Speaker 1: Welcome to Creature feature production of iHeartRadio. I'm your host
Speaker 1: of Many Parasites, Katie Golden. I studied psychology and evolutionary biology,
Speaker 1: and you know what, folks, this week, my brain, it's poop.
Speaker 1: I've got a serious case of poop brain. So today
Speaker 1: I thought we'd talk about what's been on everyone's mind. Poop.
Speaker 1: Poop is a fact of life. It's a fact of nature,
Speaker 1: and sometimes it has very interesting evolutionary applications. We're gonna
Speaker 1: talk about poop as a weapon, poop as medicine, poop
Speaker 1: as well just poop. Joining me today is actor comedian.
Speaker 1: She's been in shows like Abby's Hacks Abbot, Elementary, Lucifer,
Speaker 1: and After Midnight. Frankly speaking, she is overqualified for this show.
Speaker 1: It is Kima but Pornio.
Speaker 2: Welcome, Wow, thank you so much. Absolutely not overqualified for
Speaker 2: this particular subject. I'll have to say, I don't think
Speaker 2: much about poop, and actually when I do it myself,
Speaker 2: I try to hide it. So, yeah, you know that's
Speaker 2: where I'm at.
Speaker 1: I do like having the plausible deniability of like just
Speaker 1: not kind of thinking about what's going on down there
Speaker 1: when you're on the toilet. Just being like, huh, I'm
Speaker 1: just sitting here reading the news. Nothing else is happening.
Speaker 1: It's fine, but you know, sometimes we do have to
Speaker 1: face poop face poop facts, and in nature, animals are
Speaker 1: a lot less precious about their poop as we are,
Speaker 1: Like we have a we definitely have sort of a
Speaker 1: poop phobia. Remember the whole like Everybody Poop's book that
Speaker 1: had to be created so children wouldn't feel Catholic shame
Speaker 1: about pooping.
Speaker 2: Yes, oh my god God, was that actually funded by
Speaker 2: some Catholics.
Speaker 1: No, I don't think so.
Speaker 2: I would believe you if it was. If it was, like,
Speaker 2: you guys caused this problem. My child is scared of pooping.
Speaker 2: Now the church has to fund this book to make
Speaker 2: them feel better.
Speaker 1: Jesus forgives you for your dodos. But it is. I
Speaker 1: think it was made because a lot of kids, I
Speaker 1: guess we're freaked out about pooping or had a lot
Speaker 1: of questions about it, and it was a book meant
Speaker 1: to reassure children that it's normal that stuff is coming
Speaker 1: out of that end. It's okay. You you are not
Speaker 1: it's not sinful, it's not it's not uh, you're not sick.
Speaker 1: There's nothing wrong with you. It's all good.
Speaker 2: Uh And also I get it.
Speaker 1: I guess also to keep kids from asking everyone if
Speaker 1: they poop, because I suppose that's a problem with children
Speaker 1: is they'll ask it, like, well, what about my teacher?
Speaker 1: Does she poop? It's like, yes, she does. Here's a book,
Speaker 1: here's a pamphlet. You can read all about it.
Speaker 2: That's that's so funny. You're right. I didn't think about
Speaker 2: that part. Kids just be asking everything.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, good, they really do. How dare they little jerks?
Speaker 1: Curious little jerks? So uh, I did when I was
Speaker 1: having you on the show, is like, oh, we can
Speaker 1: talk about something really nice, like birds. So let's start
Speaker 1: with a bird. Oh good, Yeah, we're gonna start with
Speaker 1: a bird. I'm gonna ease you into the subject. You know.
Speaker 1: So apparently penguins are fighting vampires. It's finally happening. We've
Speaker 1: got the ultimate matchup that we've always wanted, penguins the vampire.
Speaker 1: There's that, isn't there? Okay, there's that new You're you're
Speaker 1: you're an actors, so you probably know about all the
Speaker 1: TV shows, every single one. You watch all of them.
Speaker 1: So like, there's that Penguin show right where it's like
Speaker 1: the Penguin except serious. Yes, I haven't seen it personally,
Speaker 1: but is it just me?
Speaker 2: Neither.
Speaker 1: I think it's just about mister penguin before he turns
Speaker 1: into a man penguin. I'm not actually entirely sure about
Speaker 1: the penguin batman villain sort of raison dut.
Speaker 2: I don't know much. I can't help you here. All
Speaker 2: I've heard is that it's if the penguin batman villain
Speaker 2: was in sopranos. Oh, that's how the show has been
Speaker 2: described to me.
Speaker 1: You squawking at me, You squawking at me. I don't
Speaker 1: know here, you I lump all them all.
Speaker 2: I don't think it is.
Speaker 1: It's fine.
Speaker 2: I don't think that is.
Speaker 1: That is it?
Speaker 2: Taxi? When he's looking in the mirror, are you.
Speaker 1: Looking at I think that might be taxi taxi driver?
Speaker 2: Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1: So penguins are fighting for us. They're fighting vampires in Peru.
Speaker 1: In Peru, the Pacific coastline is home to the Humboldt penguins.
Speaker 1: These are little guys. They're only about thirteen pounds or
Speaker 1: six kilograms, so you know, chihuahua sized. They are, Yes, Yeah,
Speaker 1: they're very cute. They're black and white with a cute
Speaker 1: little strap of black that circles their white tummies. I
Speaker 1: love that. This is maybe my favorite fact of the
Speaker 1: whole up. In Peru, they are called pajaro nino, which
Speaker 1: means baby bird, because they waddle like little toddlers. They
Speaker 1: just like wattle water like a little toddler, little baby.
