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Speaker 1: Welcome to Part Time Genius, the production of iHeartRadio.

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Speaker 2: Guess What Will?

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Speaker 3: What's that Mango?

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Speaker 1: So I was thinking about how sometimes we forget that

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Speaker 1: all these simple things around us.

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Speaker 2: Are really music, and what do you mean by that?

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Speaker 1: Like I was in traffic coming from the airport this

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Speaker 1: weekend and everyone was honking, and I remembered how most

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Speaker 1: cars actually honk in the key of F or.

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Speaker 2: This is another thing.

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Speaker 1: When I was in high school, this kid Sean, and

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Speaker 1: my jazz band realized that our high school's bell rang

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Speaker 1: at I think a G. So when the class was

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Speaker 1: over and the first bell rang, everyone would harmonize and

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Speaker 1: play a G seven chord on their instruments. It's so nerdy,

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Speaker 1: so stupid, but of course I loved it. But this

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Speaker 1: week I learned that if you want to get an

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Speaker 1: alligator's attention, all you have to do is grab your

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Speaker 1: tuba and play a B flat.

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Speaker 4: Okay, I like that for this experiment, all you have

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Speaker 4: to have You got to have an alligator and a

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Speaker 4: tube nearby. But so at what exactly happens when you

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Speaker 4: play a B flat?

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Speaker 1: It is magical because for some reason, that note arouses

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Speaker 1: male gators, and when an alligator hears it, it'll bellow.

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Speaker 2: Or call back to you.

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Speaker 3: Is this a real thing?

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Speaker 1: Yeah, it's actually got this great origin story. So apparently

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Speaker 1: in the nineteen forties, the New York Philharmonic took a

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Speaker 1: field trip to the Natural History Museum and while they

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Speaker 1: were warming up there, this alligator named Oscar, who I

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Speaker 1: guess was a part of the natural history exhibit at

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Speaker 1: the time, he just started moaning.

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Speaker 2: And you know, they're all these.

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Speaker 1: Scientists there and they were watching, and you know, he'd

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Speaker 1: start moaning, and then the instruments would play, and then

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Speaker 1: he'd moan, and then he'd stop and it would start again.

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Speaker 2: And so you know, the scientists stopped.

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Speaker 1: The musicians and got them to start playing different notes

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Speaker 1: to see what was specifically causing it. And for whatever reason,

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Speaker 1: it turns out B flat was the key to the

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Speaker 1: alligator call. Thanks to this great science done by Oscar

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Speaker 1: and the New York Philharmonic, plenty of folks have actually

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Speaker 1: repeated the experiment and gotten alligators to duet with them.

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Speaker 1: But you actually have to remember, not any B flat works.

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Speaker 1: You actually have to play the B flat that's one

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Speaker 1: octave below middle seed to really get them going. Okay,

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Speaker 1: that's just the first of nine wonderful facts we've got

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Speaker 1: about alligators today.

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Speaker 2: So let's dig in.

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Speaker 4: Hey, their podcast listeners, welcome to part Time Genius. I'm

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Speaker 4: Will Pearson and as always I'm joined by my good

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Speaker 4: friend mangesh hot Ticketter and on the other side of

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Speaker 4: that soundproof glass are good Buddy Ramsey. He's giving us

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Speaker 4: his best toothy grin.

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Speaker 3: All right, mego.

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Speaker 4: So it's been a while since we've done one of

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Speaker 4: these shows. I know I've actually missed it so much.

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Speaker 4: And two things before we can this off.

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Speaker 1: One, I promised that if and when we finally started

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Speaker 1: doing the show again, we'd give a shout out to

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Speaker 1: our listener's son, Apollo, who is a fan of the

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Speaker 1: show or was a fan of the show. But Apollo,

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Speaker 1: if you're listening, tag us on Instagram. We want to

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Speaker 1: see what you're up to.

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Speaker 3: What's up, Apollo, This weird.

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Speaker 1: Show about alligators is for you. And two, Will, I

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Speaker 1: know you've gone to Saint Pete's in Florida so many times,

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Speaker 1: but I don't know why you didn't tell me that

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Speaker 1: they keep baby alligators in their mini golf places there.

