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

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Speaker 1: What Will?

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Speaker 2: 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. This

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Speaker 1: is another thing. When I was in high school, this

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Speaker 1: kid Sean, and my jazz band realized that our high

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Speaker 1: school's bell rang at I think a G. So when

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Speaker 1: the class was over and the first bell rang, everyone

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Speaker 1: would harmonize and play a G seven chord on their instruments.

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Speaker 1: It's so nerdy, so stupid, but of course I loved it.

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Speaker 1: But this week I learned that if you want to

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Speaker 1: get an alligator's attention, all you have to do is

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Speaker 1: grab your tuba and play a B flat.

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Speaker 3: Okay, I like that for this experiment, all you have

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Speaker 3: to have You got to have an alligator and a

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Speaker 3: tube nearby. But so what exactly happens when you play

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Speaker 3: 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 1: or call back to you.

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Speaker 2: 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.

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Speaker 1: These scientists there and they were watching, and you know,

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

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

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Speaker 1: start again. And so you know, the scientists stopped the

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

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

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Speaker 1: 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 sea 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 3: Hey, their podcast listeners, welcome to part time Genius. I'm

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Speaker 3: Will Pearson and as always I'm joined by my good

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Speaker 3: friend mangesh Hot Ticketter. And on the other side of

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Speaker 3: that soundproof glass are good Buddy Ramsey.

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Speaker 2: He's giving us his best toothy grin. All right, mego.

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Speaker 3: So it's been a while since we've done one of

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Speaker 3: these shows. I know I've actually missed it so much.

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Speaker 3: 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 2: What's up, Apollo, This weird show.

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Speaker 1: About alligators is for you. And two, Will, I know

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Speaker 1: 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 3: The only downside to doing this episode is that I

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Speaker 3: was hoping to save this for when we both I know,

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Speaker 3: both of us really want to retire to Florida, and

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Speaker 3: since we're really bad at most sports instead of golf,

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Speaker 3: we were going to retire there to play mini golf.

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Speaker 3: And that's when I was going to tell you, Yeah,

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Speaker 3: 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 2: These pellets so crazy.

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Speaker 1: You put alligator food on the little fishing and send

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Speaker 1: it down. Honestly, it was the greatest thing. And the

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

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Speaker 1: tiny monsters were feeding these tiny monsters was just great.

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Speaker 1: So I thought, you know, I wanted to learn more

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Speaker 1: about gators.

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Speaker 2: 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 who would make him smile. So thank you

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

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Speaker 2: Oh, I love your dad.

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Speaker 3: This was a no brainer to do this, And it

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Speaker 3: makes sense for this topic because when I think of

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Speaker 3: your dad, I always think of his love for these big,

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Speaker 3: aggressive reptiles. It's kind of like his thing. So it

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Speaker 3: makes sense you pick this theme especially for him. But

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Speaker 3: we've actually got eight facts to go. So what do

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Speaker 3: you say I do the next one?

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

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Speaker 3: So I actually wanted to build on your b flat

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Speaker 3: fact because bellowing is one of those things crocodiles do

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Speaker 3: as a mating ritual. And so the bellow does this

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Speaker 3: amazing thing to the water. It's where the alligator just

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Speaker 3: raises his head and tail out of the water, so

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Speaker 3: his back and belly are still submerged. You know, it's

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Speaker 3: almost like if you imagine like a banana curved up

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Speaker 3: and so you lower it into the water so both

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Speaker 3: ends are sticking out and you know you can picture this, right,

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Speaker 3: except instead of a banana, it's a gate. Just go

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Speaker 3: with me, just just think about it. And so when

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Speaker 3: the gator bellows or does its deep grow. These vibrations

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Speaker 3: make the water around its body kind of kind of

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Speaker 3: like ripple out.

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Speaker 2: It's actually pretty spectacular if.

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Speaker 3: You look at this in slow motion, and it's very

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Speaker 3: very appealing to female alligators of course.

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Speaker 1: And is that the main way that male alligators like

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

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Speaker 3: Jazz, neither of those things. But this is one part

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Speaker 3: of it. So sometimes you'll hear one gator bellow and

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Speaker 3: then another male gator, well, we'll try to out bellow

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Speaker 3: it by making its own giant ripples. But gators have

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Speaker 3: some of the most amazing and really romantic courting rituals too.

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Speaker 3: There was this piece in Wired I was looking at

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Speaker 3: and they like quote head slapping on the water's surface,

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Speaker 3: snout and back rubbing, and blowing bubbles, you know, the usual.

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Speaker 2: 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 Canaverl 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 armadillos, woodpeckers

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Speaker 1: poke holes in 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 the 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. Wow.

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Speaker 3: Actually, I think this episode could have just been about

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Speaker 3: B flat. We should do a separate one just on

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Speaker 3: B flat. But I need you to back up for

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Speaker 3: a second. So what are you supposed to do if

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Speaker 3: 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 3: Okay, all right, I'll think about that. And I actually

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Speaker 3: I realized this is off topic. But did you read

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Speaker 3: about the guy with the alligator at the drive through

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Speaker 3: while you were researching for this episode?

