Hey, Wowzer fans, Mindy here. And before we start the show, we know that March is known for madness. But why not mystery and mischief, too? We've pulled some of our favorite mystery episodes from Wow in the World, plus a special bite-sized episode with some real mysteries from real kids now playing.
on the Who Win Wow podcast feed. And what's a little mystery without a little bit of mischief? Well, we've sent out a pigeon dropping to all of our World Organization of Wowzer members with ideas for how... you can add a little mischief and spread a little wow to the people in your life.
So members of the WOW, be sure to check your mailboxes. And if you're not a member yet, well, we've also got some fun ideas for how you can add a little mystery and mischief to your month, too. Visit Tinkercast.com. for mysterious episodes, mischievous activities, and more wow. That's it, and now back to the show. The bubble corn addiction is a magnificent proportion.
Beautiful day for fishing, huh, Rich? Just you and me and the fishing pole sitting here on the roof of my gingerbread mansion. Look! I'm going to go ahead and spread the line, and while I'm doing that, I need you to attach the bait. What do you mean, what bait? I've got a whole basket over here. Look, I've got some cheese, some cheese pizza, some peanut butter. Well, just take an entire cheese pizza right here, smother it in peanut butter, and then shove it into this hot dog bun.
No rat is going to be able to resist what's on the end of this fishing line, that's for sure. Yeah, I did say rat. You didn't think I was going to fish for fish, did you? Reggie, my moat is bone dry down there. Okay, Reg. On the count of three. One. Maybe this is gonna be a real wonker. Huh, something's fishy about this peanut butter cheese pizza dog, but I can't quite... Wait, poor...
What are you two doing up here? Fishing? How do you expect to catch any fish? The mode is bone dry. Can't you see I'm up here fishing for rats? Ow. Again? Oh, right. Sorry. Sorry. What are you doing on the roof of your gingerbread mansion? I'm not sure those pretzel rod beams are going to be able to withstand the weight of... Quick, Reggie, go to the beanbag!
Andy, rats won't like kale. The only things that like kale are, oh, I get it. It's for Gairos. Also, I think you're getting a little too close to the sun up there. There we go. Why don't you come down the ground? That's it, Gairaz. Go ahead. Take a bite. Okay. in the... Oh, hey, buddy. Wow, Mindy, look at that. You caught a freshwater guy, Roz. What is he, like 70 inches? Gotta be a record. Here, take my picture with him. What?
I'll tell you, rascal! Say cheese! Cheese! Put me down, Dennis! Oh wait, Reggie, give me that. I'm gonna take a selfie. Cheese! Wait, did you hear that? What? Is that? Could it be? Huh. I hear it now. It's like a rumbling, squeaking, teeny-tiny pawing sound. Almost like a charging horde of... Uh-oh. What? What? Rats love selfies? And now they're all running up the sides of my gingerbread mansion. I didn't need a fishing pole after all. You wanted them up here? Whoa, this was not how... For sure.
Oh, thank goodness. Wait, what was that you said, Dennis? Huh? I said thank goodness. No, the other thing, when the rats were tickling you. Oh, I said, uh, stop. Please make it stop. Help. Hmm. But you were laughing. So? That doesn't mean I was enjoying myself. I was attacked. Huh. You were attacked. With tickles. Which made you laugh? I was freaked out on the inside. Well, how does that work? Wait, I think I know what was going on, Mindy. You do? Yes, you see, there are millions of...
tiny sensors under your skin called nerve endings. And when your skin is touched, those nerve endings send signal to the parts of your brain that are responsible for making sense of touch and feeling. And together, those parts of your brain are essentially what create the sensation you're feeling, Dennis. Okay. Ah, so for example, if I were to, say, touch a hot stove or, you know, the sun...
Those nerve endings would alert my brain and my brain would send messages back to my hand notifying it that I have touched something hot and that I should probably expect a bad feeling. Well, yes, and if you were being tickled, those two parts of your brain would tell you to expect a tickling sensation, which could be good. Good? No, it was torture!
Or it could feel like torture. So if the rats tickling Dennis made Dennis feel like he was being tortured, then why was he laughing? Yeah, why was I laughing? Well, scientists still don't know for sure. But some scientists who study how humans have evolved... And other scientists who study the brain believe that it could be a kind of involuntary defense mechanism. Oh, like your body's way of chilling out a tense situation.
Exactly. You know, all of this reminds me of a new scientific study that I just read about rats in tickling. Oh, what a coincidence. Yeah. It came from the University of Bristol in England. And in that study, a team of researchers led by Professor Emma Robinson wanted to find out once and for all... Do rats like to be tickled? Oh yeah, I think I saw something about this study in the scientific journal Current Biology. Yep, that's the one. You two read the strangest stuff.
