent off any annual membership at masterclass dot com slash weirdest. That's fifteen percent off at masterclass dot com slash weirdest. Masterclass dot com slash weirdest. Okay, we're back.

About the animal. Dish, you're not gonna believe it. But you declare this. You're not gonna freaking believe this. Okay, okay. But you decide you are your facts were all about the eucalyptus tree. Guess what? My fact is f my big thing is all about the dang koala. The koala. Himself. Basically what who the the animal that you could potentially consider to be in a

in a symbiotic, well, maybe even parasitic relationship with the eucalyptus tree. There they have the they have formed a sort of bond with each other in many ways. The koala Potentially the dumbest animal um on earth. It's har I mean, obviously, how do you quote that you've

You've amended your statement to potentially Potentially. I don't wanna paint you know, I don't I don't wanna s you know, make any sort of broad claims that I can't back up, um, with the hard science like Maddie had of I watched a movie. Um I did watch a movie though. I watched a documentary about koala There was a life of a koala. It was really good. Oh I had never seen a koala running at full speed until this documentary and me I don't think I've seen that.

So funny. Okay, so there's all kind I didn't have really one fact about a koala, but like just in general, they are yeah so interesting. First of all, they're totally useless. I mean everybody kind of if there's There's they're completely useless, right? They sleep for like twenty hours a day. Most people know that. The reason they sleep for twenty hours a day, why of course, it's because they refuse to eat anything but eucalyptus leaves.

Um and those leaves provide them with essentially zero nutrition. Um the other thing about the koala, um, is they spend The majority of their life up in a eucalyptus tree. They basically they pick a tree. First of all, another thing, there's like 700 different varieties of eucalyptus tree. The average koala will prefer less than 50, around 30 of them. Wow. So not only do they only eat eucalyptus trees, they're also picky eaters when it comes to eucalyptus trees.

And you're asking yourself, well, Ricky, how do they f how do they determine which eucalyptus trees they like? Well it's about to get a little yucky, folks. Um as we all know Koalas are marsupials. They are born of after I think like seven weeks. They're the size of a jelly bean. Um and then I heard the the statistic that I think that they used on the uh uh documentary I watched was that a koala goes from its jelly bean size to 25 thousand it grows twenty-five thousand times.

its size from the course of the moment of its birth to adulthood. So they're about twenty five thousand jelly beans big. Uh like smart. Like smart. Um so they they come out of the they come out of the brew can't be three apples taller with two apples. Two apples.

Um I don't I'm not up on my smurfloor. Yeah, Maddie knows all the smurf he's the smurf floor guy of the of the group. Every fur group guy is the smurf floor guy. It's one of the first things they say. So these these little these little seven week old jelly beans crawl out of the birth canal. Weird to think about this. Yes, they literally it's just a little jelly bean that uses its forelimbs to crawl out of the birth canal and it crawls up into the pouch of the koala, which

does open downward, I learned, which seems like why would you evolve to have your pouch open downward when you spend your whole life in a tree? I don't know. Yeah. The koala climbs in, right? And it latches on to the nipple inside of the pocket. Okay. And then it drinks the milk of the mom for a long time and it grows big and strong, right? But you're thinking to yourself, okay.

It goes from drinking milk to just eating leaves. No, no, no. There there's kind of an intermediary dietary plan that they get put on. Which is they eat a byproduct of their mother's digestive process called fecal pap, which is more or less what it sounds like. It's just kind of a It's kind of an advanced version of Of Duke, basically. But and essentially what this does is that it it sort of trains the babies

digestive tract to be able to eat these eucalyptus leaves, right? Because as we, as we you might know, as I don't know if you actually discussed this or not, but the eucalyptus uh leaves are poisoned. Um I don't think I said this. To almost every animal in the world, these eucalyptus leaves are poisonous. There's a few animals that eat them, very few. The koalas are the only ones where they exclusively eat eucalyptus.

They have a special digestive they have a special part of that digestive tract that's basically like the appendix. That lets them ferment the eucalyptus leaves inside of their body and neutralize the toxin. So basically these koalas, they they have these f limited limited varietals of eucalyptus trees that they have eaten ever since they were sucking on they mama's dookie. Um That's got that's gotta be a first for uh weirdest thing I learned, right?

