Speaker 1: Welcome to Creature future production of iHeartRadio. I'm your host
Speaker 1: of Many Parasites, Katie Golden. I studied psychology and evolutionary biology,
Speaker 1: and today on the show Eurovarmns, we're talking about animals
Speaker 1: who belong on stage at Eurovision or not. I guess
Speaker 1: I'm being told that that is against the rules. So
Speaker 1: why are we talking about Eurovision. Well, for starters, as
Speaker 1: an immigrant living in Europe, I have become a convert
Speaker 1: to Eurovision. And secondly, I am very excited to be
Speaker 1: joined by the hosts of Eurovangelists, a podcast all about
Speaker 1: Eurovision and why Americans should maybe start caring. Welcome Jeremy
Speaker 1: Bent and Dmitri Pompeii.
Speaker 2: Hello, thank you so much. Honored to be here. Guys.
Speaker 1: Your podcast really speaks to me because until I moved
Speaker 1: to Europe, I was like barely cognizant of Eurovision, and
Speaker 1: now I love it. I watch it every year.
Speaker 2: It's a very common American condition to be completely unaware
Speaker 2: of your vision but then immediately upon finding out about it,
Speaker 2: falling deeply in love with it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, America brain is like I need to get groceries
Speaker 1: for five weeks every time I go and not knowing
Speaker 1: about Eurovision, yep.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and then European brain is, oh, I'll just go
Speaker 2: to the grocery store every two days, and then also
Speaker 2: I will watch an international song competition every single year.
Speaker 1: That's that's exactly what life is like here.
Speaker 2: Yep, I figured as much.
Speaker 3: So.
Speaker 1: I mean, first of all, I just want to tell
Speaker 1: the listeners and i''ll post links to these in the
Speaker 1: show notes because it's so wonderful you guys shared with
Speaker 1: me an entire list of Eurovision songs that are like
Speaker 1: and have animals in them, and they're incredible. I both
Speaker 1: thank you and curse you for that, because that penguin
Speaker 1: song has been stuck in my head.
Speaker 2: Oh boy, yeah, oh Bengal, it's it's yeah. I apologize
Speaker 2: to your listeners because if they seek it out, it
Speaker 2: is an earworm that never truly leaves you.
Speaker 1: It's sort of like that arc thing in the Indiana
Speaker 1: Jones series where you open it up and your space
Speaker 1: melts off. But it's just like about a penguin.
Speaker 2: And an old man in a penguin costume.
Speaker 1: Oh man, that guy really really like really oscar worthy
Speaker 1: penguin performance there.
Speaker 2: Commits to the bit is what I'll say.
Speaker 1: When was that, like, just give give me the rundown
Speaker 1: on that. When when was that song?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 3: That was nineteen that was nineteen eighty. That erovision nineteen eighty.
Speaker 3: That was the entry from Luxembourg that year. Imagine, if
Speaker 3: you will, dear listener, a pair of twins in space
Speaker 3: age David Bowie esque could not be more sequence on
Speaker 3: those suits.
Speaker 1: Yeah, when space could adds.
Speaker 3: They're singing a song about a penguin who wants to
Speaker 3: travel the world and a very old man who I
Speaker 3: believe wrote he can't.
Speaker 1: Be more than sixty years old. Come on to me.
Speaker 2: That's fair, that's fair.
Speaker 3: He comes out dressed as a penguin and acts the
Speaker 3: acts out the sawe. He's searching for meaning. He's dancing
Speaker 3: around the twins at one point give him a spanking.
Speaker 1: They did, you know.
Speaker 3: It's cool and fun, it's cool and normal, and ultimately
Speaker 3: the penguin decides that home is where the heart is
Speaker 3: and he decides to return to his ice flow.
Speaker 1: Well, also, there's like two hot lady penguins that are
Speaker 1: backup seating.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's true. Dmitri, How did that do in nineteen
Speaker 2: eighty That got ninth place? Wild. That's really good, pretty.
Speaker 1: Good, incredible Eurovision. Like I can definitely see the slow
Speaker 1: ratcheting up of the wackiness of Eurovision, where it probably
Speaker 1: started off being a little more tame, like it's just
Speaker 1: two sort of lovely ladies singing into a microphone, maybe
Speaker 1: be swaying gently. And now we have like rotating cubes
Speaker 1: that people are jumping around and they look it looks
Speaker 1: like a bunch of wrestlers in a bathroom and they're
Speaker 1: all kissing each other and it's beautiful and perfect and
Speaker 1: I love it.
Speaker 2: If you think Katie is just, you know, saying random things,
Speaker 2: she is not. She is referring to specific performances from
Speaker 2: last year's Eurovision, but it's very true. I think something
Speaker 2: people don't realize about Eurovision is that it's been going
Speaker 2: since nineteen fifty six and like nineteen fifty six Eurovision
Speaker 2: is very sedate, is quite quite low key, and twenty
Speaker 2: twenty four Eurovision, you'll find has a different flavor.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I just I am a very proud pop popping
Speaker 3: ranchow because Jeremy on our show is in fact the
Speaker 3: Eurovision Nube.
Speaker 2: That's true. He comes to the show at the least
Speaker 2: amount of Eurovision knowledge.
Speaker 3: Also, yeah, while on the other hand, I come in
Speaker 3: with twenty years of your experiences.
Speaker 2: Only through our show have I met people who know
Speaker 2: more about Eurovision than Dmitri. And it's only a couple
Speaker 2: of people.
Speaker 3: And I am I am but a humble student. I
Speaker 3: am not a pro. There are so many people out
Speaker 3: there who know much.
Speaker 2: More than I agree to disagree.
Speaker 1: Are any of them Americans?
Speaker 3: Though?
Speaker 2: That's like no, I would argue not.
Speaker 3: I would argue I can go toe to toe with
Speaker 3: pretty much any America.
Speaker 2: I would be impressed if I met someone from the
Speaker 2: US who knew more about Eurovision than Dmitri, because we've
Speaker 2: had a couple of guests, one from the UK, one
Speaker 2: from Sweden who are extremely knowledgeable about Eurovision, but they're
Speaker 2: sort of steeped in it, you know.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they're euros so they know they have the vision.
Speaker 2: Yeah they have the vision.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Well one more common about the penguin song, and then.
Speaker 2: I'll forget no, no, it's hard to let go.
Speaker 1: It is about a father penguin, like abandoning his family,
Speaker 1: and I would just like to say that you know
Speaker 1: a lot of penguin species, the father penguin is actually
Speaker 1: quite an attentive.
Speaker 2: They would never do that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you will sit on the egg. The emperor penguins famously,
Speaker 1: and in other penguin species as well, the male penguin
Speaker 1: gingerly takes care of the egg as well as the
Speaker 1: female penguin. But it is a joint venture there. But
Speaker 1: speaking of birds, let's talk about our first. Let's call
Speaker 1: them contestants. These are animals, folks, but they are on
Speaker 1: It's not really contained to Europe, but it is. I
Speaker 1: think they belong on the Eurovision stage just because of
Speaker 1: the flamboyants, because if you have if you can know,
Speaker 1: like just one thing about Eurovision is it's not necessarily
Speaker 1: about the best music in the world. It's about the
Speaker 1: most outrageous spectacle that can be put on a physical
Speaker 1: stage for you. Have you guys heard of frigate birds?
Speaker 2: Frigate never like the ship a frigate Yes, like the
Speaker 2: ship Okay, they know they know if it was something else, absolutely.
Speaker 1: No, yeah, yeah, forget.
Speaker 2: Bird oh yeah yeah, frigate birds birds you know, like
Speaker 2: when a bird takes a dump on you to go
Speaker 2: frigate bird bird.
Speaker 1: Yes. So they are found in Barbuda, an island in
Speaker 1: the Caribbean, so they are. They participate from August to October,
Speaker 1: so by the time you're listening to this, they probably
Speaker 1: are still going uh there is an important song and
Speaker 1: dance competition.
Speaker 2: Oh okay, now we're so.
Speaker 1: They put on this incredible show during this mating season,
Speaker 1: this magnificent frigate bird mating LC. I'm not hyping them up.
Speaker 1: That species is actually called magnificent frigatebirds and they do indeed, Wow,
Speaker 1: how are you Their performances in something called a lek,
Speaker 1: which is a large stage in which groups of males
Speaker 1: show off their talents competing with each other.