Speaker 2: Oh isn't that every penguin.
Speaker 1: Sorry, it is every penguin blanket statement, Yeah, it is
Speaker 1: every penguin. But these, you know, I mean, these ones
Speaker 1: are in Peru, and so the locals do call them
Speaker 1: pajaro nino's baby birds because of the water. Yeah, but
Speaker 1: there are actual baby baby birds. Like the adult penguins
Speaker 1: look like cute little babies, but they come even smaller
Speaker 1: when they are actual babies. And in the southern coastline
Speaker 1: of Peru, actual baby humble penguins have to deal with
Speaker 1: the relentless attacks of vampires, you know, kid problem. Yeah.
Speaker 2: I'm just waiting for you, Okay, yeah, what and you
Speaker 2: keep saying vampires and I can't wait to know what
Speaker 2: you mean.
Speaker 1: I mean, the common vampire bat it is. Uh, we've
Speaker 1: actually we talked about vampire bats on the show. I
Speaker 1: do love vampire bats. I do not want to vilify them.
Speaker 1: They are typically not very dangerous except for spreading disease.
Speaker 1: They do sometimes carry disease. They can carry rabies. It's rare,
Speaker 1: but it can happen. They really don't pose a threat
Speaker 1: to humans other than the very occasional spread of rabies.
Speaker 1: But baby penguin is much more vulnerable to a vampire
Speaker 1: pat bat because it is so small and so feeding
Speaker 1: on them can weaken them, it can spread disease. So
Speaker 1: this is not it's not ideal for the baby penguin.
Speaker 2: Of course not. I mean, you know, it's I can't
Speaker 2: believe it.
Speaker 1: Well, I think that these little penguins guys pick themselves
Speaker 1: up by their bootstraps, right, like, they can't be expecting
Speaker 1: handouts to help them with their vampire problem.
Speaker 2: Sure, I guess there's not a like a neighboring town
Speaker 2: marching in with the fiery torches trying to expel the
Speaker 2: vampires from the penguin land.
Speaker 1: I would like to see an angry penguin mob like
Speaker 1: with pitchforks and torches. But they're waddling very slowly.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they're just lighting the whole town. On fire accidentally
Speaker 2: with their wattle.
Speaker 1: Falling over dropping torches. Yeah, so the parents of these
Speaker 1: baby penguins are not happy when the little vampire bats
Speaker 1: do try to drink their blood, and so to defend
Speaker 1: their chicks from vampires, the penguins shoot poop at them.
Speaker 1: We've come to the poop section. Yes, yes, yes, it's true.
Speaker 1: They shoot a bit of a poop cannon situation. The
Speaker 1: poop is meant to frighten and distract the bats. They
Speaker 1: will also kick dirt in the bats' faces, which is
Speaker 1: classic like bully movie, like movie bully moves, just kicking
Speaker 1: dirt in your face.
Speaker 2: Yeah, one of those classic.
Speaker 1: Nerd stop drinking my baby's blood, nerd Uh dirt. They
Speaker 1: do also scream at them, so it's a calm. It's
Speaker 1: kind of a they're a triple threat. They're pooping, they're screaming,
Speaker 1: and they're kicking dirt at these little bets.
Speaker 2: Wow, I'd get out of there. That sounds awful. Someone
Speaker 2: poops that you kick start and the screams in your face,
Speaker 2: I'm out of there.
Speaker 1: It's a subtle indication that you're not welcome, I think.
Speaker 2: Yeah, real subtle.
Speaker 1: So they have definitely mastered the poop Ninjitsu. They are
Speaker 1: able to projectile poop over three feet away, which is
Speaker 1: over a meter of distance that they're getting to see
Speaker 1: a meter of air on their poop. I look, I
Speaker 1: don't want to make this like a contest, but I
Speaker 1: don't think I could do that. I think it would
Speaker 1: require some very severe food poisoning to make that even
Speaker 1: you know, remotely possible.
Speaker 2: Yeah I could. I certainly could never. But you know what,
Speaker 2: as I have a large fear of speaking on my
Speaker 2: own poop. But if I could do that, maybe I
Speaker 2: would talk about it more.
Speaker 1: I think it would be impressive enough that you'd have
Speaker 1: to You would have to share that, have to tell everyone.
Speaker 1: It would be selfish of you to hide that talent,
Speaker 1: you know. Yeah, I wonder how much, Like because the
Speaker 1: Guinness Book of World Records, like I don't read it,
Speaker 1: you know, Like I think I read it once when
Speaker 1: I was a kid, and you know it's because like, ah.
Speaker 2: Look that's more than everyone. Yeah, no one's read it.
Speaker 1: No one.
Speaker 2: You just kind of flip through it.
Speaker 1: I okay, so I did flip through it. There was
Speaker 1: the guy with a bunch of snails on his face.
Speaker 1: There's the lady with the really long fingernails. There's got
Speaker 1: to be poop stuff though I don't remember it, and
Speaker 1: maybe they'd maybe they're trying to be a classy organization,
Speaker 1: but like longest long distance pooping seems like it should
Speaker 1: be a record.
