0:01

Hey, Wowser Fams, Mindy here. And

0:03

we know you have had some amazing

0:05

teachers who have added a lot of

0:08

wow to your world through the years.

0:10

So for Teacher's Appreciation Week, we

0:13

want to celebrate your teacher's hoo-wow. Tell

0:17

us about a teacher who wows your world at

0:20

tinkercast.com/teacher's hoo-wow

0:23

for a chance to win your

0:25

teacher a wow prize pack, including

0:27

headphones and wow goodies for the

0:29

whole class. That's

0:33

tinkercast.com/teacher's hoo-wow to enter

0:35

your teacher from now

0:37

until May 3rd. That's

0:40

it. And now let's get back to the

0:42

show. Whoo-hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo!

0:48

Earth! Whink! Whoo-hoo-hoo-hoo!

0:50

On! Whoo-hoo-hoo!

0:52

We wow! We need to help

0:54

the Earth, cause it's super cool.

0:57

Well, conservation and recycling

0:59

too. Earth has plants

1:01

and lakes and trees,

1:04

and pigeons and frogs and chupencies,

1:07

and lakes and lemurs and honeybees

1:09

and snails and rocks and

1:11

jigger peas and dogs and

1:13

cats and fish and mangoes

1:15

and dandelions and rice. What? Reggie,

1:18

why'd you turn off the drum

1:20

machine? Brrr! I'm

1:23

almost finished. Brrr! A

1:25

five, six, seven, eight! Earth week,

1:27

we wow! Earth week, we wow!

1:30

Come have a whole Earth long,

1:32

we wow! Earth week, we wow!

1:36

Ah! Hello and welcome

1:39

to another day of we wow! Earth

1:41

week! Brrr! I'm your

1:43

host, Dennis. Brrr! And this is my

1:45

co-host, Reggie. Brrr! Brrr! That's

1:48

right, Reggie. It's Earth week! Which

1:51

means we're talking about the Earth and listening

1:53

to episodes of Wow! in the World about

1:55

helping the Earth, all from the

1:57

comfort of my mother's basement. Brrr! What?

2:00

Reggie, go outside! Why would

2:02

we go out there? To

2:04

see the Earth? Reggie, no!

2:07

This is a podcast. It's

2:09

audio only. You can't see

2:11

anything. Besides, Father's

2:13

basement is on Earth. It still

2:15

fits the theme. Plus,

2:18

today, I'm going to go through

2:20

all this recycling. Wow,

2:26

Reggie, I'm glad you asked. As

2:28

a concerned citizen, I feel the

2:31

need to make sure everyone in

2:33

the neighborhood is sorting their recycling

2:35

properly. So, this is

2:37

everyone in the neighborhood's recycling, and

2:40

we are going to go through

2:42

it. Meet

2:44

us, Reggie! What if people are

2:46

doing it wrong? What if someone

2:48

put an aluminum can in the

2:50

paper bin? What then, Reggie? What

2:52

then? I

2:55

am not just snooping through people's

2:57

recycling bins for fun! Okay,

3:00

well, maybe I am a little, but too late

3:03

now. Let's see, alright, what do

3:05

we got here? Ooh,

3:07

looks like old Tommy Fingerling has a

3:10

lot of cardboard candy boxes. I wonder

3:12

what kind of candy he's eating. Money

3:15

Dudders? Ew! Didn't they

3:17

stop making these like 30 years ago? What

3:21

else we got? What's this? Oh,

3:24

this must be Grandma G. Forza's

3:26

paper recycling. She's got some magazines

3:28

here, better diaper

3:31

homes and gardens, Cat

3:33

Illustrated, and Chainsaw

3:36

Digest Quarterly. And

3:38

over here in her metal recycling,

3:40

she's got... Oh,

3:43

Chainsaw! Yeah, maybe don't touch

3:45

those. No,

3:48

I couldn't find any of Guy Roz's

3:50

trash or recycling. He's doing a zero

3:52

waste thing this week. I

3:54

did find his compost bin, but it

3:57

was full of worms, so I ran

3:59

away screaming. Many using

4:01

all hurts ration right now to

4:03

build new inventions. Even

4:05

the old bacon grease. I don't

4:07

know what's she's making, but it

4:09

smells delicious. Okay,

4:12

wow, looks like everything. Else

4:14

in order to year once, it's

4:16

all recycled, all this nasty old

4:18

garbage. Can be turned the nasty.