Speaker 2: This is fantastic, amazing, you know.
Speaker 3: If I may make an early Eurovision connection to these birds.
Speaker 3: One of the greatest Eurovision songs of all time is
Speaker 3: the two thousand and nine winning song fairy Tale by
Speaker 3: Alexander Reebuk. It is a Norwegian song and the stage
Speaker 3: performance of the song is literally what you describe.
Speaker 2: That is true.
Speaker 3: Actually it is the It is the port performance of
Speaker 3: what is called the hauling, a tradition in the Nordic
Speaker 3: countries in which men do all sorts of ridiculous physical
Speaker 3: feats to impress women so they'll marry them.
Speaker 1: I didn't realize that Norwegians had lex That's fascinating.
Speaker 2: They like the act that they specifically are performing in
Speaker 2: Alexander Reriebuks reforming is kicking hats off a broom, right well, yeah,
Speaker 2: and that's a thing, that's the real thing that Yeah.
Speaker 1: Maybe that's measuring their physical fitness and ability to sire
Speaker 1: strong children.
Speaker 2: I mean, I will say the guys doing it on
Speaker 2: stage are fit. They are in great shape. I don't
Speaker 2: think I could do what they are doing kick a hat.
Speaker 2: I'm not with that negative attitude. You can.
Speaker 1: I don't know. I kind of feel like I could
Speaker 1: kick a hat off a broom, don't you think?
Speaker 2: But there you got to watch these guys.
Speaker 1: Do it all right, well special, It's just.
Speaker 3: Nice to know that the Animal Kingdom, you know, perhaps
Speaker 3: inspired Norwegian men like, look, those birds have a whole
Speaker 3: stage performance and look at all the chicks they're getting.
Speaker 2: We should do that. I will also say. I will
Speaker 2: also say I have looked up the Magnificent frigate Bird
Speaker 2: and they got a look that would play on a
Speaker 2: Eurovision stage, is what I will say.
Speaker 1: It's angular. They kind of look like a brutalist architecture.
Speaker 2: So Yeah, excellent, strong color story they're telling here. Oh wow, right,
Speaker 2: just looked it up too. Wow. Okay, due's plant for
Speaker 2: the frigate. A lot of drama in that look, is
Speaker 2: what I'll say.
Speaker 1: It's high fashion culture, so I will paint you a
Speaker 1: verbal picture with my word mouth. The largest of their genus,
Speaker 1: the magnificent frigatebird, are sea birds with shiny black feathers,
Speaker 1: a long, hooked beak, and forked tails similar to a swallow.
Speaker 1: They have a wingspan of up to eight feet long,
Speaker 1: which is two point four meters for my European friends,
Speaker 1: and weighs around three pounds, which is over one and
Speaker 1: a half kilograms, so not too heavy but very large,
Speaker 1: perfect for flying about. They have these elegant angles and
Speaker 1: curves like some kind of weird, chunky European race car,
Speaker 1: which allows them to fly up to ninety five miles
Speaker 1: per hour, which is about one hundred and fifty three
Speaker 1: kilometers per hour. Now that speed is probably going to
Speaker 1: be achieved while they are diving, and they are. They're
Speaker 1: very elegant, but they're also menacing. They look a bit
Speaker 1: like pterodactyls, and indeed they terrorize fish and other birds
Speaker 1: that they steal their catches from so they are both
Speaker 1: pirates and hunters until the males decide they want to
Speaker 1: get down with the females. Then they turn into red balloons.
Speaker 2: The pirrating apparently not attractive to the females, but I
Speaker 2: will say I was like, you can tell that this
Speaker 2: is some sort of like sexual attraction characteristic for the frigatebird.
Speaker 2: The male frigatebirds seem to have this like giant red
Speaker 2: balloon under their neck. This is wild.
Speaker 1: This is an inflatable goal or pouch. Now I'm going
Speaker 1: to touch back on the piracy issue here.
Speaker 2: With females later.
Speaker 1: You don't get away with anything on this show. This
Speaker 1: show is about facts.
Speaker 2: Nice try bird.
Speaker 1: Your feelings about birds. So, yeah, the males have something
Speaker 1: called a gol or pouch, and that's this beautiful red sack.
Speaker 1: They inflate it and it's this bright clown nose red
Speaker 1: and they pump it full of air. It forms this
Speaker 1: big red balloon, big and flashy, catches the attention of
Speaker 1: females that are flying overhead, and they do this incredible
Speaker 1: performance with their wings outstretched and then they make this
Speaker 1: sound that is like, well, I'm just gonna let you listen.
Speaker 2: Okay, I'm curious. Yeah, here we go.
Speaker 1: So this is from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.
Speaker 2: One of our best ornithology labs, one.
Speaker 1: Of our best. And this is was recorded by Martha Fisher.
Speaker 1: So here we go the magnificent frigatebird, who sounds very
Speaker 1: amazing and good. Are you feeling sexually attracted to these birds?
Speaker 2: You know?
Speaker 3: I'm just gonna throw it out here. That is the
Speaker 3: bubble wrap of sounds like.
Speaker 2: I like it.
Speaker 1: It's nice.
Speaker 2: I listen to that for a while. I actually do
Speaker 2: like that sound. I will say, based on the ballooning,
Speaker 2: I expected a very different sound sound. I was expecting
Speaker 2: more of a honk or or a sort of like
Speaker 2: you know when you blow up a balloon and you
Speaker 2: just let it go around a room. Yeah, like like
Speaker 2: kind of an that sound. Because you think this is
Speaker 2: a Looney Tunes character, I mean, I mean you got it.
Speaker 2: In some ways. It is a Loony Tunes It is
Speaker 2: take a.
Speaker 1: Pen in one of these guys and see what happens.
Speaker 2: Oh, don't do that. They're not going to enjoy that.
Speaker 1: No animal's cruelty is highly discouraged on this show.
Speaker 2: But I am curious.
Speaker 1: So they will, so it is incredible to see. I
Speaker 1: do all include a link to it in the show notes.
Speaker 1: But they have this wonderful display. Their wings are outstretched,
Speaker 1: they cut this striking figure, big red balloon, and they're
Speaker 1: making this like sort of weird like bubble wrap sound
Speaker 1: like you said. I love that description of it. And
Speaker 1: they are not only trying to attract females based on
Speaker 1: their performance, their song and this kind of like you know,
Speaker 1: swishing around kind of dance thing that they're doing, they
Speaker 1: have also competed to secure the best spots in the
Speaker 1: mangrove trees on which they are doing their performance. So
Speaker 1: it's this big group and these mangrove trees are so
Speaker 1: close together that it forms it almost looks like just
Speaker 1: this giant group of like hedgy bushes. And then in
Speaker 1: like sort of situated in them are so many of
Speaker 1: these males, like hundreds of them all together, and they
Speaker 1: are buying for a really nice position on these mangrove trees,
Speaker 1: trees where they will build their nests. And the females
Speaker 1: all are the judges, just like in real life, and
Speaker 1: they circle above like these vultures looking for love, and
Speaker 1: they browse for their preferred males, and they select them
Speaker 1: for them based on the call that they make, how beautiful,
Speaker 1: bright and bouncy that weird pouches, and also how good
Speaker 1: their spot is where they are roosting on these mangrove trees.
Speaker 3: Yeah, okay, let me get this straight beautiful plumage song
Speaker 3: that could that sounds like nothing you've ever heard in
Speaker 3: the world. Competing for a higher rank or location or placement,
Speaker 3: this is this.
Speaker 2: Is trying to curry favor with the judges. It's right,
Speaker 2: it's this is your v And I'll also say I
Speaker 2: also looked up mangrove tree because I was like, what
Speaker 2: does a mangrove tree look like? It looks like a
Speaker 2: set of Eurovision song very visually distinctive. I'm like, okay,
Speaker 2: this is all coming together.
Speaker 1: Yes, it is that they have such really they are
Speaker 1: semi aquatic trees actually, yeah, brackish water their roots.
Speaker 2: Which most trees can't stand at all.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that their roots will actually dip into the water.