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Speaker 4: The only downside to doing this episode is that I

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Speaker 4: was hoping to save this for when we both, I know,

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Speaker 4: both of us really want to retire to Florida, and

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Speaker 4: since we're really bad at most sports instead of golf,

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Speaker 4: we were going to retire there to play mini golf.

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Speaker 4: And that's when I was going to tell you, Yeah,

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Speaker 4: the big reveal.

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Speaker 1: So my in laws rented a place there for winter

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Speaker 1: break and we took my kids mini golfing. And the

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Speaker 1: fact that there were tiny gators that you could feed

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Speaker 1: these pellets so crazy. You put alligator food onto little

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Speaker 1: fishing and send it down. Honestly, it was the greatest thing.

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Speaker 1: And the mini golf was so unremarkable, but the fact

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Speaker 1: that my tiny monsters were feeding these tiny monsters was

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Speaker 1: just great. So I thought, you know, I wanted to

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Speaker 1: learn more about gators.

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Speaker 3: That's awesome. And actually you have one more reason, right.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, And this one's a little more personal. My dad

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Speaker 1: has been pretty ill recently. I know I told you this,

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Speaker 1: but he can't really watch things. But he loves you,

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Speaker 1: and he has stacks of mental floss in his garage

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Speaker 1: and he's a huge, huge, part time genius fan. So

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Speaker 1: he and Apollo might be the only ones left off there.

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Speaker 1: But I thought hearing us laugh and be goofy and

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Speaker 1: sharing facts would make him smile. So thank you for

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Speaker 1: making the time to do some more episodes with me.

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Speaker 3: Oh, I love your dad.

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Speaker 4: This was a no brainer to do this, And it

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Speaker 4: makes sense for this topic because when I think of

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Speaker 4: your dad, I always think of his love for these big,

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Speaker 4: aggressive reptiles. It's kind of like his thing. So it

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Speaker 4: makes sense you pick this theme a special for him.

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Speaker 4: But we've actually got eight facts to go. So what

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Speaker 4: do you say I do the next one?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, go for it, all right.

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Speaker 4: So I actually wanted to build on your b flat

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Speaker 4: fact because bellowing is one of those things crocodiles do

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Speaker 4: as a mating ritual. And so the bellow does this

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Speaker 4: amazing thing to the water. It's where the alligator just

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Speaker 4: raises his head and tail out of the water, so

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Speaker 4: his back and belly are still submerged. You know, it's

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Speaker 4: almost like if you imagine like a banana curved up

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Speaker 4: and so you lower it into the water so both

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Speaker 4: ends are sticking out and you know you can picture this, right,

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Speaker 4: except instead of a banana, it's a just go with me,

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Speaker 4: just just think about it. And so when the gator

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Speaker 4: bellows or does its deep grow. These vibrations make the

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Speaker 4: water around its body kind of kind of like ripple out.

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Speaker 4: It's actually pretty spectacular if you look at this in

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Speaker 4: slow motion, and it's very very appealing to female alligators

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Speaker 4: of course, And.

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Speaker 1: Is that the main way that male alligators like court

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Speaker 1: females like They don't dim lights and play smooth.

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Speaker 4: Jazz, neither of those things. But this is one part

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Speaker 4: of it. So sometimes you'll hear one gator bellow and

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Speaker 4: then another male gator we'll try to out below it

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Speaker 4: by making its own giant ripples. But gators have some

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Speaker 4: of the most amazing and really romantic courting rituals too.

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Speaker 4: There was this piece in Wired I was looking at

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Speaker 4: and they like quote head slapping on the water's surface,

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Speaker 4: snout and back rubbing, and blowing bubbles, you know, the usual.

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Speaker 3: It's pretty awesome.