4:20

No garbage. I mean new useful

4:22

things that aren't garbage. Say spending

4:25

of reusing old stuff we found

4:27

lying around. Let's listen to an

4:29

episode of Wow In the World.

4:32

That's One is from the

4:34

Season Eight episode eighteen called

4:36

elastic Eating Pets. Besides

4:40

the one where Mindy need guy

4:42

rise to help or take care

4:44

of a new pet in a

4:46

guy, rods are like birthday enmities

4:48

are like razzie. Us.

4:51

Classic. right?

4:54

Yeah, Recycling and it it

4:56

away. Well I don't want

4:58

a spoil it reggie. Okay,

5:00

let's say the at itself

5:02

can. Play. We'll.

5:08

Be right! Best. Messages

5:10

for Yale. Hey

5:13

grown Ups, it's guy runs hear from Wow

5:15

in the world! Happy Earth Month. As

5:18

you might have heard, first day

5:20

is on April twenty second. but

5:22

we have some ideas for how

5:24

to celebrate the wow's of this

5:26

amazing. Planet we call home

5:29

every day. Grown

5:32

Up says it's Tinker cast.com/earth

5:34

Day for activities the whole

5:36

family to do to celebrates

5:38

Earth. Today. That's.

5:47

now back to the shell Hey,

6:02

Ross! It's me! You're my friend

6:04

Mandy! And it's me! Wake up!

6:07

Hey, Ross! Hey, Ross! Hey, Ross!

6:09

It's me! What's with

6:11

all the yelling? Uh-uh! Quit

6:14

your yapping! I'm trying to

6:16

be mad! What's

6:20

with all the commotion? Good.

6:22

Can Ross hear a wake? I am now!

6:25

Well, I'm going back to bed. And

6:27

I'm going back to

6:29

my North Fat Fannel

6:31

Royale man. Here

6:34

I am! Mandy, why

6:36

are you banging on my door at

6:38

3am? Sorry, Guy

6:40

Ross, but it's an emergency. I need you

6:42

to feed my pets. That's

6:45

why you woke up the entire

6:47

neighborhood? Because you need me to

6:49

feed your pets? Uh,

6:52

yeah. Surely Reggie can feed

6:54

himself, Mandy? Doesn't he make

6:56

you breakfast every day? Okay,

6:59

yes. But, first of all,

7:01

Reggie is not my pet.

7:03

He is my roommate. Oh,

7:06

sorry. And secondly, I'm

7:08

talking about the new pets that I got

7:10

last week. New pets? I didn't

7:12

know you have new pets. You never

7:14

asked. So wait, you need me to

7:17

feed these new pets of yours? Yes.

7:19

And I've left everything you need next to the

7:22

tank. The tank? Yeah,

7:24

the water tank that it's in. So, you

7:26

got a couple of fish? What? No, fish

7:28

are too slimy. Then what are you talking

7:30

about? Oh, you'll see. Anywho,

7:34

I gotta go. So here are the keys to my

7:36

gingerbread mansion, and if the lock gives you any trouble,

7:38

just kick the door in like I do. Okay, got

7:40

it. Oh, wait a minute. Where are you going

7:42

at 3 o'clock in the morning? Oh,

7:47

I'm going to the DMV. The DMV? Yeah,

7:51

still not exactly sure what the Department of

7:53

Music videos want to do with my ice cream

7:55

truck, but it's the only time I could get

7:57

an appointment. Uh huh. So, can

7:59

you- Can you do it? Ah, sure

8:02

thing, Mindy. Yes, you're

8:04

the best guy, Rosie. All right, see you a

8:06

little bit. Whoops, whoops, whoops. And

8:09

remember, just follow the instructions that I left

8:11

next to the tank, okay? Wait,

8:13

what instructions? Sorry, can't

8:15

hear ya, we'll talk later. Bye. Well,

8:19

I suppose I should head

8:21

over now and get this over with. Okay,

8:24

just gotta feed Mindy's new

8:27

nonfish pet and I'll

8:29

be back in bed in no time. Wow,

8:34

it's so peaceful this early in

8:36

the morning. All right,

8:38

let's see, let me try this key

8:42

here. Wait a

8:44

minute, is this key made

8:46

out of butterscotch? I

8:51

broke it. Well, it looks like

8:53

I'll have to kick in the door. Let's

8:56

see, how does Mindy do it

8:58

again? Okay, see, she takes a step

9:01

back, she lifts her

9:03

leg up and then she goes, heee! That

9:09

was actually kind of fun. Reggie,

9:12

what are you doing up? Painting,

9:16

huh? Can I see what you're working

9:18

on? Uh,

9:21

is that supposed to be Dennis riding

9:23

a manatee? Well,

9:28

I guess inspiration can strike any

9:30

time of day or night.