Speaker 1: One of the most incredible experiences I've ever had was
Speaker 1: this was a long time ago. This This was in
Speaker 1: like twenty I'm gonna say twenty two thousand and nine
Speaker 1: or twenty ten and I was in Puerto Rico and
Speaker 1: there was a kayak tour of this mangrove forest and
Speaker 1: it was during a season where there were these bioluminescent
Speaker 1: diatoms dinoflagellis sorry, and they were like every time you
Speaker 1: would paddle the kayak, you'd see this blue flash in
Speaker 1: the water. They are all these mangrove trees where they're
Speaker 1: roots were dipped into the water. I felt like I
Speaker 1: was about to have like an almost kiss with a
Speaker 1: prince and an evil octopus. I don't know, it felt magical.
Speaker 2: Sure you'd trade your voice for that kind of scenario.
Speaker 1: There we go. I want a man who doesn't care
Speaker 1: what I say or think.
Speaker 2: So, yeah, it would be best if she couldn't speak.
Speaker 1: At all, right, body language, you know, if she just
Speaker 1: knew ASL, then all things would.
Speaker 2: Have been or just write in any language.
Speaker 1: Right yeah? Or gestures you know, like you know octopus,
Speaker 1: wiggle your arms kind of big, giant, bad, evil octopus.
Speaker 1: I feel like I could, you know, everyone, I.
Speaker 2: Would be curious to see the ASL for a witch
Speaker 2: stole my voice.
Speaker 1: Divine stole my voice. Yeah, So I did want to
Speaker 1: touch on an earlier thing you said, Jeremy, I'm going
Speaker 1: to grill you.
Speaker 2: Get ready, okay, Grilly. You said that the.
Speaker 1: Females aren't attracted to piracy, and that may or may
Speaker 1: not be true. But the females are actually the bigger
Speaker 1: pirates than the males. They are literally bigger, and they're
Speaker 1: better pirates. So they are larger than the males in
Speaker 1: part because they do the majority of raising the chicks,
Speaker 1: and they must be tough enough to be able to
Speaker 1: murder a bunch of fish or steal enough fish to
Speaker 1: feed themselves and the chicks. Before you get mad at
Speaker 1: the fathers, they aren't actually the worst fathers. They will
Speaker 1: build the nests. So they help build the nests, okay,
Speaker 1: gather all the time. That's they also help incubate the eggs.
Speaker 1: It's just once the eggs hatch, they're like, all right,
Speaker 1: I'm out of here, Like that's that. Part of my
Speaker 1: life is over.
Speaker 2: I gotta be working on my performance for next year.
Speaker 1: Yeah exactly. I mean to be fair to them, Yes,
Speaker 1: they work very hard on their performances, very hard on
Speaker 1: constructing the nests. But yeah, you see, Actually it's very interesting.
Speaker 1: With a lot of bird species, you have different types
Speaker 1: of relationship where some are monogamous for their whole lives,
Speaker 1: some are monogamous over a breeding season, some are just
Speaker 1: no rules, only what feels good. And sometimes you have
Speaker 1: parental care that's shared by the birds. And often sea
Speaker 1: birds can be quite similar. This kind of sexual dimorphism,
Speaker 1: where one.
Speaker 2: Is one of my favorite phrases.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, sexual dimorphism.
Speaker 2: What a great sound.
Speaker 1: Yes, it just means that the two sexes look different
Speaker 1: and so like for a lot of aquatic birds. A
Speaker 1: lot of sea birds, especially like the males and females
Speaker 1: are fairly similar, and a lot of that has to
Speaker 1: do with the fact that they both take care of
Speaker 1: the offspring. And you really only see this kind of
Speaker 1: sexual dimorphism when you have one member who is really
Speaker 1: investing a lot more into the care of the offspring,
Speaker 1: because then the other sex, right, the males in that case,
Speaker 1: have to really prove their worth to these females otherwise
Speaker 1: the females are going to be left with this offspring.
Speaker 1: Whereas in other species of birds like albatrosses are very similar.
Speaker 1: There are a lot of seabirds that actually both try
Speaker 1: to impress each other, like puffins, and in these cases
Speaker 1: it's because they both will raise and take care of
Speaker 1: the egg, and both the male and the female are
Speaker 1: trying to assess each other for whether they're going to
Speaker 1: be good parents, rather than just the female trying to
Speaker 1: assess whether the male is really physically fit and is
Speaker 1: gonna stick around long enough to build that nest and
Speaker 1: incubate the egg and then pass on really good genes.
Speaker 1: So it's all that, you know, it's there's so many
Speaker 1: different dynamics in these birds. And I love this example
Speaker 1: of these frigatebirds. I'm sorry, magnificent frigatebirds.
Speaker 2: There's these respect to the frigatebird. Please, I will, yeah,
Speaker 2: Because it's like like even among primates, like gorillas have
Speaker 2: like a really strong sexual dimorsism where it's like male
Speaker 2: gorillas are sort of huge, but then like bonobos, which
Speaker 2: are sort of closer to humans, are like pretty like
Speaker 2: the males are a little bit bigger, but it's the
Speaker 2: difference is quite small. But because they're a very social primate,
Speaker 2: where like kind of both male and female are doing
Speaker 2: all of the you know, all of the humping they do.
Speaker 2: Like I said, they're a very social animal.
Speaker 3: I think the main takeaway here, especially for you notorious
Speaker 3: woman hater Jeremy.
Speaker 2: Then, is that.
Speaker 3: Is that you know, piracy is not limited by your
Speaker 3: gender in Jeremy, Yeah, women can do anything.
Speaker 2: Jeremy. I said that women weren't attracted to the piracy,
Speaker 2: and that's born out because it turns out that women
Speaker 2: are doing the piracy. But that is an excellent point. Uh,
Speaker 2: They're like, there's a really good Uh, Katie, I'm sure
Speaker 2: you are familiar with the anthropologist David Graber.
Speaker 1: Just tell just tell me.
Speaker 2: Well, he he talked about like, uh, Dawn of Everything
Speaker 2: is like his is this massive, massive book that is
Speaker 2: basically all about how like the Enlightenment in Europe was
Speaker 2: basically like, oh, they went to America and saw how
Speaker 2: Native Americans lived and then brought back all these new
Speaker 2: ideas that like really smart Europeans came up with. And
Speaker 2: then it turned out.
Speaker 3: It's just like let's not burn down everything, yeah, restoring
Speaker 3: the environment. Yeah, And it turns out like, hey, if
Speaker 3: you like teach everyone how to do everything and like
Speaker 3: live collectively, it's very it's much easier and people are
Speaker 3: happier and so like. But one of the examples is
Speaker 3: like there's this sort of like pirate oasis that is
Speaker 3: one of his examples, and it is largely like women
Speaker 3: pirates who are like running things.
Speaker 2: It's wild. It's a fantastic book.
Speaker 1: Yeah, there's a lot of different that. There's a lot
Speaker 1: of cultures in humans where you do you see a
Speaker 1: glimpse into like, yeah, we don't like it's not that
Speaker 1: sort of our typical patriarchal culture that we have. I
Speaker 1: could go on a huge rant, and I won't because
Speaker 1: otherwise I'll get bad podcast reviews. But yeah, you can
Speaker 1: definitely see you can definitely see a lot of really
Speaker 1: interesting human cultures. That does indicate that, Yeah, no, things
Speaker 1: are quite a bit more complex than just like you know,
Speaker 1: man goes out, hits a sabertooth tiger on the head
Speaker 1: and drags it back into the cave.
Speaker 2: Yeah, there's a little bit more at play here, a.
Speaker 1: Little bit more at play. Although man going out hitting
Speaker 1: a sabertooth tiger on the head and dragging it back
Speaker 1: to a cave does sound like something that would happen
Speaker 1: in Eurovision, except that the cave would be a dirty
Speaker 1: bathroom and the sabertooth tiger would be a bunch of
Speaker 1: naked wrestlers who are kissing each other.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that'll honestly checks out sounds accurate.
Speaker 1: All right, Well, we're going to take a quick break
Speaker 1: while you process what I just said, and when we
Speaker 1: get back, we're going to talk about another wonderful contest
Speaker 1: who is coming in to a genre of music that
Speaker 1: is one of my favorite. All Right, guys, I don't
Speaker 1: know if you know this about me, but I really
Speaker 1: like metal, not the you know element or periodic table element,
Speaker 1: but you know, uh, the the sort of musical genre.
