Psst! Hey, Wowzer fans! Mindy and Guy Raz here with some bonker balls big news. Introducing Planet... Wow, our new epic geocaching adventure. As you know, there are so many places on our planet that make us all say, wow. And that's why we're inviting you to go out into the world to find hidden treasures called geocaches we've stashed in some amazing places. We've partnered with our friends at the Aspen Institute's Planet Media and geocaching.com.
to create four different trackable trading cards with some wow facts. We'll be sending out one of four trading cards to every member of the World Organization of Wowsers. Not a member yet, but want a trading card? Sign up by April 11th to get your trading card in the mail. at tinkercast.com slash membership now.
Here's the fun part. Once you get your trading cards, head out on an adventure to find geocaches near you to stash them. And look for the other collectible cards in Planet WoW geocaches in places that WoW across the United States. Visit tinkercast.com slash planetwow where you can find out how to get involved and save our planet. You can also upload a video, photo, or audio message telling us about the...
places on our planet that make you say wow. Once again, that's tinkercast.com slash planetwow. The bubble corn adventure of magnificent proportion. a reporter at the Bunker Balls Bugle newspaper, and I'd been assigned to the gossip column. I had a story do that my editor, Guy Raz, would not stop bugging me about. Article ready on why six is afraid of seven? It's this week's feature article. I have people waiting for it. Oh, yes, I'll get right on it, Guy Raz. I was not going to get right on it.
Because what I had was an even bigger story. One that would finally put me on the front page. I just had to find the perfect moment to pitch my idea. I have an idea! Huh? I have a better idea for this week's feature article. What is it? Well, how familiar are you with dinosaurs?
Those big, scaly monsters that got wiped out by an asteroid 66 million years ago? Okay, well, they weren't all scaly gyros. I mean, some of them even had feathers, but yeah, those are the ones. Well, I'm pretty familiar, so what's the article idea? I call it the mystery of how the dinosaurs came to rule the world. How the dinosaurs came to rule the world? Yeah, see...
When dinosaurs first came onto the scene 230 million years ago, they weren't the big towering monsters that we think of today. Okay. They were these little teeny tiny cat-sized creatures. barely big enough to even make a dent on the food chain. I see. But 30 million years later, they were sitting at the tippy top of the food chain. And here's the kicker. Nobody really knows how these reptiles went from teeny tiny to creatures the size of buildings. Huh. Until now. Here, check this out.
When I arrived at work that morning, the person at the front desk informed me that someone had dropped off a package for me. Which was odd, because I wasn't expecting my order of bubblegum-flavored shampoo until the end of the week. But it was. wasn't my bubblegum shampoo. It was a giant stack of scientific papers sent to me by one Professor Guano. And according to the note she left, It could be one of the biggest stories we ever write. Oh, what is this? This guy, Roz, is a tip. A tip? Yeah.
Professor Guano from the National Archives of Coprolites and Bromelites dropped it off. The National Archive of Coprolites and Bromelites? Bromelite? Isn't that science speak for dino poop and dino vomit? Dino poop and vomit, to be precise. Mindy, that's gross. Our readers don't want to read about dino doo-doo. Well, they might when they find out that the secret to how the dinos grew to be so big might be...
buried in their poop. Look, these scientists even wrote about it in the scientific journal Nature. They did? Yeah, look. Here's the study right here. Digestive contents and food webs record the advent of dinosaur supremacy? Exactly! You see how complicated and technical that title is? how you know it's legit. I still don't know, Mindy. I mean, a story about...
Dino poop? This seems a bit much. I mean, even for the bonker balls bugle. Come on, Guy Raz. What's our newspaper slogan? Anything for the story? Exactly. Okay, Mindy, you can follow up on this story. What is it that you're proposing? Hey, Roz, I am proposing a full investigative report. I say we head down to the National Archive of Coprolites and Brom...
lights and get to the bottom of this dino mystery once and for all. All right. Well, let's do it. Yeah. But I'm definitely coming with you. Great. The more the more. And I'm also assigning our intern to help with the story. Oh, no, you don't mean... Dennis, can you come here for a minute? Yes, Guy Raz?
What do you need? Coffee? Tea? Coffee and tea mixed together? Dennis, I've got your first story for you. My first story assignment! Hooray! What is it? The new chocolate factory that opened downtown?