Speaker 2: Yeah, someone's done it and has called Guinness and been like,
Speaker 2: do you want this? I just did this. Do you
Speaker 2: want this for your book? They're like no, please, yeah,
Speaker 2: please lose our number.
Speaker 1: No yeah, I see. So that's that's why I never
Speaker 1: got into the Guinness Book of World Records noted so
Speaker 1: uh oh it was you. Well, what can I say?
Speaker 1: I do admire these penguins the and as do scientists,
Speaker 1: apparently because they have been studied. The humble penguin shooting
Speaker 1: ability has been researched by Professor Hiroyuki Tajima's lab at
Speaker 1: the Department of Natural Science at Kochi University in Japan. Uh.
Speaker 1: They created one of the best diagrams in the history
Speaker 1: of scientific papers. It's incredible. I've sent it to you, Kimya.
Speaker 1: It's I love this so much, and like this is
Speaker 1: literally from their research paper. This is not edited.
Speaker 2: This Yeah, it's uh, it's really good. I I bet
Speaker 2: that we have the same favorite part, which is that
Speaker 2: he looks like he's sweating.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they put sweat. They put a little sweat indicators.
Speaker 1: So it's a cartoon penguin, very simple, basically, just an
Speaker 1: oval with some triangles on it, and uh, the coloration
Speaker 1: that in an eye so that you can see it
Speaker 1: as appears he has three little sweat What would you
Speaker 1: call those sweat droplets to indicate streets droplets? Yes, sweat.
Speaker 1: It is to kind of pictorially indicate effort. And then
Speaker 1: a whole bunch of numbers and like a box that's
Speaker 1: sort of in the I would say the butt region
Speaker 1: like the bowel area region that I would reach it.
Speaker 1: I would also say that we concur on that, and
Speaker 1: so it is. And then there's some math, so I'm
Speaker 1: not yeah math person who does or understands math, I
Speaker 1: stay the hell away from it. So it does appear
Speaker 1: to be an equation that is calculating the pressure of
Speaker 1: certain substances that would occur within this area inside the
Speaker 1: penguin that would be forced out of a small aperture
Speaker 1: that is known in birds as the cloaca.
Speaker 2: That's lovely that they put this to illustrate I'm assuming
Speaker 2: a lot of good scientific text is nearby, and then
Speaker 2: just this silly little clip art photo.
Speaker 1: It's fantastic, It is so fantastic. They did calculate some
Speaker 1: They did some calculation. I'll link to the research paper
Speaker 1: in the show notes, so you if you're out there
Speaker 1: and you're like, oh, I really do want to see
Speaker 1: the equations that they use to calculate the amount of
Speaker 1: pressure this poop is under in these penguins, you can
Speaker 1: look at that to your heart's content, you little freaks.
Speaker 2: But you know what, you freaks can actually apply this
Speaker 2: to your own bodies and perhaps finally make it into
Speaker 2: the Guinness Book of World Records. Final can do the
Speaker 2: math and do this in your own body.
Speaker 1: And I thought you're heroes, and I thought math had
Speaker 1: no practical application. I scoffed it.
Speaker 2: Wow, we found it.
Speaker 1: We found it. I use for math.
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 1: So they are able to indeed shoot their poop with
Speaker 1: enormous amounts of pressure, apparently surprising amounts of pressure. It's
Speaker 1: in some kind of unit of measurement that frankly means
Speaker 1: nothing to me. But the I'll just say that the
Speaker 1: study authors said they were surprised at the amount of pressure. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that it was more than they expected would come out
Speaker 1: of this little penguin, which is interesting.
Speaker 2: Probably like a paintball gun, you know, yeah, I think
Speaker 2: that wouldn't hurt so much, but then you're left with
Speaker 2: a bruise. Yeah, just bruising These vampire bats. Yeah, they're
Speaker 2: paintball poop.
Speaker 1: And that must suck. I also read that it does
Speaker 1: sometimes get on the chicks, right, because they're like, they're
Speaker 1: they're just kind of rat tat tatten at those vampire bats.
Speaker 1: So there's gonna be some friendly fine.
Speaker 2: How well can you aim backwards? Right?
Speaker 1: Exactly exactly. It's hard. It's like, you know, it's like
Speaker 1: that that thing where it's like gene Kelly had to dance,
Speaker 1: but then what's her name had to dance backwards and heels.
Speaker 1: It's shooting poop backwards, and as a penguin, it's different
Speaker 1: heels and heels. Yeah. But so the reason they are
Speaker 1: able to expel feces at such a velocity is that
Speaker 1: they they roost in nesting areas. So if they're all
Speaker 1: pooping kind of like in the nests, it's gonna get
Speaker 1: real stinky, real quick. And they don't want that. They
Speaker 1: do like to have a clean nesting site. So it
Speaker 1: is speculated that this high velocity pooping was meant to
Speaker 1: keep their nesting areas clean. But it can be used
Speaker 1: in dire circumstances as a weapon, and so then they
Speaker 1: will shoot it at predators, at anything trying to steal
Speaker 1: their eggs or hassle their chicks, including these vampire bats.
Speaker 1: So I would like to see a version of Van
Speaker 1: Helsing where he does poop at Dracula.
Speaker 2: I think you're onto something. What Hollywood needs this? Yeah,
Speaker 2: don't we? What do we? They said the movies are dead?