Speaker 2: Well you're in luck because in the last ten or
Speaker 2: twenty years at Eurovision there has been a I would
Speaker 2: say a pretty strong current of metal running through the show.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean I would say I would say it's
Speaker 3: it was it was just nothing and then truly zero
Speaker 3: and it hasn't left, and then it won in two
Speaker 3: thousand and six, and then it has been a big
Speaker 3: part of it since then.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I was really there was the god, uh the what.
Speaker 2: Was I assume you're money the oh oh at at
Speaker 2: Paris Olympics. Yeah, yeah, oh god, what is that band
Speaker 2: not go Jiro?
Speaker 1: Is it?
Speaker 2: Yeah? Yeah it is Gojira.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and so uh, I thought it was great. They
Speaker 1: did a great performance and it made me feel happy.
Speaker 1: Because it's like, man, Europe is really like I feel
Speaker 1: like metal is becoming a lot more like just mainstream,
Speaker 1: which I'm yeah, totally, I'm not one of these people.
Speaker 1: I don't want it to become mainstream. That's good. I
Speaker 1: want to hear more of it and have it.
Speaker 2: And also like go Jira, a very well regarded French
Speaker 2: metal band, like of the bands that you could have
Speaker 2: put in the Olympics opening ceremonies to play metal. Yeah,
Speaker 2: GoJ You're an excellent choice, very very good.
Speaker 3: This is the official call out to go Jira. Give
Speaker 3: it a try, give your vision a shot. You know
Speaker 3: you got the money, you can do it.
Speaker 2: I believe in you. Risk it. Guys.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't know. They might feel like that's kind
Speaker 1: of a reach, but yeah, the the but they had
Speaker 1: a beautiful performance. And the thing that made me angry
Speaker 1: was that I think it was the like the was
Speaker 1: it was either like the Canadian broadcast or the Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think it was the Canadian broadcasters kept talking over
Speaker 1: the and I well, like they would not do that
Speaker 1: for any of the other musical acts. But like there's
Speaker 1: this assumption that oh, because it's metal, that's just background noise.
Speaker 1: We can talk now and it's like, guys, it's like music.
Speaker 1: Also look Mary Antoinette, just like art form. Mary Antoinette
Speaker 1: has like streamers coming out of her neck hole that
Speaker 1: look like blood. It's so cool, Like, shut up, I
Speaker 1: want to watch this.
Speaker 3: Absolutely like metal is a one of the greatest Eurovision songs,
Speaker 3: not even there's there's been some great metal songs, but
Speaker 3: I'm thinking of the one that occurred in twenty nineteen.
Speaker 2: This is called it.
Speaker 3: This is Hittari's song, and it's basically a song about
Speaker 3: how evil will prevail. And they imagine this world in
Speaker 3: which all the worst things have happened. The worst people
Speaker 3: are running every country, the climate has collapsed, the environment
Speaker 3: is unbreathable, evil has.
Speaker 2: Efficient what an impossible scenario, especially in twenty nineteen.
Speaker 3: I know, shocking truly, And then there's there's a there's
Speaker 3: a little fleck of hope at the end of the
Speaker 3: song is like this doesn't have to happen, we don't
Speaker 3: have to let this occur. It's a metal song that
Speaker 3: on its glance, at first glance, could be terrifying or
Speaker 3: confusing or unsettling, which it is, but it also has
Speaker 3: something beautiful to say about not giving up hope and
Speaker 3: making improvements to the world in which we live.
Speaker 2: I mean this is.
Speaker 1: An art form, yeah, absolutely, I mean there are a
Speaker 1: lot of metal I mean, personally, my choice of metal
Speaker 1: bands tend to be like progressive metal, so it's already
Speaker 1: a little more soft, a little more ethereal. But like, yeah,
Speaker 1: there's definitely a lot of like metal bands. Where you're
Speaker 1: listening to it, it sounds super scary, like they're gonna
Speaker 1: tell you something about how like satan is, you know,
Speaker 1: eating your eyeballs or something, But then it turns out
Speaker 1: it has like a pro environment is or yeah, like
Speaker 1: it could be something about like hey, you should join
Speaker 1: a union, or like hey, the environment is cool. But
Speaker 1: they're just singing it in this kind of like rob
Speaker 1: no voice, and that's you know, we're going to do
Speaker 1: that again.
Speaker 2: By the way, my brother in law is a is
Speaker 2: a very very good musician, but specifically bass player. Like
Speaker 2: I've seen him play based many times with a number
Speaker 2: of different bands, and I think the only bass player
Speaker 2: I've ever seen in real life who I think is
Speaker 2: better than him his Thundercat. But he currently tours with
Speaker 2: a band called Number twelve. Looks just like you which
Speaker 2: is taken from a Twilight Zone episode and actually truly
Speaker 2: one of my all time favorite Twilight Zone episodes. But
Speaker 2: they're they're a pretty long running metal band that has
Speaker 2: that kind of vocal and like I went to see
Speaker 2: them when they played in La because he was he
Speaker 2: was staying at our apartment, and like that kind of
Speaker 2: vocal does turn me off a little bit, but also
Speaker 2: the music is really good, So yeah.
Speaker 1: I get it, though, I get your perspective.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but I but I think metal is like is
Speaker 2: like pretty much every genre of music. Like we all
Speaker 2: had friends in college who are like, I listened to
Speaker 2: everything except country and rap, right. It was like that
Speaker 2: was such a thing in the two thousands where it
Speaker 2: was like, yeah, but there is good country music and
Speaker 2: there is good rap music. You just don't want to
Speaker 2: identify with those genre.
Speaker 1: Well, but like it's also just like I only I
Speaker 1: don't listen to like essentially like music that's poetry and
Speaker 1: music that has I don't know, any sort of rural
Speaker 1: element to it. And then you're like, if you put
Speaker 1: it that way, then it's like, Okay, that's really weird.
Speaker 3: Though, what do you mean, Yeah, that's messed up, dude,
Speaker 3: exclusively Gregorian Chit.
Speaker 2: Yeah, no joke that I'm interested. I will say I'm
Speaker 2: interested in that guy. What's that guy? I thought?
Speaker 1: Sleep to gregoryan Chance though, Oh sure, I do mess
Speaker 1: around with Gregory and Chance, But I do mess around
Speaker 1: with all music because I think all music can be good.
Speaker 2: I completely agree, because it's like because like, yeah, it's like,
Speaker 2: do I love all country music? It's like, no, I'm
Speaker 2: not going to rep for like bro country, but I'm
Speaker 2: also not going to pretend that I don't listen to
Speaker 2: like Willie Nelson or like Orville Peck for a more
Speaker 2: recently part, Dolly park God's Sake Dolly part like.
Speaker 1: If you don't like Dolly Porton, there's something wrong with you,
Speaker 1: But obviously.
Speaker 2: Most of them like anyway, we'll get into our country
Speaker 2: discussion on a different podcast, But yeah, I.
Speaker 1: Understand maybe like that so that that type of voice
Speaker 1: is called a death growl, and it does not appeal
Speaker 1: to everyone. I get it, Like I like, I do
Speaker 1: like progressive metal the most, and there's not as much
Speaker 1: death growl in that, but some metal is really primarily
Speaker 1: that death grawl, and a really good death growl I
Speaker 1: think can be really exciting when I hear it too much,
Speaker 1: my own throat starts to hurt, kind of in sympathy.
Speaker 1: But there is our next Eurovarmint competition entrant is one
Speaker 1: of the world's best heavy metal death growlers.
Speaker 2: Oh okay, okay.
Speaker 1: Can you guys just like guess, like, what what what
Speaker 1: do you think would be the best at this?
Speaker 2: Well? I have I have seen the death metal Rooster
Speaker 2: video where they've edited some heavy metal riffs under a
Speaker 2: rooster going pretty full out, and it does work, you
Speaker 2: know what I mean?
Speaker 1: Have you seen me? Have you seen the animal version
Speaker 1: of let the bodies hit the floor with the bodies.
Speaker 2: But sounds great? Well, look the look that up.
Speaker 1: Anyways, the best animal who just really masters this death
Speaker 1: growl is the howler monkey. Have you guys heard of hower?
Speaker 3: Yeah, of course, yes, yes, that was right there on
Speaker 3: the in the name, much like the magnificent friggin bird.
Speaker 2: Yet they're not giving it away. They are giving it. Yeah,
Speaker 2: there's no mystery here. Yeah, these howls the howler monkeys.