Listen, we get pretty gross on here. I can only imagine. So so that's you know, they have these varietals imprinted in their in their like you know, right down to their core, you know? And they they find a tree that they like, they crawl up it, and they just sit there every day. They just they it they basically

You know, it's like that's like their house. They're just like, this is where I live now. If there's already a koala in said tree, they'll move on. It is literally, I kind of had the realization because I've also been in a big Lord of the Rings mood lately, but they're kind of like the hobbits. They don't do a whole lot. They love

They they love a leaf substance that gets them mildly fed up. Um they they love to chill in the house, you know. They don't really want to go on any big adventures, you know. They're they're kind of the homebodies of the animal kingdom, which I really like about them. Um...

What else? What else? Oh, and then the reason why they are so dumb as you know, as is often touted that the uh the more wrinkles you have on your brain, the smarter you are.

A koala's brain is completely smooth. It looks like a what? It looks like a big apple made out of meat, basically. Um it's it's really crazy. They are very stupid, but Um, if there's one thing that they have done correct over their long evolutionary, you know, lifespans, oh going back, you know, millions and millions of years, they have evolved to be the most

Adorable by human standards. And I think that is that's a really valuable trait to have if you're an animal. They've got big fluffy ears, huge honkable nose. They're about toddler size. You can pick them up and they kind of just grab onto you like a toddler. And they don't they don't move really quick, you know. I think w when an animal moves too fast, we get too scared, you know? We like somebody that's moving like at a really reasonable pace.

Um but yeah, they're really interesting. I think I think it's such like s they're similar to pandas in that they have evolved to completely rely on a diet that barely keeps them alive. And I find that to be so interesting. It is. What's with that? That is, yeah. I don't know. What do they even do for anybody?

They don't do anything for anybody. They don't even do anything for the eucalyptus trees that they that they, you know, rely on. They don't really give much back to them. They just eat the leaves and then once there's not many leaves left in the tree, they move on to a new tree. And that's basically it.

Uh yeah, it's not even like they're like spreading like seeds or anything for them because a lot of eucalyptus trees like reproduce by fire. Like they need fire. Yeah. To release their Yes, and koalas famously do very poorly in the seasons, unfortunately, they really do not know how to handle it because again, they've got their little neighborhoods, you know, they've got their little forest that they live in and they basically stay there their whole life. So when the forest burns,

A kangaroo, for example, will move on to a new place, but the koalas, they don't really know how to move that, you know, they don't have the capability to move that far. So there's lots of organizations that help. Koalas relocate. Unlike the beavers, they don't have any familial ties. They're koalas are a society of single mothers. Um, they raise their baby for almost exactly twelve months, almost exactly a year.

And then as soon as the mom is ready to mate again, she basically says, All right, kid, you're on your own. It's time to have another baby. And uh and the cycle begins again. Oh wow. I didn't realize that. Yeah, they're really they're really special creatures. Um I I over the course of watching this documentary that I found on YouTube, I I learned to love them even more. Um but you know They're pretty much helpless and completely stupid. The only reason that they exist is because they have

essentially no natural predators that can get up the tree that they're in. Which frankly, you know, that's a pretty good evolutionary adaptation to just climb the tree, you know? Yes. Yeah, they're just up there. They're just up there and and you know, a a Komodo dragon or whatever can't catch'em or a monitor lizard or whatever's out there on the Really offensive.

Anyway, I don't know if I have much more on koalas other than that. It's it's mo there's just a lot of interesting eccentricities about koalas that that the more you dive in you're like, huh, really? And you guys are still around? Damn, okay. Oh my last My last fact about koalas, and this is maybe less of a fact and this is more editorializing. If there's one thing that a koala can be known for besides all the crap that I just said, that they're cute, right? You know, giraffe got a long neck.

Horses got weird knees. Koalas They're cute. That's like their one trait. Yeah. However I don't Are they not the one weird knees. Well that's that's not that's neither here nor there. We're not talking about horses, we're talking about koalas. Yes, Maddie? Are they the ones or is it Sloth that are the connected to Chlamydia? That's what I was gonna bring up. So that's the other th there is also c the chlamydia thing. The koalas do get chlamydia. There's a scene

In the documentary I watched, I think of it was they were implying that This is in Zootopia too. No no no tackle. No, no, no. That wasn't Zootopia 2.5. You gotta get the bonus features. Uh there was a scene in the documentary I watched where they were implying that they were showing a koala. who was dying of chlamydia at the foot of a tree and it was insanely depressing, if you must if you really must know. But yes, for some reason koalas are susceptible to getting chlamydia as well. That's um

Interesting. My my fun fact that it's more of more of an opinion, the koala, potentially the on the the number one animal on earth known for being cute, uh the babies are less cute than the adults. I was going so I looked them up while you were talking about this because one of the things that I didn't mention about the beavers is that the beaver kits are probably one of the cutest things I've ever seen. They're like they're like less filled out beavers.