Not exactly. Oh, I know. I bet I'm going to cover the annual puppy parade on Main Street. It's a poop story, Dennis. What? Ew. But, and this is a big but, it could be the most impo- Vomit and poop story this paper ever prints Once Dennis had stopped crying, we packed up our notebooks and pens, put on our best reporter hats, and headed out to the National Archive of Coperlites and Bromalites to break the...
the biggest story this newspaper had ever seen. I think I'm gonna barf. Well, you're at the right place to do that, Dennis. Look, we're here. The National Archive of Coprolites and Bromalites. poop and puke. Thanks for the ride, Reg. I'm gonna need that traffic report on my desk by the end of the day, okay? Okay, everyone ready to head in? Hold on, I just need to add...
There we go. Okay. Ready. Dennis, is that a clothespin on your nose? Of course it is. I put a clothespin on my nose to block it up. I call it a nose pin. I'm not walking around a poop and puke museum with open nostrils. Dennis, these poops and pukes happened like hundreds of millions of years ago. They don't even smell anymore. In fact, if you didn't know it, you'd probably think we were going to be looking at a big old pile of rocks. I mean, they're all fossilized. Okay, good.
But I'm keeping my nose pin close by just in case Mindy ate too many beans again. Or too much dairy. Or too many cruciferous vegetables. Dennis, I would never... Whoopsie! Okay, Mindy, who's your contact here again? Okay, she said her name here somewhere. Oh, here it is. Professor Felicity Guano. Well, what are you waiting for, Mindy? Let the investigative reporting begin.
Okay, just knocking on the door here. Oh, dreadfully sorry, but the archives are closed today. The guided tours are on Wednesdays and Fridays. Oh, oh, sorry, excuse me. Professor Guano? Yes, what is it? Hi, I'm Mindy, reporter from the Bonker Balls Bugle, and I am here to find out more about your scientific breakthrough.
Of course you are, dear. I've been waiting. And look, you've brought friends. Hi, I'm Guy Raz, editor-in-chief of the Bonker Balls Bugle. Yes, I'm a big fan of your weekly column. tweet about town. Oh, thank you. And I'm Dennis, investigative reporter journalist. Tell me, Miss Guano, what secrets are you hiding here in your palace of poop? Sorry, this is our intern. Well, it's very nice to meet you.
Why don't you come on in? Okey-doke. Wow, this place is massive. You can say that again. Wow, this place is massive. So, Ms. Guano, I said as I licked the tip of my pen and flicked to the first page in my notepad, why don't you tell us a little bit about where we are right now? Right. Well, this is our public...
Wing, here we have some of our most famous bromelites and coprolites. And by that you mean dinosaur poops and dinosaur pukes? Exactly. Fascinating. Wait a minute. You have famous dino poops? Oh, yes. We even have a Hall of Fame. Take a look. Whoa, look at this. Eyes of that thing! Yes, that's our pride and joy here at the National Archives. It's one of the largest coprolites to ever be discovered.
That thing must be two feet long. 67.5 centimeters to be precise. We believe that one belonged to a T-Rex about 70 million years ago. Gross! It's a big old poo! Oh, well, yes, I suppose it is a bit gross, but these fossils are also vital to understanding the lives these dinosaurs lived all those years ago. Hmm, and what if...
What exactly do you mean by that? I licked the tip of my pen again. I think I was starting to get the hang of this whole investigative journalist thing. Well, if you're able to understand what's inside these Bromelites, then you can also figure out what sort of... foods these dinosaurs were eating back then. And if you know what the dinosaurs were eating back then and how that changed over time, then you can start to understand just how these dinosaurs evolved to become so big.
Correct? Yes, precisely. That's called a follow-up question, and I'm pretty sure I... I nailed it. But what I really wanted to see was the archives. The place where they keep the vast collection of their fossilized poop and the place where we might finally get some answers to our questions. Now, who wants to see the archives? Oh! Oh, anything for the story, Dennis. But I don't want...
The archives were located on the lower levels of the building. Professor Guano took us down a metal staircase, which was somehow even more echoey than the main hall. And then we were there. The Romalite Archives. This place is huge. Huge! Yes, we have quite the collection here at the National Archives. Almost 230 million years of fossilized poop from all over the world. Absolutely incredible. I had never seen so many fossilized dino poops in my entire life.