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Speaker 2: No? What was this recently? All right?

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Speaker 3: So this was again talking about Florida kind of reminded

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Speaker 3: me about this. This is back from I think it

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Speaker 3: was twenty sixteen. So there was this kid that apparently

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Speaker 3: drove up to a Windy's. He made an order, he

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Speaker 3: got his drink, and then of course he tossed the

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Speaker 3: three foot gator through the window of the drive through. Yeah,

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Speaker 3: thankfully nobody was heard, and he didn't really have a motive.

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Speaker 3: Apparently his mom's defense to the local news was that,

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Speaker 3: you know, he's just a big prankster and can't help himself.

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

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Speaker 3: So he got charged with quote assault with a deadly weapon,

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Speaker 3: which I guess is, you know, not far off. And

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Speaker 3: the judge had some pretty strict terms for him. So

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Speaker 3: one of the punishments he's banned from Wendy's for life. So,

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Speaker 3: I mean, you gotta really think twice before you throw

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Speaker 3: a game through a drive through because you cannot go

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Speaker 3: back for that spicy chicken sandwich. And he was told

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Speaker 3: that he couldn't frattenize with any animals except his mother's dog,

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Speaker 3: 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.

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Speaker 2: Of water and poured them on our mattress. Gotcha, I got.

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Speaker 1: So mad we had to sleep on the guest bed

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Speaker 1: in the living room for two days before the thing

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Speaker 1: cried out.

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Speaker 2: 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: man headline I've heard in a while. But but do

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Speaker 1: you want to do another fact to make off for it?

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Speaker 2: Yeah?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, let me see which one I want to want

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Speaker 3: to do next. All right, Well, this is something I

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Speaker 3: think is super cool. So alligators obviously seem tough because

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Speaker 3: they've got that bony armor on their skin, and they

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Speaker 3: can climb fences like you mentioned and do these death

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Speaker 3: rolls and things like that. But even their blood is

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Speaker 3: actually tougher than ours. So part of the reason you

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Speaker 3: never see an alligator with colds and flus, Like, have

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Speaker 3: you ever seen an.

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Speaker 2: Alligator with a cold ango?

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Speaker 3: You know, I haven't. It's weird you haven't, And that's

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Speaker 3: because it does not sell to them. No, it really

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Speaker 3: doesn't doesn't work at all, because they have this incredible

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Speaker 3: immune system. These scientists in Louisiana have actually discovered that

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Speaker 3: the serum and alligator blood can fight off viruses and

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Speaker 3: bacteria can actually destroy most of the microbes in HIV.

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Speaker 3: It's actually part of the reason that when an alligator

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Speaker 3: tail is severed in a swamp, even if the water

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Speaker 3: is muddy and dirty, the animals rarely get infections. So

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Speaker 3: this discovery is incredible because it has all sorts of

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Speaker 3: potential applications for humans. I was looking at this article

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Speaker 3: in National Geographic talking about this, and it was showing

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Speaker 3: that the resulting medicines could help everyone from like diabetes

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Speaker 3: patients with foot ulcers, to burn victims to people suffering

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Speaker 3: 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: give as COVID, but an alligator might be the one.

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Speaker 2: To cure it. 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 2: As does that mean, 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.

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Speaker 2: Then they really move.

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Speaker 1: And I didn't realize this, but according to our Palasa

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Speaker 1: how stuff works, alligators aren't really hunters or gathers. They're

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Speaker 1: more what they call lurkers. They kind of just lunge

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Speaker 1: at food, so they're opportunistic and they can actually go

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Speaker 1: a few years without eating if they need to. But

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Speaker 1: when they decide they're really hungry, they can really high

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Speaker 1: walk to a meal. They can apparently reach peak speeds

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Speaker 1: of thirty five miles.

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Speaker 2: Per hour on Wow, that's fast.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, but they also tire very very quickly, so they're

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Speaker 1: never going to be an antelope in a marathon or

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Speaker 1: a half marathon.

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Speaker 2: All right, that's another good fact to write down.

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Speaker 3: So but speaking of facts, we've got three more facts

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Speaker 3: to go. But let's take a quick break and we'll

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Speaker 3: be right back. Welcome back to Part Time Genius, where

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Speaker 3: we're talking all about gators today.

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Speaker 2: 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 just to take a step back,

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Speaker 1: One thing that's fascinating is that in the nineteen fifties

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Speaker 1: and sixties, alligators were nearly hunted to extinction in America.

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Speaker 1: But part of the reason they managed to recover is

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Speaker 1: that the gators lay a lot of eggs, like thirty

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Speaker 1: to fifty of them at one time, so once there

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Speaker 1: were more restrictions on hunting, they made a quick comeback.