But the uh yeah, you're the koalas are one of the distinguishing like the distinct Like distinguished for the fact that the adults are way cuter than the babies. I think sometimes they're I think it's more of like the toddlers look a little strange. What it is is that they don't get their big round faces. They I the babies have like a little bit of a weird like horse jaw at at at some point in their life, or their their head kind of looks like

They look top heavy. But you know, when they get all when they get sort of filled out with their fur, they obviously are extremely cute. I mean they're j they're cute no matter what. I'm I'm I'm really, you know, I'm splitting hairs hairs here, but I'm just saying, you know, the guys are all cute, but the babies

You know, they got some weird cranial stuff going on. Ricky hates baby animals. Oh no, I love them. Anyway, that's it. Ricky kinda went on a hit piece about quality. Uh I would encourage everybody to look up beaver kits at some point during their day because they're extremely adorable.

Um yeah, that's fascinating. I was going to mention you know that you've brought it up a second time, a a movie if you were talking about the most depressing movie. of animals I've ever seen was a documentary called Tardes de Soledad, Adventures of Solitude, which is this incredible like electric magnetic documentary that follows a bullfight. Uh over the course of several fights. There's no narration. It's just footage. It's incredible.

to watch. Uh the first thirty minutes it shows one bull fight and I turned it off. Cry. Oh my God. Sounds like a huge bummer. It really was. It really was. And I don't know why. Ricky and I often talk about how we're kind of little um babies when it comes to animal. I'm the same way. I it's different. It's awful to watch. And I don't know wh what made me do it, but I did I tried and uh I I would I still recommend it. It's a fascinating documentary. I mean I you know Yeah.

I think everybody should be watching. Yeah. I think I I uh I I the non meat eater in me was watching it and I was like, I shouldn't have to watch this. This isn't for me. But uh that's my shout. As we get down to the end of the year, you can see that. Good shout. Zootopia two, the the bull the sad bullfighting documentary Tardanistoled, yes. Zoo Zootropolis two And the Looney Tunes beavers.

What a trio. I've learned so much. I really have. I'm I'm so glad. Me too. They should do more seasons of this show. Really fascinating stuff here. Well, thanks for coming on, both of you. Uh remind the listeners Who you are, what you make, where people can find your stuff, etcetera. Yes, yes. My name is Matt Real. Uh Matty is talking on everything. I also twitch stream, much like the two other people in the call here.

I work for a company called Watcher. We just wrapped up a hundred and ten episodes of the podcast Get Scared. And um I guess I can say we're working on another one. Um exclusive. We're working on another one, uh th that should be coming soon. So that's exciting. Whoa. That's cool. Um my name's I'm Ricky ri twitch.tv slash Ricky Peacock. It's my damn real name, if you can believe it.

Um, I'm working on um playing some video games over there. I like to do a lot of things. I like to think of myself as a patron of the arts. I I'm really s I'm leading I'm I've got two feet in the door of this sentence that I'm trying to get through and I'm really ready to back out. Never mind. Just follow my Twitch channel if that's the kind of thing that you'd like to be watching. The Weirdest Thing I Learned This Week is produced by all of our hosts.

Including me, Rachel Faltman, along with Jess Bodie, who also serves as our audio engineer and editor Extraordinaire. Our theme music is by Billy Cadden. Our logo is by Katie Beloff. If you have quests Questions or weird stories to share, tweet us at weirdest underscore thing. Thank you. IA Waterförsäljare. Kia. Movement that inspires. Hej! Bellboj från hotels.com. Bellboj, jag har suttit till möten helt.

Du behöver en belöning. När du bor tio med jobbet, får du en bonusnatt med hotells plotkort. Gå från konferensrumstol till Dobinpol. Tänk att resa någonstans där ingen säger, vi återkommer. Återkom bara till bufen hotels.com. Våg tienter få en bonusnatt på 100 000 hotell. Vill kår för loalitetsprogrammet gäller, besök webbsidan för mer information.