Speaker 2: Wait till they see this.
Speaker 1: Well, Disney loves an animal sidekick. They shoehorn in an
Speaker 1: animal sidekick wherever they can, you know, So like I think,
Speaker 1: like I think that this would be good for a
Speaker 1: Van Helsing Disney movie version where it's like Van Helsing
Speaker 1: and his adorable penguin sidekick and they go vampire hunting
Speaker 1: together as a team.
Speaker 2: That's perfect. Disney hasn't tackled the Dracula tales yet, but
Speaker 2: you know they do all other classic novels. Why haven't they.
Speaker 2: Let's not come in on a Dracula.
Speaker 1: The Adam Sandler one. That's just that's not Disney. The
Speaker 1: Transylvania Hotel with the goth girl and Shaggy from Scooby
Speaker 1: Doo That that's that's not Yeah. No, Disney hasn't really
Speaker 1: touched the whole vampire thing. Cowards.
Speaker 2: I think something.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we've because we've done hot sexy vampires a lot.
Speaker 1: Like we've done a lot of hot sexy vampires, but
Speaker 1: we haven't done like vampires that get pooped.
Speaker 2: On, pooped on, Yeah, pooped done va. We haven't done
Speaker 2: pooped on. Yeah, we've done.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I think I think it's time. I do think
Speaker 1: it's time. Well, Uh, with that, we're gonna take a
Speaker 1: really quick break and when we come back, it's more
Speaker 1: poop folks, not gonna lie to you, it's just it's
Speaker 1: gonna be more pooped. So if you don't like it,
Speaker 1: I'm sorry. It's just the whole episode is. So we'll
Speaker 1: be right back. So we're back, Kim yo, how do
Speaker 1: you How do you feel about snakes? Uh?
Speaker 2: I'm actually okay about snakes. I know a lot of
Speaker 2: people are just generally freaked by them. Yeah, I heard
Speaker 2: it has something to do with how our human biology
Speaker 2: and brain doesn't get how a snake moves because it's
Speaker 2: just one slithery muscle, So you're just kind of freaked
Speaker 2: out by the mystery of that thing existing. And maybe
Speaker 2: it's an inherent natural fear we have of them. But
Speaker 2: I'm cool with them. I think they're cool.
Speaker 1: I agree, I'm cool with them. I like them. They
Speaker 1: do move in a way that's a little ooky, but
Speaker 1: I find that interesting and cool. We also, it is
Speaker 1: true that we have an instinctive reaction to snakes. We
Speaker 1: also have it too spiders. There's some theories that this
Speaker 1: is kind of like a natural instinct that we have
Speaker 1: where basically, there are snakes that are venomous and so
Speaker 1: avoiding them is good for us for our health. But
Speaker 1: there are plenty of snakes who are not venomous and
Speaker 1: pose absolutely no risk to us. And one of these
Speaker 1: snakes is the dice snake in North Macedonia. Uh. They
Speaker 1: are uh not killers except to fish and on the
Speaker 1: on the stage, they're really killing it on the stage. Kimya,
Speaker 1: what these snakes are? These snakes are method actors. They're
Speaker 1: the Daniel day Lewis is, They're the Woking Phomix that's
Speaker 1: not his name.
Speaker 2: Walking phoenixxis.
Speaker 1: Quoqum femips.
Speaker 2: That's one of the snake's stage names.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, uh so they do you say dice snake,
Speaker 1: dice snake, Yes, exactly like.
Speaker 2: The wow so like dice, like.
Speaker 1: Like gambling, Yes, like snake eyes. I didn't even think
Speaker 1: of that, Jeu, look at that. I'm really, I really
Speaker 1: am the frame dead that I did not. I did
Speaker 1: not think about that.
Speaker 2: It was just not even a jump, just a bit
Speaker 2: of a step to the side.
Speaker 1: And yet I and yet I found myself incapable.
Speaker 2: Uh, that's okay, I'm here, thank you, thank you, buddy.
Speaker 1: So, yeah, these are sweet snakes. They're olive green, they
Speaker 1: are non venomous, and they eat fish. So they're essentially
Speaker 1: just kiddy cats but tubes, little cat tubes. Uh. And
Speaker 1: so given that they don't have venom, they rely instead
Speaker 1: on their incredible acting skills. Can you relate to this, Kimmia.
Speaker 2: Uh No, because when I'm put in danger, I don't
Speaker 2: think to access my acting skills. I just cower and cry.
Speaker 2: So no, not relatable. Good for them, though, you know.
Speaker 1: In a way, you are also like these snakes because
Speaker 1: the thing that they do in their acting is that
Speaker 1: they play dead and they really really really commit to
Speaker 1: it in a way that is impressive. They go completely limp.
Speaker 1: They will sometimes excrete blood out of their mouths and
Speaker 1: they pup themselves.
Speaker 2: Oh man, yeah, you know, he's what a way to
Speaker 2: do that.
Speaker 1: There, it's there. The thing is kemya that dignity doesn't
Speaker 1: mean anything if you're dead. So if you're a snake,
Speaker 1: you know, and it's between continuing on being a snake
Speaker 1: versus maybe pooping yourself. You gotta choose pooping yourself every time.
Speaker 2: I guess when you put it that way, it makes
Speaker 2: a lot of sense.