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Speaker 1: That's pretty romantic. So here's one I hadn't realized. I know,

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Speaker 1: Cape Canaveral is in Florida, and it's where NASA launches

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Speaker 1: and land shuttles, but I didn't realize the land around

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Speaker 1: it is actually a wildlife sanctuary. And this is all

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Speaker 1: stuff I learned in modern farmer. But in the nineteen sixties,

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Speaker 1: NASA bought about one hundred and forty five thousand acres

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Speaker 1: of coastal property there, but since they only needed about

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Speaker 1: six thousand acres, they turned the rest into this Merritt

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Speaker 1: Island National Wildlife Refuge. But according to modern farmer, that

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Speaker 1: proximity to wildlife has definitely caused some issues. And I'm

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Speaker 1: reading here quote morning commuters have to wait as bobcats

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Speaker 1: cross the roadway. Shuttle launches are stalled by armadillo's woodpeckers,

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Speaker 1: poke holes, and fuel tanks. But according to the guy

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Speaker 1: who manages the island call center, the biggest issue at

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Speaker 1: NASA is with, of course gators. And here's how we

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Speaker 1: put it. Quote we've got gators blocking doorways, climbing fences.

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Speaker 1: We've got little bitty ones to shore big enough gators.

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Speaker 1: NASA employees are encouraged to keep alert indoors and out.

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Speaker 1: You're never supposed to feed the gators, and always check

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Speaker 1: on your cars before hopping in. And since I can't

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Speaker 1: get off this b flat thing, sometimes when the shuttles land,

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Speaker 1: the gators start bellowing because they're trying to outdo the shuttles.

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Speaker 2: Mating call.

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Speaker 3: Wow.

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Speaker 4: Actually, I think this episode could have just been about

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Speaker 4: B flat. We should do a separate one just on

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Speaker 4: B flat. But I need you to back up for

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Speaker 4: a second. So what are you supposed to do if

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Speaker 4: you see a gator?

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Speaker 2: I mean, go back inside. I guess that's good advice.

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Speaker 1: There's really only one account I read about an employee

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Speaker 1: trying to deal with a gator on his own. He

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Speaker 1: apparently made karate chopping motions and kept yelling hi yah,

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Speaker 1: and the gator hissed and spit, but apparently eventually went away.

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Speaker 1: So I guess if you know you have to deal

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Speaker 1: with a gator, learn karate.

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Speaker 4: Okay, all right, I'll think about that. And I actually

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Speaker 4: I realized this is off topic. But did you read

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Speaker 4: about the guy with the alligator at the drive through

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Speaker 4: while you were researching.

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Speaker 3: For this episode?

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Speaker 1: No?

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Speaker 2: What was this recently?

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Speaker 3: All right?

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Speaker 4: So this was again talking about Florida kind of reminded

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Speaker 4: me about this. This is back from I think it

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Speaker 4: was twenty sixteen. So there was this kid that apparently

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Speaker 4: drove up to a Windy's. He made an order, he

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Speaker 4: got his drink, and then of course he tossed a

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Speaker 4: three foot gator through the window of the drive through. Yeah,

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Speaker 4: thankfully nobody was heard, and he didn't really have a motive.

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Speaker 4: Apparently his mom's defense to the local news was that,

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Speaker 4: you know, he's just a big prankster and can't help himself.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, pranksters, what happened to him?

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Speaker 4: So he got charged with quote assault with a deadly weapon,

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Speaker 4: which I guess is, you know, not far off. And

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Speaker 4: the judge had some pretty strict terms for him. So

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Speaker 4: one of the punishments he's banned from Wendy's for life. So,

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Speaker 4: I mean, you gotta really think twice before you throw

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Speaker 4: a game through a drive through because you cannot go

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Speaker 4: back for that spicy chicken sandwich. And he was told

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Speaker 4: that he couldn't frattenize with any animals except his mother's dog,

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Speaker 4: which of course makes sense.

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Speaker 1: So my son Henry does the worst pranks like he

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Speaker 1: is under the mistaken impression that just saying April Fools

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Speaker 1: absolves you of anything you do. And two years ago

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Speaker 1: he decided to pour some water in our bed as

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Speaker 1: a prank, and right before bed he took three giant

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Speaker 1: pine glasses of water and poured.

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Speaker 2: Them on our mattress.