In fact, scientists have known for a few years now that rats are not only ticklish... But that they giggle when they're being tickled! Giggling rats? Well, I've got to hear this. Come here, rats. Here, ratty ratties. Come on, laugh now. Coochie, coochie, coo. Actually, Dennis, rat laughter cannot be heard by the human ear. Ah, but I want to hear it.
Mindy's right, Dennis. You can tickle those rats all day long, but you'll never be able to hear them with your naked ear because rats laugh at a frequency far higher than human ears can detect. Well, rats... Unless you're wearing a pair of these high-frequency ultrasonic hearing headsets I invented. Ooh, tech accessories. Let me see, let me see, let me see. Oh. Uh, do you have them in any other colors? Uh, Mindy, these, uh...
High-frequency headsets look like old hamburger buns attached to earmuffs, and what's with all this loose wiring hanging off of them? Oh, get careful! Was that a spark? That... That was the complainy pants detector. And the next person to criticize my high frequency hearing headsets gets mildly zapped. Never mind, I like them now. Here you go, Dennis. A pair for you and a pair for you, Reggie. Although I do have to say you already have...
Excellent hearing. So, Mindy, were Professor Robinson and her team able to hear the rats giggling? Well, yeah. Really? I mean, sort of. See, they were able to record the rat's ultrasonic or high-frequency laughter on a special device that would then play the sounds back to the researchers at a frequency that they could hear with their human ears. Oh boy!
can't wait to hear rat giggles. Oh, right. Reggie's got a point. Wasn't there a question as to whether or not rats actually like being tickled? I mean... That kind of seems important. Yeah. How were Professor Robinson and her team able to test it? Oh, okay. So for this experiment, the researchers wanted to recreate the kind of tickling atmosphere that the rats would...
experience naturally when playing with other rats. And what kind of atmosphere is that? Well, just take a look at our rooftop rats here. It looks like they're roughhousing and tumbling around. Oh, that little rat just jumped on the big rat's back. Whoa, and now the big rat is flipping around to get the little rat off and... Now the little rat is on the big rat's belly. And look at their little paws. They're using them to tickle each other. Look and listen. I hear something.
Tickling? Oh my gosh! It's so cute! I'm going in! Come here! Come here, little reddy! Tickle pie, tickle pie, tickle pie! I'm guessing... saying that the researchers did not join in the fun? Actually, they did, Gairaz. What? Yeah, see, in recreating this natural tickling environment in the lab, the researchers had to play the role of the other rat. Of course, because when testing the rat giggles, they couldn't have...
too many rats or they wouldn't know which rat the giggles were coming from. Exactoritos, Guy Raz. The researchers experimented with one rat at a time. So, in the spirit of anything for science, they had to tickle the rats themselves. Anything for science. And while they were doing this, they took notes on the rats' behavior. and reaction to the tickling. You know, for example, if the rat tried to play with the tickling hand or... Mindy! Guy, look!
I think they like me. They're playing with my hand like it's one of them. Oh, look out. I'm going to get you. Back for more, huh? Or if the rat kept coming back for more. Or even if it just... tried to get away from the researcher's hand altogether. So just to make sure I'm getting this right, you're saying that the researchers would tickle a rat. Tickle, tickle, tickle.
And while they were tickling that rat, they'd be recording the rat's high-frequency laughter or vocalizations on a special recorder that would then translate it into a sound frequency. that they could hear with their own ears? You know it. Huh. And when they played these giggles back, they compared them to what they observed while watching the rats. And what did they discover?
Well, they discovered that the rats who giggled the most also seemed to have the most positive experience of being tickled. And those were the rats that kept coming back for more. Well, okay. They kept attacking the researcher's hand with what they call joy jumps. Oh, did you see that? It jumped. These rats? Were clearly into it So this would suggest That the rats who laughed The most also Enjoyed being tickled the most You got it
The researchers also found that not all rats enjoyed being tickled. At least not all of the time. Huh. Some of the rats were clearly not in the mood to be tickled? That's what I'm saying. The researchers found that the rats who showed the least... positive experiences were also the rats least likely to giggle when they were being tickled. Mindy!
This rat won't laugh when I tickle it. I think it's broken. That rat's not broken, Dennis. Yeah, it's just not in the mood to be tickled. Oh, like me from before when the rats were tickling me and I didn't like it? Oh. I get it. So, Mindy, does this research suggest that rats only laugh when they're enjoying themselves? Oh, good question. Because remember before, Mindy, when I was being tickled and I didn't want to be? But I was still laughing. Do rats do that? Should I not be tickling them?
Well, Professor Robinson and her team found that rats have a much more honest response to tickling than humans do. Oh, that's good. So if they're enjoying themselves, they'll laugh. And if they're not, they won't. Whereas in humans, it seems to be much more involuntary. We might laugh whether we like it or not. I see.