Speaker 1: It's very convincing, isn't it. So these snakes are hunted
Speaker 1: mainly by birds of prey raptors, and so they have
Speaker 1: developed the strategy because it's interesting because this playing dead
Speaker 1: thing does seem to work against predators. You would think
Speaker 1: that the predator would be like, ah, sick, they did
Speaker 1: my job for them. But actually predators, when an animal
Speaker 1: like suddenly goes limp or plays dead, it can freak
Speaker 1: them out because a lot of predators maybe are not scavengers.
Speaker 1: They don't necessarily want to eat something that's already dead,
Speaker 1: particularly if something is like seems to have died in
Speaker 1: a way that is not good and yes, gross, like
Speaker 1: pooping themselves, getting musk all over themselves, blood coming out
Speaker 1: of their mouths. They're like, ah, this thing, there's something
Speaker 1: wrong with you. You're not. Yeah, It's like if your
Speaker 1: Hamburger started screaming, it'd be like, oh, well, goodness, I
Speaker 1: wasn't expecting that. Yeah, so's yeah, so I do. Okay.
Speaker 1: I love researchers, and I love biology researchers and their
Speaker 1: wacky zany experiments. It is so weird what we do
Speaker 1: to animals, though, Like sometimes these studies are It's not
Speaker 1: I wouldn't call this cruel. It's just it's just strange.
Speaker 1: It's people playing around with limp snakes. So this study is.
Speaker 2: Say less, Yeah, that's strange, right.
Speaker 1: A study called Synergistic effects of musking and autohimorrhaging on
Speaker 1: the duration of death, fading and dice snakes, which is
Speaker 1: kind of a way of saying the effects of snakes
Speaker 1: poopen and bleeding while they're method acting. This was conducted
Speaker 1: at the University of Belgrade. This is reported in the
Speaker 1: New York Times. Asher Elbein did it write up about it.
Speaker 1: But this study found that dice snakes seemed to try
Speaker 1: to optimize the amount of time they spent pretending to
Speaker 1: be dead, because there's a there's a trade off there
Speaker 1: in terms of like evolutionary strategy. If you dead when
Speaker 1: you're caught, that might give you some more time as
Speaker 1: the predators like wait, what happened just now? But sometimes
Speaker 1: the predators is gonna be like, great, this is a
Speaker 1: lot easier to eat now, and we'll try to chomp
Speaker 1: down on you. So being able to minimize the amount
Speaker 1: of time you're playing dead while maximizing the effect of
Speaker 1: shocking the predator and then being able to then get
Speaker 1: away once you're done playing dead is sort of the
Speaker 1: goal there. And so they found that the snakes that
Speaker 1: would poop themselves generally spent less time playing dead. So
Speaker 1: the ideas that pooping themselves is a strategy that is
Speaker 1: more likely to offend the predator and turn them off
Speaker 1: of the whole the whole idea of eating them got it.
Speaker 2: Okay, Wow, So just blood out of your mouth is
Speaker 2: not enough to stop somebody from eating.
Speaker 1: You, apparently not. Apparently, you got to go. It's got
Speaker 1: to come out of both ends.
Speaker 2: Uh oh, you know, they're just using everything they've got
Speaker 2: acting teachers, right, they say use it all, and they're
Speaker 2: using it all.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I took one acting class once. I wasn't very good,
Speaker 1: but I think that there was a certain amount of like, hey, listen,
Speaker 1: you can't have dignity. You got it, you gotta fully
Speaker 1: release and fully go for it. And I think that
Speaker 1: what my teacher was trying to tell me is that
Speaker 1: I should poop my pants. And I was. I'm very
Speaker 1: confused why that was a problem.
Speaker 2: Wow, now that you say it like that and I'm
Speaker 2: hearing it for the first time with new ears and
Speaker 2: knowing now about the dice snake, I think next time
Speaker 2: I'm working a project, you guys are going to see
Speaker 2: something really special.
Speaker 1: You get no spoilers, no spoilet.
Speaker 2: No spoilers, no spoilers.
Speaker 1: Uh yeah, so uh the way that they did the
Speaker 1: study was really fantastic. Uh. They would gently squeeze the
Speaker 1: snakes because like again, they didn't want to be cruel,
Speaker 1: they didn't want to hurt the snakes, but they wanted
Speaker 1: the snakes. They wanted to trigger the snakes thanatosis response,
Speaker 1: that's the playing dead response. So they would just like
Speaker 1: gently squeeze the snakes. They would kind of like lay
Speaker 1: the snakes out sort of like Plato and then like
Speaker 1: squeeze it. Like basically they gave these snakes a massage,
Speaker 1: and the snakes are like, well, I guess I'm gonna
Speaker 1: be killed because nobody ever bothers to massage a snake.
Speaker 1: So to a snake that's like, well, no, guy, I
Speaker 1: know right. Like they thought they were doomed and instead
Speaker 1: they were just getting a free massage.
Speaker 2: At the SPA yeah, spot for snakes.
Speaker 1: Or little snaky guys. Apparently some of the snakes would
Speaker 1: go so limp that the research assistance would like be
Speaker 1: able to like arrange them in like a heart shape.
Speaker 1: I don't know why they did that. Guys, stop goofing around.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's science. You're doing science. No for goofing.
Speaker 1: Be very serious about this, and don't make little shapes
Speaker 1: with snakes in the lab. That's that's you're goofing off
Speaker 1: too much. We see that. We all see that, and
Speaker 1: you need to stop it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, don't spell your name out of limp snakes. I
Speaker 2: can't tell you back to work.