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Speaker 1: Gotcha, I got so mad we had to sleep on

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Speaker 1: the guest bed in the living room for two days

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Speaker 1: before the thing cried out.

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Speaker 3: Wow. Yeah, that's quite the frank.

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Speaker 1: But I'm really hoping that he never gets access to alligators.

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Speaker 1: So your fact kind of sounds like the most Florida

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Speaker 1: headline I've not heard in a while. But but do

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Speaker 1: you want to do another fact to make.

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Speaker 2: Up for it?

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Speaker 3: Yeah?

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Speaker 4: Yeah, let me see which one I want to want

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Speaker 4: to do next. All right, Well, this is something I

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Speaker 4: think is super cool. So alligators obviously seem tough because

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Speaker 4: they've got that bony armor on their skin and they

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Speaker 4: can climb fences like you mentioned and do these death

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Speaker 4: rolls and things like that. But even their blood is

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Speaker 4: actually tougher than ours.

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Speaker 3: So part of the.

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Speaker 4: Reason you never see an alligator with colds and flus, Like,

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Speaker 4: have you ever seen an alligator.

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Speaker 2: With a cold?

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Speaker 1: Ango?

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Speaker 2: You know, I haven't.

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Speaker 3: It's weird you haven't, And that's because it's not them.

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Speaker 4: No, it really doesn't doesn't work at all because they

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Speaker 4: have this incredible immune system. These scientists in Louisiana have

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Speaker 4: actually discovered that the serum and alligator blood can fight

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Speaker 4: off viruses and bacteria can actually destroy most of the

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Speaker 4: microbes in HIV. It's actually part of the reason that

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Speaker 4: when an alligator tail is severed in a swamp, even

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Speaker 4: if the water is muddy and dirty, the animals rarely

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Speaker 4: get infections. So this discovery is incredible because it has

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Speaker 4: all sorts of potential applications for humans. I was looking

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Speaker 4: at this article in National Geographic talking about this, and

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Speaker 4: it was showing that the resulting medicines could help everyone

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Speaker 4: from like diabetes patients with foot ulcers, to burn victims,

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Speaker 4: to people suffering from various autoimmune diseases.

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Speaker 2: That's pretty remarkable.

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Speaker 1: It's kind of funny that something like a bat could

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Speaker 1: get as COVID, but an alligator might be the one.

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Speaker 2: To cure it.

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Speaker 3: Exactly.

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Speaker 1: Your here's a ridiculous one I like just because I

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Speaker 1: like picturing it. Apparently alligators have two types of walks,

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Speaker 1: a high walk and a low walk or a sprawl.

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Speaker 3: What does that mean?

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Speaker 2: Well, the low walk.

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Speaker 1: Is cooler, like they kind of drag their belly on

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Speaker 1: the ground and they kind of lazily pull themselves along.

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Speaker 1: But you know, whether on the move or late for

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Speaker 1: a meeting, they high tail it. Literally they raise their

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Speaker 1: bellies and half their tail up off the ground and

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Speaker 1: they kind of stand upright on all fours and then

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Speaker 1: they really move. And I didn't realize this, but according

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Speaker 1: to our palas how stuff works, alligators aren't really hunters

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Speaker 1: or gatherers. They're more what they call lurkers. They kind

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Speaker 1: of just lunge at food, so they're opportunistic and they

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Speaker 1: can actually go a few years without eating if they

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Speaker 1: need to. But when they decide they're really hungry, they

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Speaker 1: can really high walk to a meal. They can apparently

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Speaker 1: reach peak speeds of thirty five miles per hour on Wow,

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Speaker 1: that's fast. Yeah, but they also tire very very quickly,

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Speaker 1: so they're never going to be an antelope in a

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Speaker 1: marathon or a half marathon.

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Speaker 4: All right, that's another good factor write down. But speaking

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Speaker 4: of facts, we've got three more facts to go. But

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Speaker 4: let's take a quick break and we'll be right back.

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Speaker 4: Welcome back to Part Time Genius, where we're talking all

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Speaker 4: about gators today.