Speaker 1: Yeah, these are called the kick ass howler monkeys. That's
Speaker 1: their literal form, So howler monkeys. They are actually multiple
Speaker 1: species of howler monkeys. They are a genus of monkey
Speaker 1: who live in South America and the tropics. They are
Speaker 1: capable of incredible death growls, incredible sounds. There are many
Speaker 1: species like I mentioned, with fur ranging from black to
Speaker 1: brown to red like red red fur. It's really really pretty.
Speaker 1: They have these wide set faces, these large shaggy jowls,
Speaker 1: and they grow from around two to three feet, which
Speaker 1: is about sixty to ninety centimeters, not including their tail,
Speaker 1: which is super long as well. They have a long,
Speaker 1: prehensile tail. They live in the trees, and of course
Speaker 1: they howl. So I am going to let you listen
Speaker 1: to this. This is a red howler monkey from the
Speaker 1: Houston Zoo.
Speaker 2: Like it works, Yeah right.
Speaker 3: We put you this way. My best friend in the
Speaker 3: world is actually in a metal band. He's the lead
Speaker 3: singer Great American Ghosts.
Speaker 2: Check him out.
Speaker 3: I want to tell him to go down to the
Speaker 3: Houston Zoo and pick this monkey up and put him
Speaker 3: on the next album because that was terrifying and I
Speaker 3: loved it.
Speaker 1: Yes, it's fantastic. So they make these wonderful, wonderful death
Speaker 1: growls that can be very very loud as well heard
Speaker 1: over long, long distances, and so in this case, it
Speaker 1: is mostly the males doing this. I'm sad to say
Speaker 1: that in real life and in how well, I guess
Speaker 1: howler monkeys are also real life, but in human metal
Speaker 1: bands and monkey metal bands, males dominate the death growling space.
Speaker 1: Although there are some very accomplished female death growlers out there,
Speaker 1: I mean, just look them up. I can't remember their
Speaker 1: names because I don't have Dimitri's brain can remember everything.
Speaker 2: Our greatest resource on euro evangelists. I try my best,
Speaker 2: Thank you so much.
Speaker 1: So. Typically males are larger than females and they do
Speaker 1: the majority of this loud howling, and they do it
Speaker 1: to attract females to stake out their territory. It is
Speaker 1: a form of communication that can be from like hey,
Speaker 1: I'm a hot sexy male, come check me out, to
Speaker 1: like back off, this is my area, to like, hey,
Speaker 1: I'm over here, what's up? So many different types of communications.
Speaker 3: Somebody ways to communicate? How many ways kind of goes
Speaker 3: into the whole death growl you know, art form, because
Speaker 3: even in the music, it's not always anger that's being
Speaker 3: portrayed here. It often is, but it is there's so
Speaker 3: many different messages that you can communicate through. Through that
Speaker 3: type of singing. So I'm glad to know that the
Speaker 3: animal kingdom operates exactly the same way, and I hope
Speaker 3: it's incredibly a thing because the type in my humble experience,
Speaker 3: the type of women who like that music are always
Speaker 3: really cool. So yeah, yeah, cowler monkeys are the same way.
Speaker 1: In my experience. Yes, women who like metal are very cool.
Speaker 2: Little homersm there, that's okay.
Speaker 1: So the yeah. So there are essentially two types of
Speaker 1: howler monkey social groups among these species, and this gets
Speaker 1: into really interesting kind of It's a great detail that
Speaker 1: I love to talk about because it teaches you a
Speaker 1: lot about evolution and it's also silly. So there are
Speaker 1: social groups in some species where there's basically one male
Speaker 1: who has a bunch of females. Will call them groupies.
Speaker 1: I don't know, it's just it's a it's a mating structure,
Speaker 1: and he will have a really, really loud howl.
Speaker 2: It is not it is not our place to judge
Speaker 2: the howler monkey polycule.
Speaker 1: Look man strokes for different folks, different howls for different monkeys.
Speaker 1: So the other social group style is multiple males that
Speaker 1: don't maybe have as powerful of a howl, and then
Speaker 1: multiple females, So you know, another just a different type
Speaker 1: of polycule. One's a little more mormon, one's a little
Speaker 1: more like tumbler.
Speaker 2: Okay, sure.
Speaker 1: They So the living situation actually depends on two of
Speaker 1: the male's body parts, the hyoid bone and the testes.
Speaker 1: So I guess that. I mean, you could say that's
Speaker 1: three body parts. But okay, the hyoid bone and the
Speaker 1: testes testies. I don't know if I need to explain it.
Speaker 3: If I do, if you're I went to school in America,
Speaker 3: can you explain what the testes do?
Speaker 1: The testes are an organ that produce sperm, which are
Speaker 1: the genetic messengers that are used to pass down the
Speaker 1: genes of the male howler monkey hopefully to the next generation.
Speaker 1: So very important. Now, the hyoid bone I probably don't
Speaker 1: even need to explain that. Everyone's familiar with.
Speaker 2: I'm well acquainted with the highway.
Speaker 3: Who among us has not encountered the hyoid bone?
Speaker 2: But I guess, I guess if a young person is listening,
Speaker 2: but maybe the children in the audience who don't know it.
Speaker 1: Yet, A baby out there doesn't know what a hired
Speaker 1: bone is is found in mammals, including humans. You've got
Speaker 1: one too, unless something's wrong and it helps inkor you
Speaker 1: sure you're looking around.
Speaker 2: Reach for your hyoid bone right now.
Speaker 3: Uh oh nosing.
Speaker 1: So it is a bone that helps anchor our tongues,
Speaker 1: lower mouth, and larynx. It's actually the only bone in
Speaker 1: the human body that isn't attached to another bone. If
Speaker 1: everything's proceeding, is typical for human body.
Speaker 2: So just a loose sky just floating around.
Speaker 1: It's a loose guy just floating around. It's attached to muscles,
Speaker 1: not attached to other bones. So it's short of sort
Speaker 1: of shaped like the forehead of an ox. It's got
Speaker 1: these two horn like structures. And the hyoid bone shape
Speaker 1: determines things from like it helps us swallow, It keeps
Speaker 1: our tongues anchored down. It also helps our larynx function.
Speaker 1: And so in these hawler monkeys, the size of the
Speaker 1: hyoid bone, I mean, in all how howler monkey males,
Speaker 1: actually the hyoid bone is quite in large. It's very big.
Speaker 1: And so the bigger the hyoid bone, the louder the call.
Speaker 1: So in haler monkeys that have these really really loud culls,
Speaker 1: and then they basically have this sort of like you know,
Speaker 1: the mormon structure of like one male in a polecule
Speaker 1: with a bunch of females. They have this huge hyoid bone.
Speaker 1: But guys, there's a cust Can you guess what that is?
Speaker 3: I'd imagine that having such a huge high odbone kind
Speaker 3: of limits what else can be done with the vocals.
Speaker 3: Imagine it's howling and maybe nothing else.
Speaker 1: Maybe that I mean, they don't talk for sure, But you.
Speaker 2: Remember how that's the only reason why.
Speaker 1: I mean, you remember when I mentioned these testes. There's
Speaker 1: a simple little rhyme you can use to remember it.
Speaker 1: The louder the call, the smaller the balls. So, uh,
Speaker 1: the testes size is inversely correlated with the hyoid bone size.
Speaker 1: So the bigger the hyoid bone actually the smaller the testes.
Speaker 1: It's called an evolutionary tradeoff. This is actually a pattern
Speaker 1: that you see in multiple species where whether it's a weapon,
Speaker 1: whether it's the loudness of their call. Sometimes when you
Speaker 1: invest heavily into one thing, like say a weapon size,
Speaker 1: or in the case of this howler monkey, the size
Speaker 1: of the hyoid bone, there's a bit of a trade
Speaker 1: off where the testes shrink because you're investing less resources
Speaker 1: into say testes size.
Speaker 2: In the world of video games, we call that min max. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I do like that. The Howler monkey is sort of
Speaker 2: like a self regulating like the developers put in a
Speaker 2: lot of like balancing, so it's like, wow, you can
Speaker 2: really go crazy on the hyoid bone, but then your
Speaker 2: testes are put all your attribute points in the hyoid bone.
Speaker 1: They should have they should have done that in Balder's
Speaker 1: Gate three.
Speaker 3: Yeah right, go nuts or your high eyed bone and
Speaker 3: beg three.