Hey, Mindy? Yes, Dennis? I have a question. Why are researchers tickling rats for science? I mean, aren't scientists usually curing diseases and studying the mysteries and problems of the planet and stuff like that? Actually, Dennis, rats and other rodents have been helping scientists to solve the world's problems for over 150 years. Yeah, and because there are so many similarities between the bodies and brains of rats and of humans...
Well, rats have played a pretty important role in helping scientists to develop medicines and to understand the human brain and the way it behaves Oh, and I just thought of another thing Even NASA has rats living aboard the International Space Station. They're working to help scientists better understand life in microgravity. We actually owe rats a debt of gratitude. They're the unsung heroes of the scientific world. Wow. True heroes.
Okay, so all of this is to say, Dennis, that this experiment is a step in helping scientists to understand when a rat is experiencing true happiness. Yep, you know what they say. Happy rats, happy researchers. Got it! Well, I guess we should probably round up these rats. and get them off of my gingerbread roof before they eat it. I suppose. Okay, little ratties. Party's over. Time to go.
Oh, my gosh, you're right. I'm going to go get my clue. Reggie! Don't leave. I need you to take my picture when I get back. Wow in the World will be right back. Grown-ups, this message is for you. Annabelle, and I live in Denver, Colorado. My wow in the world is the cockeyed squid. It has one normal eye and one eye that points upward. This squid lives in complete darkness. Say hi to Grandma GeForce.
And Thomas Fingerlake. What's up? Bye. Hi, Mindy and Gray, Roz. My name's Eden. I'm nine years old and live in Surrey, B.C. My way on the world is that the first computers weren't even machines. They're actually just humans who solve complicated math problems. Say hi to the whole neighborhood for me. Bye. Hi, Mindy and Gairaz. My name is Rory. I live in Brooklyn. Say hi to Reggie, the Annoying Dennis.
Gary the Goose, and Debbie, Donna, Pam, Carol, Cheryl, Mystiction, and Steve. Bye! Hi, Mindy and Guy Raz. My name is Rainy, and I live in Pensacola, Florida. My role in the world is that kittens lose their baby teeth. Say hi to Reggie for me. Hi, my name is Julian. I live in Brooklyn, New York. My role in the world is... Helium is the second lightest element. Say hi to staff, man, for me. Hi, Mindy and Guy Rod. My name is Brooke, and I'm from Manchester, Maryland.
My wow in the world is that the smallest monkey is about as tall as a toothbrush. Bye! Hi, Mindy. Hi, guys. This is Moira. And Hannah. From Indianapolis. So my wow in the world is that scientists use whale earwax to tell their age. And my wow is that humans and slugs... share more than half of their genes. Make sure to say hi to Dennis for us because, well, he's Dennis. Howdy!
And Grandma's G-Force and the whole crew. Yeah, just say hi. I did the whole crew first. No way, dude. Okay. Bye. Love your show. Bye. End of messages. Grown-ups. If you like wow in the world, you can listen early and ad free right now on Wondery Plus. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Wondery Kids Plus on Apple Podcasts. Prime members can listen ad free on Amazon. And before you go, tell us about yourself by filling out a short survey at wondery.com slash survey.
Hey, everyone. Thanks so much for hanging out with us this week on Wow in the World. And to keep the wow rolling, consider becoming a member of our World Organization of Wowzers. Each membership includes episode-specific digital activities. science experiments book lists and more plus you'll get a welcome box including a special edition members only t-shirt and an autographed picture of us
Find out more at Tinkercast.com. There you can also find more info on our upcoming shows, Shop Our Shop, and find our New York Times bestselling book, The How and Wow of the Human Body. Wow in the World is written by Mindy Thomas and Tom Van Kalken with help from me, Guy Raz. Our senior producer, Jed Anderson, brings our show to life with sound design and music editing.
and is also in charge of wrangling Dennis, Thomas Fingerling, Reggie, and many of the other silly characters you hear. And Grandma G-Force wrangles. Grandma G-Force. Grandma G-Force, get out of the... 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 their music at thepopups.com. And special thanks to the rest of our Wow in the World team, including Anna Zagorski, Rebecca Caban, Kit Ballinger, and Henry Moskal. Grownups, you can follow Wow in the World on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter at Wow in the World. And our email address is hello at tinkercast.com. And if you're a kid with a big wow to... To share with us, call us at 1-888-7WOWWOW for a chance to be featured at the end of the show.
or on an upcoming new episode of Two What's in a Wow. Also, be sure to subscribe to Wow in the World wherever you get your podcasts, and you can also ask your smart speaker to play Wow in the World. Thanks for listening. And until next time, keep on wowing. Keep on wowing. Made by Tinkercast and sent to you by Wondery.