Speaker 1: I can't tell you how many times I was told
Speaker 1: that when I worked as a lab technician. Stop spelling
Speaker 1: stuff out of this is not Charlotte's web. If you say,
Speaker 1: like marvelous snakes spelled out of the snakes, we know
Speaker 1: it was you. We know, we know.
Speaker 2: Back to work. We all know.
Speaker 1: Get back to work. All right, We're gonna take a
Speaker 1: quick break, and Keny, can you guess what's happening after
Speaker 1: the break.
Speaker 2: I would assume it's more poop?
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, you're so right incredible. How did you see
Speaker 1: that coming listening? That is amazing. You really are. So
Speaker 1: when we come back, we're talking about more poop. Everybody,
Speaker 1: yay poop. We all love it. We'll be back. So
Speaker 1: I did talk earlier in the show about how everyone poops,
Speaker 1: and if if you think about it, so to bees,
Speaker 1: so to little bumble bees, they poop as well.
Speaker 2: I guess if I think about it, if if you
Speaker 2: really think about it would look like.
Speaker 1: It's actually bright yellow usually because of all the pollens.
Speaker 2: So oh yeah makes sense.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm not not not a joke. But bumble bees,
Speaker 1: what's your what's your feeling on bumble bees?
Speaker 2: A gosh, the first thing that came to mind was
Speaker 2: save the bees. So I guess I'm brainwashed. It's working.
Speaker 1: It's working. Everyone it's working.
Speaker 2: It's working. The bees got me the best.
Speaker 1: Uh.
Speaker 2: Next, I guess I think I love honey And then third,
Speaker 2: I think, what are they doing around my swimming pool?
Speaker 2: Always just constantly near my swimming pool.
Speaker 1: Delicious, delicious water. But yeah, they it's a bit of
Speaker 1: a bumbly goof when they get into the water. But
Speaker 1: they're like, oh nice, this will be cool to drink,
Speaker 1: and then ah, it's chlorinated, and then oh no, now
Speaker 1: I'm in a pool, so they should stay out of there.
Speaker 1: But bumblebees, to be clear, bumblebees don't really are not
Speaker 1: the same as honey bees in terms of they're not
Speaker 1: generally producing us the delicious honey that we consume. But
Speaker 1: bumble bees are and they're incredible pollinators, and they're sweet,
Speaker 1: and they're bumbly and they're fuzzy and they fly kind
Speaker 1: of like they're drunk, which I always do love to
Speaker 1: watch them because they kind of like they are. The
Speaker 1: name is very fitting. They're very fat, and they sort
Speaker 1: of you know, go hither and thither bumbling, they bonk
Speaker 1: into flowers. It's really cute. Yeah, but sometimes they have
Speaker 1: to deal with parasites, as do we all. So uh,
Speaker 1: Crithidia bombie is a protozoan. It's a single celled parasite
Speaker 1: that can infect bumblebee uh, the bumblebee gut and make
Speaker 1: them sick. So bumble bees seem to have a solution
Speaker 1: and that is eating sunflower pollen. And researchers were curious
Speaker 1: as to why eating the sunflower pollen seemed to help
Speaker 1: rid the bumble bees of the parasite. They looked into
Speaker 1: all sorts of things about gut biomes possible, like medical
Speaker 1: effects that the sunflower pollen had, like some kind of
Speaker 1: fancy things because a lot of plants, like the plant
Speaker 1: defense chemicals that they use, we and other animals can
Speaker 1: use as sort of a medicine. And so the uh,
Speaker 1: this was answered in the paper sunflower pollen induces a
Speaker 1: rabid excretion in bubble bees Implications for host pathogen interactions,
Speaker 1: which is, you know, science lingo for the bumblebee, uh poop,
Speaker 1: they poop a lot, they poop out the parasite.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so they're just pumping their own stomachs like this.
Speaker 1: Essentially, Yes, yes, it is like a laxative. They're they're
Speaker 1: having a laxative and then like getting on their little
Speaker 1: tiny b porcelain thrones and just you know, clinging on
Speaker 1: for dear life.
Speaker 2: Wow. Yeah, uh oh man, I guess that's really resourceful
Speaker 2: of them to know even that that pollen makes you.
Speaker 2: I guess who's the first little bumblebee that accidentally went
Speaker 2: up on that sunflower and then had a terrible evening?
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, I think it's It is interesting because
Speaker 1: it seems to be probably just some kind of instinct
Speaker 1: right where if you feel kind of sick, or maybe
Speaker 1: they just generally will occasionally ingest this sunflower pollen. But
Speaker 1: either way, they have this relationship with the sunflowers where
Speaker 1: they are able to pollinate it, but they also get
Speaker 1: this nice sort of medicinal effect of just pooping.
Speaker 2: Yeah, a whole.
Speaker 1: Lot off there of the paper, Jonathan Jackomini told Elizabeth
Speaker 1: Anne Brown of National Geographic quote, sunflower pollen makes bumblebees
Speaker 1: pooh a whole lot. And I know that's a lot
Speaker 1: of science jargon, but essentially that means that bubble bees
Speaker 1: make hella doodoo when they eat sunflowers.
Speaker 2: Thanks for breaking that down for us.