Speaker 1: Because you could see the outcome of those particular character choices. Anyway,
Speaker 1: So the ones that have the smaller hyoid bones but
Speaker 1: larger testies are the ones who live in these groups
Speaker 1: that are more like a tumbler polycule. There's multiple males
Speaker 1: and also multiple females, Whereas the ones with the really
Speaker 1: loud call the big hyoid bone but smaller testes are
Speaker 1: the ones that are more Mormon. There there's the one
Speaker 1: one male. I don't write to me. I know that
Speaker 1: modern Mormonism doesn't do this, but whatever.
Speaker 2: I do, I do like that. The female Hower monkeys
Speaker 2: who go for that big hyoid bone are kind of
Speaker 2: like size queens when it comes to the I need
Speaker 2: a guy just screaming in my ear as loud as
Speaker 2: humanly possible.
Speaker 1: My my sort of philosophy is that everyone's a size queen,
Speaker 1: But it just depends what the size of the thing is,
Speaker 1: you know. Yeah, Like for me, it's empathy. It's the
Speaker 1: size of the empathy that matters.
Speaker 2: Yeah, good answer, good answer.
Speaker 3: I'm glad you told me this in advance, because I
Speaker 3: was gonna I was gonna put that I have a
Speaker 3: huge highway bone in matating profiles, and now I do
Speaker 3: not want to do that anything.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you got to Dmitri when Dmitri starts howling baby. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And so this is really interesting because what is happening here, right,
Speaker 1: why you have these different social groups, is that you
Speaker 1: have a competition happening on different levels. For the species
Speaker 1: where the males have these big hyoide bones, the competition
Speaker 1: is happening with their calls, right, like they and then
Speaker 1: they don't have to compete as much in terms of
Speaker 1: their testes size, right. And I'm not even talking about
Speaker 1: the females like being into big Testies or small testies.
Speaker 1: It is literally when you have smaller testees, you got
Speaker 1: fewer soldiers, right, You have less sperm to play around
Speaker 1: with you can clip that and put that out out
Speaker 1: of context. But yeah, right, it's a numbers game. And
Speaker 1: so if you are mating, if you're a bunch of
Speaker 1: males and say you're mating with the same female, right, uh,
Speaker 1: you want to have more sperm to compete with other
Speaker 1: males and so that it's more likely that one of
Speaker 1: your guys is going to get in there and reach
Speaker 1: the cross the finish line first. So but if you've
Speaker 1: already secured your females, like I have the best death
Speaker 1: browl around and you guys are loyal to me, and
Speaker 1: also I'm intimidating to other males, so they're not going
Speaker 1: to come around and try to fight me, then you
Speaker 1: don't need to compete as much on testes size. So yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean it is. It is a really interesting like
Speaker 1: these howler monkeys really demonstrate this very interesting evolutionary trend
Speaker 1: that you see also from from insects to mammals to fish,
Speaker 1: Like this kind of like trade off thing and sexual
Speaker 1: selection and like the difference between say sperm competition and
Speaker 1: like actual like competition with say weapons or vocals. It
Speaker 1: abounds in animals and maybe Eurovision, I don't know, fellas
Speaker 1: what do you think I.
Speaker 3: Mean, that's a great point. There's now oftentimes there you
Speaker 3: go Oftentimes in Eurovision, you know the people, it's it's
Speaker 3: the visual spectacle gets a lot of hype and people
Speaker 3: tend to forget that it is in fact a song contest.
Speaker 2: But there are some there are.
Speaker 3: Some performances, especially even in this last year. The guy
Speaker 3: who came in fourth place was a way. It was
Speaker 3: a French ballot and not much in terms of staging,
Speaker 3: visual almost nothing, really almost nothing terms of staging. But
Speaker 3: the voice was so peerless. That's got that got him
Speaker 3: all the points he needed to get for fourth place.
Speaker 3: It just goes to show that the voice alone, and
Speaker 3: we've seen this multiple times in Eurovision. People who do
Speaker 3: call what is a parking bark. It's just them nothing else,
Speaker 3: singing into a microphone, and because of the quality of
Speaker 3: that voice, they often find themselves getting great ranking.
Speaker 2: If you've got the goods when it comes to the singing,
Speaker 2: you might be okay. It's one people Eurovision before it's
Speaker 2: best to maybe have a little of both.
Speaker 1: Streamers at least put some streamers.
Speaker 2: In there on do something but like or cover your.
Speaker 1: Drum set and crochet they did that last year or
Speaker 1: this year.
Speaker 2: That's right, do what you gotta do. But sometimes that
Speaker 2: voice is enough.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, no, I mean exactly. So there's trade offs
Speaker 1: in Eurovision. There's trade offs and monkey testes as well.
Speaker 2: So you know, as the old saying goes.
Speaker 1: The old dog goes. Females do also howl, and they
Speaker 1: can be quite loud, but they are usually well basically
Speaker 1: always not as loud as the males, much lessnnoying. And
Speaker 1: but yeah, I mean so it is really interesting because
Speaker 1: it kind of sounds like they're rude, right, they're yelling
Speaker 1: at each other, howling all the time, but actually this
Speaker 1: is something that keeps their aggression and fighting relatively low.
Speaker 1: Like it diffuses tension, it solves conflicts without them having
Speaker 1: to actually resort to violence. So they basically are using
Speaker 1: their words, not their fists, even though their words are
Speaker 1: just like ooo.
Speaker 3: Well, they do often say that Eurovision is the thing
Speaker 3: that has prevented many European wars. Many Europeans say, we
Speaker 3: do eurovisions so we don't fight each other. So there
Speaker 3: is some merit to that idea.
Speaker 1: Yeah, there is, there is, I actually like, even though
Speaker 1: obviously there are still wars and it's I mean, Eurovision
Speaker 1: can get really political. I mean this year's Eurovision got quite.
Speaker 2: Political because frequently does will continue to.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and so like you know, it's a but there
Speaker 1: is something to that, right where essentially what happens in
Speaker 1: terms of animals, right, is that if you can basically
Speaker 1: predetermine who's probably gonna win the fight before you actually fight,
Speaker 1: then you don't have to go through the fighting, right
Speaker 1: like that, And that's kind of a it's sort of
Speaker 1: an interesting sort of theory about like maybe sports, like
Speaker 1: if you have two groups of people and you play
Speaker 1: like some kind of sport or game with each other,
Speaker 1: like and there's even combat styles where sometimes it was
Speaker 1: more like a sport less killing, so that you could
Speaker 1: determine basically, okay, who really is gonna win this, but
Speaker 1: maybe we can do it without killing each other, and
Speaker 1: then whoever wins it, we're just gonna say, like, okay,
Speaker 1: you win, we'll back off, uh, because we don't want
Speaker 1: to die. And even if you win, you don't want
Speaker 1: to incur those casualties. So like humans do do that,
Speaker 1: and now it's become kind of more eurovisiony. But throughout
Speaker 1: our history we've also had conflicts, conflicts where it's like
Speaker 1: kind of like, you know, we're we're just sort of
Speaker 1: like trying to scope out whether we're gonna lose this
Speaker 1: fight really bad.
Speaker 3: I don't know about you, folks, but I want to
Speaker 3: watch the Disney or Pixar or DreamWorks movie about a
Speaker 3: young howler monkey who can't sing.
Speaker 2: He doesn't have the gift, and they.
Speaker 3: All all the other ones are, you know, mocking him
Speaker 3: for not being able to sing. Can't any can't any
Speaker 3: howling him, howling him.
Speaker 2: Down if you will.
Speaker 3: He goes on a worldwide journey to learn about the
Speaker 3: power of song and the music within him, and he
Speaker 3: comes back to become the boss Howler Monkey of all
Speaker 3: this is like an annoyingly plausible pitch for a movie.
Speaker 1: You're just described. I'm really sorry to break this to you,
Speaker 1: but you're literally just describing happy feet.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, Well.
Speaker 3: The good thing is Hollywood is not, how do we say,
Speaker 3: allergic to the idea of repackaging an old idea and
Speaker 3: selling it as.
Speaker 2: A new one.
Speaker 1: Really, I don't know that I.
Speaker 2: Could you could you give one example of this? I've
Speaker 2: never heard of it.
Speaker 1: Okay, we're gonna take a quick break and when we
Speaker 1: get back, we're gonna meet our final contestant, who I
Speaker 1: don't know may surprise you. So, guys, do you like techno?