Well, to be fair, I had never seen a single dinosaur poop before today, but still, they had dino poops of all shapes and sizes. Big poops, little poops, round poops, spiky poops. Even Dennis was starting to enjoy it. This dude, he says, is from a gassasaurus. Dennis, pay attention. We're on a very important journalistic mission. So, Professor Guano, which of these dino poops are we looking at first? Well, the one I wanted to show you is over here in the Polish section.
Guano led us through corridor after corridor of bromelites from all over the world, North America, Asia, Africa, until we arrived at the section labeled Polish Basin. Well... Here we are. The Polish Basin. It's a dinosaur fossil hotspot in central Poland and Europe. You're right. The Polish Basin is chock full of all kinds of dino fossils, including... Wow. What is that? Well, if I had to guess, Guy Raz, I'd say it's a giant pile of dino doo-doo. Ew. Yes, indeed. That is...
220 pounds or 100 kilograms of Bromelites, all dug up from the Polish basin. Fascinating. And what exactly is it doing down on this table, Professor Guano? Well, it's all related back to that study I wrote to you about. Oh, right. The one that was published in the scientific journal Nature? Yes, that's right.
I've tried to replicate or redo some of the original study by analyzing 500 different Bromelites from that 30 million year period where dinosaurs went from tiny little cat-sized creatures to some of the largest creatures to ever walk the planet. Huh, so you're telling us that what we have on the table here is some sort of a poopy, pukey...
Timeline of dinosaur evolution? Yes, that's one way to put it. Amazing. Our readers are going to love this. We might even win a Pulitzer Prize for this story. Tell us, Professor Guano. You know what's inside the poops. Do you break them open like an ancient poopy pinata? Excuse me? I'm sorry. I think what my colleague here is trying to say is, what do you... techniques are you using here, Professor, to determine what exactly is inside these fossils? Well put, Mindy. Ah, great question.
We're about to look inside these fossils without breaking them apart with a little machine I keep down the end of this hole. Come along! We walked further into the archives where Professor Guano eventually led us into a small room with a computer and a device that looked like some sort of scanner. Ooh, come on! What is that? Some sort of scanner? Yes, indubitably. It's called a micro-CT scanner. Um, could you spell that for me, please? Oh, sure. C-T-
Scanner. Okay, got it. And so this CT scanner is used to smash the dino poo-poo open? No, it scans the specimen and shows us images of the inside without needing to break it. Ah! Got it. Oh, I think I've seen one of these before. Micro CT scanners actually x-ray something over and over and over again on a bunch of different levels, and then it stitches all the images back together again so you get a...
3D scan of what's inside, right? Bingo! Well, what are we waiting for? Dennis, quick, get your gloves on. We've got some dino poop to scan. What? No! Actually, the scans have already been done. That's why I contacted you, Al. So what did you find inside those bromelites? A whole world of dino diets. Here, have a look at some of these scans. Whoa, look at that. There's like an entire leaf in that poop. Ooh, I see a bug.
And that looks like it might be fish scales. Oh, that's right. We found a whole array of things in these dino poops. But the most interesting thing we found was this. Professor, that's just another leaf. Not just any leaf. This is a leaf that belonged to a plant that only started to emerge during the 30 million years when dinosaurs were on the rise.
Huh. Then something happened. A light bulb went off in my head. Some might call it reporter's intuition. I call it a brainwave. Wait a minute, Guy Raz. I just had a brainwave. What is it, Mindy? What if it was this plant that allowed the dinosaurs to grow so big? Well, what do you mean? What if there was a bunch of new plants that popped up around this time that only
That would actually make a lot of sense, Mindy. There was a lot of volcanic activity around that time. And volcanic soil is great for growing plants. So it seems like... These old reptiles that had been around for millions of years couldn't handle these new plants that were popping up. But this new group of dinosaurs didn't have a problem eating these new plants. And therefore, they were able to grow big and strong. Oh yeah, that was what I was going to say. Big and strong. Wow.