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Speaker 3: All right, what did you want to talk about next? Mego?

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Speaker 1: So, something I think is super cool about alligators is

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Speaker 1: that their sex isn't predetermined by genetics. It actually has

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Speaker 1: all to do with the temperature you store an alligator

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Speaker 1: egg at Actually, just to take a step back, one

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Speaker 1: thing that's fascinating is that in the nineteen fifties and sixties,

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Speaker 1: alligators were nearly hunted to extinction in America. But part

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Speaker 1: of the reason they managed to recover is that the

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Speaker 1: gators lay a lot of eggs, like thirty to fifty

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Speaker 1: of them at one time, so once there were more

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Speaker 1: restrictions on hunting, they made a quick comeback. But gators

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Speaker 1: make a giant nest like three feet high and six

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Speaker 1: feet wide, and then they bury their eggs inside it,

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Speaker 1: and the eggs that incubate at around eighty degrees will

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Speaker 1: turn out female, but the ones that incubate a closer

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Speaker 1: to ninety degrees will be male, and in between is

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Speaker 1: just a mix of males and females, which I think

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Speaker 1: is kind of remarkable. But the other thing that's interesting

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Speaker 1: about alligators is that the moms also stick around to

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Speaker 1: protect their hatchlings, which is super rare in modern reptiles

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Speaker 1: and more common frankly to birds and some dinosaur species.

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Speaker 3: That is really interesting.

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Speaker 2: So we're down to two.

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Speaker 1: Last facts, and I'm curious, what do you have as

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Speaker 1: your final last fact?

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Speaker 3: For my final fact, I think.

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Speaker 4: The most insane thing I found this week is from

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Speaker 4: this article on Smithsonian, and it's called When Kids Played

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Speaker 4: with Alligators in Los Angeles, and the piece is all

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Speaker 4: about a theme park. As soon as I saw this headline,

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Speaker 4: I was like, this is gonna be good. And it's

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Speaker 4: all about this theme park. I'd never heard of it before.

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Speaker 4: It was called the California Alligator Farm, which I guess

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Speaker 4: operated from nineteen oh seven to nineteen fifty three, so

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Speaker 4: almost half a century. And for only one quarter you

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Speaker 4: could see over a thousand alligators of all sizes. And

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Speaker 4: while the gators were exercised and you could you could

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Speaker 4: watch them eat live chickens. There were twenty ponds with

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Speaker 4: supposedly trained alligators that you could interact with. But the

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Speaker 4: photos are insane, Like there's this picture of a baby

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Speaker 4: in a pin with thirty hatchlings and no parents anywhere

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Speaker 4: to be found there. Yeah, if you really need to

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Speaker 4: look this up. There are photos of people writing on

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Speaker 4: the alligator backs. There are pictures of picnics in the

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Speaker 4: water with people in bathing suits eating meals right next

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Speaker 4: to these gators. Gators are actually approaching the table. No

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Speaker 4: one seems to be scared by this, And I think

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Speaker 4: my favorite fact is that there are photos of people

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Speaker 4: watching as adult alligators all climb up a ladder and

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Speaker 4: then take a water slide down into the pond for fun.

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Speaker 4: Like it is the weirdest thing. It's like a giant

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Speaker 4: petting zoo for gators. It makes no sense at all, but.

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Speaker 2: It sounds fun for the gators too.

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Speaker 4: Yes, that maybe they were having fun so they had

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Speaker 4: decided not to attack.

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Speaker 1: So I'm definitely gonna look this up. But did anyone

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Speaker 1: die there?

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Speaker 2: Like that? All sounds so incredibly dangerous.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, it is.

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Speaker 4: I mean, in that article on how stuff works, the

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Speaker 4: editors right how alligators are really instinctual animals because you know,

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Speaker 4: their brains are only nine grams and they take about

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Speaker 4: half a tablespoon of space, which means there's no such

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Speaker 4: thing as a nice gator. I mean, these things are

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Speaker 4: programmed to behave a certain way. But for whatever reason,

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Speaker 4: there really aren't reports of injuries there, so I'm certain

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Speaker 4: there were some that happened. And one thing I do

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Speaker 4: know is there were a lot of posted to remind visitors,

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Speaker 4: you know, not.