Speaker 2: I like some technow Yeah, you like you like it.
Speaker 1: When that that thick and soupy bass drops, that is
Speaker 1: usually my favorite part. Yeah. I used to listen to
Speaker 1: Infected Mushroom when I was in high school because I
Speaker 1: that was before I started getting migraines. But no, actually
Speaker 1: quite like, I quite liked it. Like I'm not trying
Speaker 1: to I'm not trying to be mean to techno. Techno
Speaker 1: can be really cool. I love I love some like
Speaker 1: interesting beats there. Uh did you guys know that fruit
Speaker 1: flies seeing sweet romantic techno songs to each other?
Speaker 2: Okay, this is news to me. I don't know. Yeah,
Speaker 2: they made much of a sound besides a buzz even
Speaker 2: kind of they're they're a pest, but they're one of
Speaker 2: the least intrusive pests. They're very small, they don't make
Speaker 2: a lot of noise. And also it's like it's in
Speaker 2: the name. It's like, hey, man, we're here for the fruit. Yeah,
Speaker 2: we're not even here for you.
Speaker 1: No, no, no, We're just here for your bananas that
Speaker 1: you loved out.
Speaker 2: On another animal, another animal that tells you exactly the
Speaker 2: whole story is in the name.
Speaker 1: We got man. We're all three for three on that.
Speaker 1: It's that magnificent friget. I mean, I guess frigate birds
Speaker 1: aren't literally like eating frigates, but they kind of look
Speaker 1: you know.
Speaker 2: I guess, but like.
Speaker 1: It's because they're swift, you know, like they make sure
Speaker 1: they dive verious monkeys. Fruit Flies. Oh sorry, these are
Speaker 1: called the pretty pretty neat fruit flies. That's their home.
Speaker 2: I love it they're being humbled. Yeah, I love managing
Speaker 2: expectations about the fruit.
Speaker 1: Pretty pretty neat fruit also known as the Drosophila melanogaster.
Speaker 1: They they do sing sweet techno songs to each other.
Speaker 1: We usually cannot hear them because they are very very quiet.
Speaker 2: That's about to change. I've been around some flue fruit flies,
Speaker 2: and I have not heard any sweet beets.
Speaker 1: So, but you know, I am going to let you
Speaker 1: listen to this. This is courtesy of a recording by
Speaker 1: Professor Mala Murphy's neuroscience Lab at Princeton. So here we go.
Speaker 3: Okay, all right, so it's pretty minimal, it's pretty. It
Speaker 3: feels a little experimental, but I can get I can
Speaker 3: mess with it. It's the start. It's the start of
Speaker 3: the techno sad like things.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you gotta sample it, you gotta sample it.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I was gonna say, you could sample that and
Speaker 2: make that into something.
Speaker 1: You could totally sample that. So this lab is examining
Speaker 1: these fruit flies and they are like doing this incredible
Speaker 1: mapping of the fruitfly brain. Because fruitflies brains are very
Speaker 1: little and tiny, it presents a great opportunity to be
Speaker 1: able to study it in detail, and specifically, they want
Speaker 1: to look into the decision making behind like when and
Speaker 1: why they drop these sick beats. So, uh, first of all,
Speaker 1: how do they make this like sound that like sort
Speaker 1: of little like like little I guess you'd call it
Speaker 1: kind of like drumming or it just it sounds just
Speaker 1: a little bit like a synthetic beat almost. Yeah, And
Speaker 1: he's doing this by Yeah, he's vibrating his wings. It's
Speaker 1: called stridulation, and he can vibrate each wing independently and
Speaker 1: that can change sort of the the rhythm and the.
Speaker 2: Complex they're playing with that stereo field.
Speaker 1: That's right exactly. And so males serenade females in order
Speaker 1: to get their attention. They want to draw in these
Speaker 1: females without freaking her out, and they will change the
Speaker 1: beat of their song depending on how close he's approaching her,
Speaker 1: whether she's responsive, whether she seems a little bit of skance.
Speaker 1: It's like, rather than just sort of sitting there and
Speaker 1: sending out this call, they are very sensitive to what
Speaker 1: the female is doing, and they'll change their call based
Speaker 1: on her behavior because she ultimately decides whether they may like,
Speaker 1: it's not going to happen without her saying, yeah, let's
Speaker 1: do this, And so he will often spend up to
Speaker 1: twenty minutes, which is like forever in flute fruitfly years.
Speaker 1: So he'll spend twenty minutes wooing her, going through hundreds
Speaker 1: of these sensual beats.
Speaker 2: It was like a year of his life.
Speaker 3: Yeah, okay, So what I'm hearing is this fruitfly male
Speaker 3: values consent and a just base on the needs and
Speaker 3: preferences of a woman green flas. This fruitfly is a gentleman.
Speaker 1: You know, it's fruit fly.
Speaker 2: It's very funny because all three of these animals, it's like, oh, well,
Speaker 2: they make a sound to like attract women, to tract
Speaker 2: females of the species and We're like, what interesting animal
Speaker 2: behavior animals do? And you're like, man, you go to
Speaker 2: any college quad in the entire us, and you're gonna
Speaker 2: see some dickhead with him guitar. It's like, is it
Speaker 2: so different to sing Blackbird on the quad? Yeah, it's very.
Speaker 3: Similar behavior, and you can even change the song based
Speaker 3: on the truly.
Speaker 2: Yes, yes, you get the reverence that we work for you. Well,
Speaker 2: good old fashioned wonder walls waiting us right there.
Speaker 1: Wonderwall's always there for you. It's better than pulling literal
Speaker 1: magic tricks out of your pocket and trying to use
Speaker 1: that to flirt. Actually happened to me.
Speaker 3: This is not oh, this is my life, not wow,
Speaker 3: I'm sorry, I must Was it like a was it.
Speaker 2: A card trick?
Speaker 1: It was a card trick and a little.
Speaker 3: Rope thing, okay, because like a cardon was like, maybe
Speaker 3: you've got a deck of cards if you're good at it.
Speaker 3: But once you have more props than that, I'm like,
Speaker 3: this is a lot to carry around and you're gonna
Speaker 3: pull like.
Speaker 1: A rope out of your pocket when talking to a
Speaker 1: woman you don't know.
Speaker 2: Don't do that. Don't do that.
Speaker 1: I don't do that, sir, And you're gonna a.
Speaker 2: Real trick, is that the woman?
Speaker 1: It's funny because it's scary. So we're talking about these
Speaker 1: fruit flies who they're not scary at all. They're sweet,
Speaker 1: little o beautiful romantics.
Speaker 2: Yeah, these guys can read the room, they really can.
Speaker 1: And they do, and they will increase the complexity of
Speaker 1: the song once they've got the female's attention. Females seem
Speaker 1: to select for males with more complex beats, like and
Speaker 1: it may be an honest signal. So we have, like
Speaker 1: in evolutionary biology, honest signals. That means that when an
Speaker 1: animal is giving off some signal, it is actually uh
Speaker 1: honestly portraying something that is real about them, right, Like
Speaker 1: I am actually quite fit here, So this is an
Speaker 1: honest signal about the male's fitness. A smarter, more physically
Speaker 1: fit male will be able to produce more complex songs. Uh,
Speaker 1: you know, just like DJs. The the more physically fit,
Speaker 1: the more the smarter the DJs, the more fat beats they.
Speaker 2: Can do mm hmm, the harder they can drop that beat.
Speaker 1: That's right.
Speaker 3: Well, that's when they ripped their shirts off and they're
Speaker 3: they're cut, yeah, you know, muscle like that's how you know,
Speaker 3: there's a real genius in there.
Speaker 1: That's right, it's got you know. That's like, there's a
Speaker 1: lot of stuff you do with your arms that I'm
Speaker 1: sure you gotta get a bit of a work out.
Speaker 2: There, got Yeah, you gotta be buffed to crossfade effectively. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So here is the most romantic thing you're ever going
Speaker 1: to hear about a fruitfly. This is a direct quote
Speaker 1: from the head of this lab, Professor Murphy, who says, quote,
Speaker 1: it is a conversation with a back and forth. He
Speaker 1: sings and she slows down, and she turns, and then
Speaker 1: he sings more. He's constantly assessing her behavior to decide
Speaker 1: exactly how to sing. They're exchanging information in this way.