Speaker 1: You're welcome. That's my job. I want to make science
Speaker 1: accessible to people. Ah to measure the doo dooo. Thess
Speaker 1: Jacomini and his team used the fact that it that
Speaker 1: be poop fluoresces under UV light, so they can shine
Speaker 1: u V light and measure the amount of bee poopoo
Speaker 1: after they eat the sunflower pollen, and noted that, yes, indeed,
Speaker 1: eating sunflower pollen does make the bees dodo a lot more.
Speaker 1: It's science, kimme, wow, yeah, it is science.
Speaker 2: Behold you know what, they're little their little plump guys.
Speaker 2: Do you think there's any of them out there sort
Speaker 2: of just overdoing it on the sunflower pollen. You know,
Speaker 2: a little skinty bees.
Speaker 1: Like who hasn't overindulged in sunflower uh pollen every so often?
Speaker 1: I certainly have so the so jacko Omini also told
Speaker 1: National Geographic about the glowing fluorescing bee poop quote, it
Speaker 1: was very dazzling. It almost looked like a galaxy. And
Speaker 1: I mean, calm down, calm down, man, it's bee poop.
Speaker 2: Calm down, man, calm down. Almost looked like a galaxy.
Speaker 1: You're right, Wow, it looks like a galaxy, a galaxy
Speaker 1: of bee doodoo.
Speaker 2: Get him out of there, Get that guy out of there.
Speaker 1: I just I have outside. He does need to go outside.
Speaker 1: I just I do love. You can tell the dedication
Speaker 1: that these researchers have to their subjects where they're like,
Speaker 1: I see galaxies in the beefy ss. Yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: it's beautiful in a way. I wish I could look
Speaker 1: at the world with those sorts of eyes where I
Speaker 1: see galaxies in my dog poop. I don't know.
Speaker 2: Well, I guess maybe if it was glowing.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's true. More likely too, I got a feeder
Speaker 1: more like fluorescent substances glow sticks. Glow sticks do not
Speaker 1: for legal reasons, I must stay. Do not feed your
Speaker 1: pets glow sticks. That's bad for them and it won't
Speaker 1: do anything. It's gonna that's not gonna make their poop glow.
Speaker 1: But if it did, that would be nice for when
Speaker 1: I take my dog out at night and I have
Speaker 1: to clean up her little doodoos and I don't know
Speaker 1: where the dodo is and I'm looking for the doo,
Speaker 1: I know, especially when she did it like problem when
Speaker 1: it's in the grass and you're like looking around, You're like, oh,
Speaker 1: where did you go? Where did you go?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 1: If that poop was glowing, make my job a whole
Speaker 1: lot easier, I tell you, be so easy.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but I won't. I won't feed my dog a
Speaker 2: glow stick. You said not to thing, I won't.
Speaker 1: That's really good everyone listening, Uh, you know, follow Kimya's example,
Speaker 1: which is, don't feed your pets glow sticks, no matter
Speaker 1: how much do you think it might make they're pooh glow.
Speaker 1: It's not a good idea. No, So, before we go,
Speaker 1: this is a this is a short and sweet episode.
Speaker 1: I think. I think that's good for all of our
Speaker 1: tender and poop mushy brains right now. A good a good, shortened,
Speaker 1: sweet episode about poop. So but before we go, we
Speaker 1: do want to play a little game called the Mister
Speaker 1: Animal Sound Game. Guests, Who's squawking? Every week I play
Speaker 1: Mister Animal Sound, and you the listener, and you the
Speaker 1: gifts try to guess who is squawking. Last week's Mister
Speaker 1: Animal Sound hint was this. It's creepy, it's crawly, it
Speaker 1: hails from Madagascar, and it does not like to be poked.
Speaker 1: All right, Kimmy, did you hear that little noise?
Speaker 2: I did? I heard it?
Speaker 1: You got any, guests?
Speaker 2: Uh? Yeah? And so the hint was about this noise? Yeah? Also, okay, wait,
Speaker 2: it makes me think it's one of those freaky, big
Speaker 2: old cockroaches.
Speaker 1: Kimy, You're absolutely right, you are so correct. I got it.
Speaker 1: It is a Madagascar hissing cockroach.
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 1: It is fantastic job. Your prize is a whole box
Speaker 1: of them that I'm sending down.
Speaker 2: No, no, you can get send it to the listeners.
Speaker 1: Uh.
Speaker 2: I'm generous.
Speaker 1: You get a cotroach, you get a hissing cockroach. Everybody
Speaker 1: gets a hissing cockroach. Oh gosh, congratulations to Grant W,
Speaker 1: Joey P, and Emily M. I'm feeling extra generous this
Speaker 1: week because so many people got the answer right. So
Speaker 1: here's a few more winners. William H. Maxwell, d Anna
Speaker 1: L and Young listener panel congratulations everyone. Good ear. So
Speaker 1: these guys don't have wings. They cannot fly away to
Speaker 1: evade predators, so when they are disturbed, they force air
Speaker 1: out of their spiracles. Spiracles are tiny holes all over
Speaker 1: their little insecty bodies that they use to breathe. Basically,
Speaker 1: they're like a roach flute, you know, like a roachock arena.
Speaker 2: Maybe that way, I guess I kind of like that, But.
Speaker 1: Your expression does sort of get across the idea that
Speaker 1: you really do like the idea of a roachok arena.