9:33

Well, anyway, I'm actually here to

9:36

feed Mindy's new pet. Do you know where

9:38

they are? Through

9:40

there? All right. Whoa,

9:46

look at the size of that

9:48

fish boy. Ha,

9:50

and it looks like there's a note stuck

9:53

to it. Dear

9:55

Guy Ross, thank you so much

9:57

for looking after my friend. new

10:00

aquatic test. Their species

10:02

name is Rhonococcus ruber and when

10:05

I heard about these little buddies and

10:07

their Bonker Ball's diets in a study

10:09

from the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea

10:12

Research, I knew I had

10:14

to see it for myself. That's

10:16

where you come in. Their food is

10:19

located in the cupboard under this

10:21

tank. Hugs, your

10:23

best friend Mindy. All

10:27

right, let's have a look. Are we Reggie? Huh,

10:31

is this it? But

10:34

this bag is just filled with

10:36

plastic pellets. That can't

10:38

be right. Where even

10:40

are these pets? Maybe

10:43

they're under the ceramic sand castle.

10:45

Let me just roll up my

10:47

sleeve here and... nothing.

10:53

Where are these things? Reggie, I'm

10:55

home. Mindy, Mindy,

10:58

what are you doing here? I thought you

11:00

had an appointment at the DMV. Oh, right.

11:02

Yeah, turns out the appointment was for 3

11:05

p.m. Not 3 a.m.

11:07

Classic mistake. It happens way more

11:09

often than you think. Anyhow, I

11:11

see you've met my brand new

11:14

aquatic pets. Well, actually

11:16

Mindy, I have it. I can't see

11:18

them anywhere. I've checked the entire tank.

11:21

Oh, well, you're not gonna

11:23

see them with your eyes,

11:25

Gyroz. What? They're invisible. Invisible?

11:27

Well, invisible to the naked

11:29

eye. Mindy is

11:32

too early for this. They're

11:34

microscopic, Gyroz. Microscopic? You mean

11:36

they're so small that you

11:38

can only see them with

11:40

a microscope? You know it.

11:42

So wait, do you have

11:44

microscopic pets? Uh-huh. Want to

11:47

meet them? Uh, yes.

11:50

Okay, just put these

11:52

glasses on over your regular

11:54

glasses. These say happy

11:56

2016. Oh, yeah. cycled

12:00

my New Year's Eve glasses from a few years

12:02

ago. From 2016? Yeah, every

12:04

year, like, there's no

12:06

way they can make glasses out of

12:09

this number, and then every year they

12:11

just blow my mind! Uh-huh.

12:13

Anywho, I modified these to

12:16

magnify everything in my tank. I

12:18

called them my magnifying

12:21

goggles. TM. Uh,

12:23

that makes sense. Yeah, they magnify

12:25

everything by like a thousand times.

12:27

This way I can see my

12:29

little pets swimming around in the

12:32

tank. Here, check them out!

12:34

Okay, putting on

12:36

these 2016 magnifying goggles.

12:41

Whoa! Pretty bonker balls, huh?

12:43

Mindy, this is incredible! Wait,

12:46

I think I see them! I

12:48

think I see your microscopic pets!

12:51

Tiny little oval things all stuck

12:53

together? Sort of looks like someone

12:55

spilled a bunch of baked beans? Uh,

12:58

sort of. Yep, that's them! This

13:00

is incredible! How small are these

13:02

little microbes? Well, the biggest ones

13:05

are only about two microns across.

13:07

Two microns? That's smaller than the

13:09

width of a human hair! Yeah,

13:12

about thirty times smaller than the width of

13:14

a human hair. Wow! And

13:17

you haven't even seen the most

13:19

amazing part yet! I haven't? What

13:21

is it? Their diet! Their diet?