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Speaker 1: But gators make a giant nest like three feet high

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

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Speaker 1: inside it, and the eggs that incubate at around eighty

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Speaker 1: degrees will turn out female, but the ones that incubate

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Speaker 1: it closer to ninety degrees will be male, and in

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Speaker 1: between is just a mix of males and females, which

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Speaker 1: I think is kind of remarkable. But the other thing

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Speaker 1: that's interesting about alligators is that the moms also stick

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Speaker 1: around to protect their hatchlings, which is super rare in

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Speaker 1: modern reptiles and more common frankly to birds and some

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Speaker 1: dinosaur species.

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Speaker 2: That is really interesting. So we're down to.

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Speaker 1: Two last facts, and I'm curious, what do you have

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Speaker 1: as your final last fact.

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Speaker 3: For my final fact, I think the most insane thing

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Speaker 3: I found this week is from this article on Smithsonian

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Speaker 3: and it's called When Kids Played with Alligators in Los Angeles,

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Speaker 3: and the piece is all about a theme park. As

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Speaker 3: soon as I saw this headline, I was like, this

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Speaker 3: is gonna be good. And it's all about this theme park.

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Speaker 3: I'd never heard of it before. It was called the

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Speaker 3: California Alligator Farm, which I guess operated from nineteen oh

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Speaker 3: seven to nineteen fifty three, so almost half a century.

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Speaker 3: And for only one quarter you could see over a

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Speaker 3: thousand alligators of all sizes. And while the gators were

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Speaker 3: exercised and you could you could watch them eat live chickens.

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Speaker 3: There were twenty ponds with supposedly trained alligators that you

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Speaker 3: could interact with. But the photos are insane, Like there's

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Speaker 3: this picture of a baby and a pin with thirty

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Speaker 3: hatchlings and no parents anywhere to be found there. Yeah,

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Speaker 3: if you really need to look this up. There are

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Speaker 3: photos of people riding on the alligator backs. There are

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Speaker 3: pictures of picnics in the water with people in bathing

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Speaker 3: suits eating meals right next to these gators.

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Speaker 2: The gators are actually approaching the table.

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Speaker 3: No one seems to be scared by this, and I

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Speaker 3: think my favorite fact is that there are photos of

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Speaker 3: people watching as adult alligators all climb up a ladder

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Speaker 3: and then take a water slide down into the pond

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Speaker 3: for fun. Like it is the weirdest thing. It's like

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Speaker 3: a giant petting zoo for gators. It makes no sense

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Speaker 3: at all.

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Speaker 1: But it sounds fun for the gators too.

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Speaker 3: Yes, that maybe they were having fun so they had

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Speaker 3: 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? Like that all sounds so incredibly dangerous.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it is.

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Speaker 3: I mean, in that article on how stuff works, the

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Speaker 3: editor's right, how alligators are really instinctual animals because you know,

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Speaker 3: their brains are only nine grams and they take about

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Speaker 3: half a tablespoon of space, which means there's no such

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Speaker 3: thing as a nice gator. I mean, these things are

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Speaker 3: programmed to behave a certain way. But for whatever reason,

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Speaker 3: there really aren't reports of injuries there, so I'm certain

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Speaker 3: there were some that happened. And one thing I do

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Speaker 3: know is there were a lot of sign posted to

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Speaker 3: remind visitors, you know, not to punch the gators. Or

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Speaker 3: throw rocks at them, so don't don't try that. And

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Speaker 3: apparently college pranksters used to occasionally sneak in and steal

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Speaker 3: a gator. But other than that, there really isn't a

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Speaker 3: whole lot of reporting on, you know, the darker side

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Speaker 3: of an alligator farm.

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Speaker 2: That's amazing.

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Speaker 1: Well, my last fact is kind of fitting. I decided

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

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Speaker 2: Okay, all right, what did you find out? Not much? Good, good,

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Speaker 2: 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 tutlu tofu or see you alligator, which I

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

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Speaker 1: which I guess means that in a while crocodile wasn't

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Speaker 1: immediately like the default response Yeah.

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Speaker 2: 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 for 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 brack right,

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Speaker 2: Like yeah, for sure, whatever we.

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Speaker 1: Say goodbye to someone, 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. And I think if I

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Speaker 3: was a parent my kid kept saying this as he

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Speaker 3: walked out of the door, I'd probably be confused enough

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Speaker 3: to want to read an article about what was wrong

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Speaker 3: with him. But Anyway, who do you think deserves the

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Speaker 3: 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. 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 3: It's so good looking at those photos, so I will

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Speaker 3: take it. Thank you very much, I'm honored. That is

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Speaker 3: it for today's Part Time Genius. If you like hearing

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Speaker 3: the show, hit us up on Twitter or Instagram, drop

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Speaker 3: us a line in Apple Reviews, And if you have

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Speaker 3: any great gator facts we missed or have a topic

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Speaker 3: you want us to cover, be sure to write to

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Speaker 3: 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 3: Part Time Genius is a production of iHeartRadio. For more

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Speaker 3: podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or

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Speaker 3: wherever you listen to your favorite shows.