Speaker 2: Well, you know, bugs aren't my thing, but I do
Speaker 2: like flutes. Go.
Speaker 1: Look, if you like wind instruments, you should like hissing cockroaches,
Speaker 1: is what I'm saying. So male hissing cockroaches have horns
Speaker 1: that they actually used to fight other males and territorial
Speaker 1: and mating disputes. The victor usually hisses more than the loser,
Speaker 1: so it's thought that the vocalizations are a sign of dominance,
Speaker 1: which makes sense. I also hiss a lot when I'm
Speaker 1: winning an argument.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah.
Speaker 1: It really kind of like if I'm trying to convince
Speaker 1: you of something, if I'm talking politics, I just start hissing.
Speaker 2: And that's that's how I know you're winning right out
Speaker 2: of my sp Yeah, yes, you have so many holes
Speaker 2: in your face. I really do look at it right now.
Speaker 1: And they all sort of just and they and they
Speaker 1: all just kind of like start feeding out air, and
Speaker 1: I make a horrible whistling sound, and I think that
Speaker 1: is that is sort of my koop de grass. When
Speaker 1: I'm trying to win an argument. It works very well.
Speaker 1: I I know, I know. Thanksgiving is well actually, you
Speaker 1: know it might be this week. I don't know. I
Speaker 1: don't really keep track of Thanksgiving. But you've got a
Speaker 1: lot of arguments, probably with your family. Yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: shove air out of your spiracles is my advice.
Speaker 2: And my advice is, if you feel as though you
Speaker 2: might begin to lose this argument, just squeeze blood out
Speaker 2: of your mouth and poop yourself. Ah.
Speaker 1: That's also a really good argument technique. I learned that
Speaker 1: in debate club and it's really effective. It's really really effective. It's,
Speaker 1: you know, an add poopin em sort of technique, and
Speaker 1: it is it is good. Yeah, I don't know enough
Speaker 1: I was. I didn't ever do debates, so I don't
Speaker 1: know any other debate terminology.
Speaker 2: I didn't either. Yeah, so I can't help on this one.
Speaker 2: I can't help.
Speaker 1: Yeah. They just talk really fast and I can't do that.
Speaker 2: So that's what it is. You just confuse them, Yes,
Speaker 2: confusing the other person.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I feel like as hissing or pooping or bleeding
Speaker 1: out of your mouth, all of those things will help
Speaker 1: you in debate club for sure.
Speaker 2: Are all right?
Speaker 1: Onto this week's mystery animal sound the guest. The guess
Speaker 1: is this who's a stripey little baby. All right, Kimmy,
Speaker 1: you got any guesses?
Speaker 2: Whoa? Uh, I don't know what is that? A like
Speaker 2: a type of a hyena?
Speaker 1: Hi is an excellent guess. It's wrong though, so uh
Speaker 1: you won't be getting sent a crate full of hyaenas
Speaker 1: sadly for you.
Speaker 2: Okay, that's fine.
Speaker 1: Also, Kimmy, thank you so much for coming on the
Speaker 1: show today. You are a delight PRACTU tell the people
Speaker 1: where they can find you. Keep it under ten seconds
Speaker 1: of those I'm kidding.
Speaker 2: I'm kidding. Oh my god, it's gonna be that sure. Anyway,
Speaker 2: it's gonna be short. You can just find me on
Speaker 2: Instagram at child Clown. That'll have all the info you need.
Speaker 1: Nah, but I'm Joe because Keimya has done an enormous
Speaker 1: amount of projects. It makes me tired just looking at
Speaker 1: all the things that you do.
Speaker 2: So I guess you could google me if you want
Speaker 2: to get tired, you could check out what I've done.
Speaker 1: You've I One of the reasons I had you on
Speaker 1: is you just like I was just on YouTube minding
Speaker 1: my own business when you popped up do an awesome
Speaker 1: improvisational comedy.
Speaker 2: Uh so oh, you might have seen some dropout. Com Yeah,
Speaker 2: some dropout probably what it was that is?
Speaker 1: Yes, so you're doing an improv, you're doing acting, you're
Speaker 1: doing comedy, You're doing so many podcasts, and I feel
Speaker 1: lucky that to be one of the podcasts you have
Speaker 1: come on. So thank you so much.
Speaker 2: This is so much fun. I love to learn from you.
Speaker 1: So thank you for having me fantastic surprise your friends
Speaker 1: with poop facts at dinner party. Yes, like next time
Speaker 1: they serve you chilly if you like, you want to
Speaker 1: learn some poop facts. It's a great, great way to
Speaker 1: make friends and influence people. So thank you. Thank you
Speaker 1: guys so much for listening. I really really hope you're
Speaker 1: all doing okay. I know that this is not the
Speaker 1: most fun of times. To put it mildly, I'm right
Speaker 1: there with you, but I really do hope you're all
Speaker 1: doing all right. Thank you so much for listening, and
Speaker 1: thanks to the Space Cossacks for their super awesome song.
Speaker 1: Exolumina Creature features a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts
Speaker 1: like the one you just heard, visit the iHeartRadio app,
Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or Hey gus, what wherever you listen to
Speaker 1: your favorite shows? I do not judge you. I'm not
Speaker 1: your mother, but I will tell you that if you
Speaker 1: do push air out of your spiracles, remember to breathe.
Speaker 1: It's important. See you next Wednesday.