13:24

Yeah, did you get a chance to feed

13:26

them yet? No, I mean, I tried, but

13:28

all you had in your cupboard was

13:30

a bag of plastic pellets. Oh yeah,

13:32

that's their favorite food. Sun-dried

13:35

plastic pellets. Huh? That's

13:37

what these little buddies eat! They eat

13:39

plastic? Yeah, and they love it! Can't

13:41

get enough! Wait, wait, I

13:43

don't get it. Okay, here's how

13:45

it works, Sky-Roz. The ultraviolet light

13:48

from the sun breaks the plastic

13:50

down into little tiny

13:52

bite-sized chunks just

13:54

right for them to eat. Here,

13:56

look! I'll grab some now. I'm

13:59

just gonna screw it up. Sprinkle a couple in

14:01

here... Yeah,

14:03

go for it. Snap time! Whoa,

14:06

look at those little guys go! Looks

14:09

like they were pretty hungry. She got that right.

14:12

I just have one question, Mindy.

14:14

Yeah, sure, what? Well, where in

14:16

the world did you get these

14:18

little microscopic critters? Oh, I got

14:20

them at the pet store. The

14:22

pet store? Mindy, what pet store

14:24

sells microscopic bacteria? Oh, you know,

14:26

the one that just opened on the street. It makes

14:28

microscopic and microbial mini-mates? What?

14:32

It's one of those hot new pet store chains for microbes. Don't

14:34

worry about it. Uh... And I'm

14:36

pretty sure it's the same place that those

14:38

researchers got their microbes. Which

14:40

researchers? You know, the scientist who wrote the

14:42

study. It was in the note that I left for

14:44

you earlier? Oh, yeah, let me see

14:47

your note here. I

14:49

first heard about these little

14:51

buddies in a study from

14:53

the Royal Netherlands Institute for

14:55

Sea Research. That's the one!

14:58

And their species name is...

15:01

Rhodococcus ruber? Uh-huh!

15:03

But I just called them Alan. Well, which one? Oh,

15:05

all of them. Uh... I'm

15:08

not gonna come up with names for every single one

15:10

of them. There's thousands of them in here. Right. And

15:14

do you want to know what Alan's

15:16

favorite hobby is, Gyroz? Uh,

15:19

sure. What's their favorite hobby?

15:21

Tooting! Whoops! Excuse

15:23

me. What? That's

15:25

the amazing thing that these researchers

15:27

from the Netherlands found out! That

15:29

they love to toot? Well, basically,

15:31

they found that this specific species

15:33

of bacteria is able to break

15:36

down little tiny chunks of plastic

15:38

and turn it into CO2. You

15:42

know, carbon dioxide. Wow! That's

15:44

amazing, Mindy! Yeah, I

15:46

mean, so far these scientists have only been able to

15:48

prove this in a lab, but they've

15:50

calculated that these little microbes could be

15:52

responsible for eating the bacteria. responsible for

15:55

eating up and tooting out up to

15:57

1% of the plastic that's floating around.

16:00

in our ocean. Whoa, that's

16:02

a lot of plastic. Well, I mean, it's

16:04

one percent, Guy Roz. Let's not get too

16:06

excited. One percent is still

16:08

something. Uh, can I do a storytime?

16:10

Oh, sure. Uh, let's summon the

16:13

storytime music. Okay, here we

16:15

go. Our

16:18

oceans are chock full

16:20

of plastic that we

16:22

humans have put there.

16:24

Right now, there are

16:26

about 24.4 trillion pieces

16:28

of plastic floating around

16:30

in our oceans. Whoo!

16:33

A whole lot of this

16:35

plastic sits on top of

16:37

the water and clumps together

16:39

in huge patches of plasticy

16:42

mess. The

16:44

great Pacific garbage patch, which sits

16:46

right in the middle of the

16:48

Pacific Ocean, is twice the size of

16:50

Texas, and

16:52

contains about 1.8 trillion

16:55

pieces of plastic. And

16:58

according to researchers, all of this

17:01

plastic can weigh up to 578,000

17:03

tons, which,

17:07

if I get my calculator out

17:09

here, one percent of 500,000 tons

17:11

is 5,780 tons. So,

17:24

I'm guessing that's a lot of plastic? Yeah,

17:26

I mean, it's about the same as 825

17:28

African elephants' worth of plastic. I

17:33

mean, these microbes might explain why there

17:36

isn't even more plastic in the

17:38

ocean. Uh, hold the phone, Guy Roz.