You got it. You should be journalists. Indeed. Investigative reporter journalists. So that must be how the dinosaurs got to be so huge. They... Eat their vegetables. Kind of, yes. Now that's a headline. Mystery solved. This is going to be front page news. Yeah, and all it took was years of poking around in some ancient dino poop. Anything?
for science, Dennis. And anything for the story. Come on, you two. We've got to get back to Bugle HQ and get this story to the presses. Thanks again for your time, Professor Guano. Oh, anytime. Oh, before I leave, can I use your bath? Once Dennis had left his own specimen at the National Archives, we rushed back to the Bonker Balls Bugle HQ and put our story to print. It didn't win the Pulitzer that year. That went to some tabloid piece on cubic water.
But I'll never forget Professor Guano and my first big break as an investigative reporter at the Bonker Balls Bugle. Loud in the World will be right back. This message is for you. That's it. Back to the show. I live in Dallas, Texas. My one in the world is that pigeons can tell a painting between Monet or Picasso. Oh, and Dennis? What? I know you're static, man. No, I'm not static, man. We just look alike and sound alike. Bye.
in New York, and I'm eight years old. My wow in the world is that winter lasts for 21 years on Uranus. Say hi to the slay cats, and grandma, take a pause for me. Love your show. Bye. Philadelphia, and my wow is that sandwiches are banned from the International Space Station because they could destroy vital equipment with crumbs. to Reggie, Thomas Fingerling, Grandma GeForce, Dennis, Bucky, Alice the cat, and the sleigh cats. Oh yeah! Ahoy there! Bye.
from also Washington. My wow in the world is that the world's largest snowflake was 15 inches wide. Bye! Chandler, Arizona. My wow is that queen honeybees sometimes quack. Isn't that totally bonker balls? Say hi to Grandma GeForce, Dennis, Reggie, Thomas Fingerling. And all the Tinkercats producers. I love your show. Oh, nice. Hi. Hi, Mindy and Guy Ross. My name is Olympia, and I am from Sacramento, California.
is that porcupine babies are born in jelly-like sacks so they don't poke their moms. Hi, Mindy and Guy Raz. I'm Mila. And I'm Sarah. And we're from Columbus, Ohio. is that a day on Venus is longer than a year on Venus. That's vulnerable. Say hi to... Reggie. Dennis. Grandma G4. Thomas Fingerling. Howdy. Oh, yeah. And... Grownups, if you like wow in the world, you can listen early and ad-free.
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 listening to this episode of Wow! If you're a kid with a big wow to share with us, call our wow hotline at 1-888-7-WOW-WOW for a chance to be featured at the end of the show or an upcoming episode of Two What's in a Wow.
And while you're at it, why don't you head over to Apple Podcasts and tell us what wows you about our show by leaving a review. You just might hear your review-zie read by Dennis on WeWow on the weekend. Oh, and don't forget to visit us at Tinkercast.com and become a member of the World Organization of Wowsers. With that, you'll get year-round mailings, weekly activities, birthday cards, and more. On Tinkercast.com, you can also shop our wow shop.
Get tickets for upcoming live events, find our books, and learn about all the other amazing podcasts from Tinkercast. Once again, that's Tinkercast.com. Wow in the World is written by Mindy Thomas and Tom Van Kalken with contributions. Original sound design and music editing is done by Tyler Thole with help from our senior production director Jed Anderson. You can also hear Jed Anderson in the voices of Dennis Thomas Fingerling.
and many of the other silly characters you hear on our show. This episode also features the voice talents of Lizzie Freilich. Thanks, Lizzie! Jessica Bode keeps our facts straight as our fact checker, and Meredith Halpern-Ranzer powers the wow at Tinkercast. Our theme song was composed and performed by three-time Grammy nominees, The Pop-Ups. Find them at... at thepopups.com. Special thanks to our team, including Kit Ballinger, Rebecca Kaban, Dr. Natasha Crandall, Kenny Curtis, Kristen Yang,
Tui Mac, Erica Medina, Henry Moskal, Jody Nussbaum, Ali Paksima, Linda Rothenberg, Steph Sosa, Anna Zagorski, and all of the other tinkerers at Tinkercast HQ. Grownups, you can follow Wow in the World on Facebook. Thanks for listening. Find episodes of Wow in the World every Monday, two what's in a wow every Friday, and we wow on the... weekends with Dennis every Saturday and Sunday right here in the Wow in the World podcast feed. Until then, keep on wowing!
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