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Speaker 2: To punch the gators or throw rocks at them, so don't.

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Speaker 3: Don't try that.

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Speaker 4: And apparently college pranksters used to occasionally sneak in and

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Speaker 4: steal a gator. But other than that, there really isn't

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Speaker 4: a whole lot of reporting on, you know, the darker

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Speaker 4: side of an alligator farm.

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Speaker 1: That's amazing. Well, my last fact is kind of fitting.

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Speaker 1: I decided to look up the origins of see you later, alligator.

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Speaker 3: Okay, all right, what did you find out?

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Speaker 2: Not much?

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Speaker 3: Good, good, Well that does it for today.

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Speaker 1: So, as you might imagine, there's no clear origin story,

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Speaker 1: like there isn't for a lot of these things. But

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Speaker 1: it's really funny. There's a site called word Histories, and

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Speaker 1: they looked up early newspaper accounts that reference the phrase,

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Speaker 1: and there are all these explainer columns for adults trying

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Speaker 1: to understand their kids and why they're talking this way.

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Speaker 1: So in nineteen fifty two, there was a column in

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Speaker 1: the Honolulu Star Bulletin that explained teenage slang in Hawaii,

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Speaker 1: and it reads, quote, many high school students use expressions

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Speaker 1: such as tutulu tofu or see you alligator, which I

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Speaker 1: might responses like see you soon, goon and hit the

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Speaker 1: toad road, which I guess means that in a while,

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Speaker 1: crocodile wasn't immediately like the default response yeah.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, like I never heard that before.

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Speaker 1: No, but it gets better. There's also an explanation from

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Speaker 1: this guy, Lester Rand in the Baltimore Sun, and this

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Speaker 1: is from nineteen fifty four, and he clarifies the alligator

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Speaker 1: and see you alligator is an all encompassing term and

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Speaker 1: relieves the leaving party of having to recite several names.

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Speaker 1: That's great, and in case the Olds needed more explanation,

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Speaker 1: it continues. The popular teenage rhyming expressions rarely convey any

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Speaker 1: actual meaning and are somewhat confusing, like do you know

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Speaker 1: what I mean, jelly bean, let me have steak jake

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Speaker 1: and have a piece of salami Tommy.

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Speaker 2: Right, it feels like a phrase we should bring.

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Speaker 3: Brack right, Like yeah, for sure, whatever we.

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Speaker 1: Say goodbye tous onone, And I kind of want to say, like,

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Speaker 1: have a piece of lobby tommy.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, that's a weird one.

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Speaker 4: And I think if I was a parent my kid

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Speaker 4: kept saying this as he walked out of the door,

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Speaker 4: I'd probably be confused enough to want to read an

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Speaker 4: article about what was wrong with him. But anyway, who

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Speaker 4: do you think deserves the crown for today's fact off.

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Speaker 2: Well, I did like the fact that we talked about

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Speaker 2: B flat so much.

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Speaker 3: There was a lot of B flat.

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Speaker 1: Those photos of alligators on water slides, I think have

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Speaker 1: to be my new wallpaper. I'm gonna say, you win.

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Speaker 1: This crazy alligator farm theme park thing is too good.

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Speaker 4: It's so good looking at those photos, so I will

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Speaker 4: take it. Thank you very much, I'm honored. That is

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Speaker 4: it for today's Part Time Genius. If you like hearing

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Speaker 4: the show, hit us up on Twitter or Instagram, drop

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Speaker 4: us a line in Apple Reviews, And if you have

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Speaker 4: any great gator facts we missed or have a topic

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Speaker 4: you want us to cover, be sure to write to

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Speaker 4: us about those.

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Speaker 1: Two and thank you, thank you, thank you so much

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Speaker 1: for listening, especially you Dad.

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Speaker 4: Part Time Genius is a production of iHeartRadio. For more

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Speaker 4: podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or

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Speaker 4: wherever you listen to your favorite shows.