17:41

Were you just talking about how

17:43

there's way too much plastic in

17:45

the ocean? Yes, absolutely. There's

17:47

way too much plastic in our

17:49

oceans, but there's not as much

17:51

as there should be. Wait, not

17:54

as much as there should be?

17:56

What are you talking about, Guy

17:58

Roz? Well, they... Based on the amount

18:01

of plastic that we dump into the ocean

18:03

every day, scientists would expect

18:05

there to be a lot more of

18:07

it floating around. Huh, and no

18:09

one knows why they're less plastic

18:12

than expected? Well no,

18:14

it's a scientific mystery. A

18:17

mystery! But,

18:20

I bet these little microbes

18:22

could maybe explain why some of

18:24

it isn't there. Exactly!

18:27

Guy Ross! Are you thinking

18:29

what I'm thinking? Uh,

18:32

probably not. I just

18:34

had the most bonker balls

18:36

idea! Uh huh. If

18:38

at this moment, these little microbes

18:40

are able to eat 1% of

18:43

the plastic that gets thrown into our ocean?

18:46

Uh huh. What if we were

18:48

able to make more of these

18:50

little buddies, billions more of

18:52

them, then they could eat

18:55

up all the plastic in the ocean

18:57

and the problem would be solved? Uh,

19:00

yeah, we could do that Mindy,

19:02

but there's actually a much easier

19:05

way to reduce the amount of

19:07

plastic in our oceans without breathing

19:09

billions and billions of bacteria. What

19:12

is it? Recycling! Recycling?

19:15

Yeah, recycling! One

19:17

of the best ways to stop

19:19

plastic polluting our waters is to

19:21

make sure that it never gets

19:23

there in the first place by

19:25

either recycling or reusing the plastic

19:27

that we already have. Huh,

19:29

that's a really good point Guy Ross. And you

19:32

know what? Any of these

19:34

leftover plastic pellets, I'm going to be

19:36

sure to put right into the recycling

19:38

bin. Or maybe you could

19:40

get Reggie to even reuse them for one

19:42

of his art projects. Ah, upcycling! I like

19:44

it Guy Ross. What

19:47

do you think, Reg? In

19:49

the meantime, all these little microbes have

19:51

to worry about is being the cutest

19:53

little pecs I've ever had.

19:56

You're so cute. Yes you are. You're so

19:58

cute, you tiny little... horrible micro

20:01

buddy. Hello. He's hungry. He

20:03

does it. I think I'm gonna go home and

20:05

go back to bed. Wait, they're all just coming

20:08

back. They're back after dessert. I see. Yeah,

20:10

eat it up. Mmm. Hey,

20:15

Prime members. You can listen to

20:17

Wow in the World early and

20:19

ad-free on Amazon Music. Download the

20:22

Amazon Music app today, or

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20:26

with Wondery Plus Kids in Apple

20:28

Podcasts. And grownups, before you

20:31

go, tell us about yourself by

20:33

completing a short survey

20:35

at wondery.com slash survey. Wow

20:41

in the World is written by

20:43

Mindy Thomas and Tom Van Kalken

20:45

with help from me, Guy Roz.

20:47

Original sound design and music editing is

20:50

done by Tyler Thole with help from

20:52

our supervising producer, Jed Anderson.

20:54

You can also hear Jed

20:56

Anderson in the voices of

20:58

Dennis, Thomas Fingerling, Reggie, and many

21:01

of the other silly characters you

21:03

hear on our show. Jessica Bodie

21:05

keeps her facts straight as our

21:07

fluff-tricker and Meredith Halpern-Ranzer powers the

21:10

wow at Tinkercast. Our theme song

21:12

was composed and performed by

21:14

three-time Grammy nominees, The Pop-ups.

21:17

Find them at thepopups.com. Special

21:19

thanks to Steph Sosa, Henry

21:22

Moskle, Ruth Morrison, Rebecca Kavon,

21:24

Kit Ballinger, Sana Ali-Mohamed, Anna

21:26

Zegorski, and all of the

21:28

other Tinkerers at Tinkercast HQ.

21:30

To keep the wows rolling,

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visit us at tinkercast.com. There

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22:26

in the World was made by Tinkercast

22:29

and sent to you by Wondery.