Speaker 1: Unlike a songbird belting out his song from his perch.
Speaker 1: He tunes everything into what she's doing. It's a dialogue.
Speaker 3: Keep talking, all right, Please tell me the romantic novel that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I would like this to be the next Twilight.
Speaker 1: But it's instead of being like a vampire, it's a
Speaker 1: guy who's like fruit fly.
Speaker 2: But where's the harlequin romance fruitfly novel?
Speaker 1: Yeah? Just like you know, like you could have ended
Speaker 1: what is it the Cronenberg's that the fly.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, oh yeah, come on, Jeff Fly.
Speaker 1: What was that movie called guys? Fly turns into the Fly?
Speaker 1: You know, the fly gets into the transporter and so
Speaker 1: he turns into the fly.
Speaker 2: Do you know what that movie is? That was that
Speaker 2: the bug was the guy whose face fell off.
Speaker 3: So yeah, you could have had Jeff Goldbloom making sweet
Speaker 3: beats for Gena Davis.
Speaker 2: You're gonna that would have been a huge hit.
Speaker 1: Geena Davis was so pretty in that movie.
Speaker 2: Also, that's why they got married. They were both incredibly they.
Speaker 1: Were very attractive. I would still consider it with both
Speaker 1: of them even if you had a flyhead.
Speaker 2: Honestly, yeah, I think she probably preferred them with the fly,
Speaker 2: you know.
Speaker 1: I mean, look, if he had a fruitfly brain, right,
Speaker 1: he wouldn't be a monster.
Speaker 2: He'd be there, actually a decent guy.
Speaker 1: Really nice guy, like and not like a nice guy TM,
Speaker 1: like a genuinely nice guy who's like, I am listening
Speaker 1: to you, I am hearing you, and I am changing
Speaker 1: my dialogue in response to your your preferences. So, given
Speaker 1: how simple the fruitfly's brain is, even though it's a
Speaker 1: beautiful brain that all men should aspire to it is
Speaker 1: still capable of incredible complexity. One reason that they're doing
Speaker 1: this study on fruitflies is because it's they're very simple,
Speaker 1: so they can actually map out all these neural networks.
Speaker 1: It's it's really incredible work to be able to pick
Speaker 1: apart how these brains make decisions. So yeah, but also
Speaker 1: it's just it's inspirational. Guys like be be be more fruitfly,
Speaker 1: you know, I mean everyone, let's I shouldn't even be
Speaker 1: like genderest about it. Everyone should be like this fruitfly
Speaker 1: and like listen and dialogue and dance around and drop
Speaker 1: fat soupy beats. I don't know if anyone's ever described
Speaker 1: beats as soupy, but I do.
Speaker 2: Sometimes I will say. It's like, if you've got a
Speaker 2: tiny brain and the only things that end up in
Speaker 2: there are I love fruit, I love making beats, and
Speaker 2: I love attending to my partner. You can do worse
Speaker 2: than those three things.
Speaker 3: You know, there are many creatures with much more complex
Speaker 3: brains who waste their potential. So I think you're also
Speaker 3: in there, Fell, You know.
Speaker 1: That's that's a beautiful message to end on. But but,
Speaker 1: but but before we go, we have to play a
Speaker 1: little game. Sound game, I guess who's squawk? And every
Speaker 1: week I play mystery animal sound and you the listener,
Speaker 1: and you the guests, try to guess who who the
Speaker 1: heck is making that sound. It can be any animal
Speaker 1: in the world, on the world, around the world.
Speaker 2: So this was We've trained up a little bit. We've
Speaker 2: already listened to three different animals this episode, so.
Speaker 1: This the the This one comes from actually an episode
Speaker 1: from I think two weeks ago, the Belly of the
Speaker 1: Beast episode. But if you listen to that episode, My
Speaker 1: hint was just like, if you listen to this episode,
Speaker 1: you'll probably get it. Uh, So you could either go
Speaker 1: back and listen to that episode or if you want
Speaker 1: another hint, because I'm feeling generous here, it is remember
Speaker 1: to say peace and thank you for your meals. Guys.
Speaker 2: I really hope they're drinking water here, all right, don't.
Speaker 2: I don't like how long the second half is.
Speaker 1: Okay, So to get this correct, you not only have
Speaker 1: to guess the animal, but you also have to guess
Speaker 1: what they're doing.
Speaker 2: Okay, okay, mm so there sounds like they're maybe not
Speaker 2: drinking water because.
Speaker 3: You know what, I'm gonna take a while guess all right,
Speaker 3: I'm gonna go nuts and go nuts.
Speaker 2: I think that is a peacock bathing itself.
Speaker 1: Mmm mmm, so we've got some sort of foul bathing
Speaker 1: going on there.
Speaker 2: I think that might be a duck and perhaps they
Speaker 2: are wading into the water or sort of paddling with
Speaker 2: their with their duck fees.
Speaker 1: Okay, so Jeremy, you're half correct.
Speaker 2: This is okay, I'll take it.
Speaker 1: But both of you are not quite right about what
Speaker 1: is happening. What is actually happening is these ducks are frantically,
Speaker 1: frantically a bowl of wet peas.
Speaker 2: I can't believe you.
Speaker 1: Did not You didn't. This is this is the thing,
Speaker 1: is that your your brains are too attuned to your
Speaker 1: vision and not attuned enough to waterfowl. I am just
Speaker 1: as but because you did, both guess at least some
Speaker 1: sort of bird, your prize is. I'm sending you a
Speaker 1: link to the video of the ducks eating a bowl
Speaker 1: of peas, which when I need like a little pick
Speaker 1: me up, right like I'm you know, just throughout the day,
Speaker 1: if I watch this video of ducks eating a bowl piece,
Speaker 1: I feel better. It makes you feel good fast, like
Speaker 1: it's like a little shot a series.
Speaker 2: They really they're all about these.
Speaker 1: Piece going to bowl wet peas. Congratulations.
Speaker 2: They know they know that the bowl is coming, and
Speaker 2: they are like it is go time.
Speaker 1: Oh yes, yes, congratulations to Emily and for writing in
Speaker 1: and guessing correctly. So, guys, some tips about feeding ducks.
Speaker 1: Don't feed them bread. Bread's not good for them. It's
Speaker 1: also just eat the bread. Bread is good. I like it,
Speaker 1: You like it.
Speaker 2: Don It's good good for us, it's good for it,
Speaker 2: well for us emotionally, it's good.
Speaker 1: For it's good for our souls. But like the ducks,
Speaker 1: it's not good for the ducks or for the duck souls.
Speaker 1: Too much bread and they'll get vitamin deficiencies. It's also like, yeah,
Speaker 1: so like there are other nice treats you can feed
Speaker 1: ducks in moderation, including peas. But you can also feed
Speaker 1: them lettuce, corn, grapes, oats, and earthworms, which I saw
Speaker 1: as a suggestion somewhere, And I'm just trying to imagine
Speaker 1: someone going like, technically, yes, that.
Speaker 2: Is true, about to go back, you know.
Speaker 1: What, Just chew them up and spit them directly to
Speaker 1: the duck's mouth. Sure, yeah, that's how you make duck friends.
Speaker 1: All right, so onto this week's mystery animal sound. The
Speaker 1: hint is this. It's a bit of a complicated hint.
Speaker 1: I've actually used this sound before on this very game,
Speaker 1: but it's one of my favorite animal sounds, so longtime
Speaker 1: listeners of the show maybe you'll remember. But I'm pulling
Speaker 1: it out again because I love it. I love this animal,
Speaker 1: I love this sound, and I just feel like this
Speaker 1: should be sampled in some kind of like europop or
Speaker 1: like techno song, so.
Speaker 2: We'll get our best people on.
Speaker 3: I'm glad you said that because the new songs for
Speaker 3: euro Vision twenty twenty five are just now according into
Speaker 3: their natural collections. So yeah, if you're listening artists out there,
Speaker 3: you haven't finished your song unique sound. You need.
Speaker 1: The sound you've been looking for. Or I'm I'm because
Speaker 1: we were talking about your vision. I was saying a
Speaker 1: europop a europop song, but maybe I should say something
Speaker 1: more along the lines of Colombian music because this little
Speaker 1: guy is from the Andes. All right, do you guys
Speaker 1: have any guesses.
Speaker 2: As to what could be making I mean, we can
Speaker 2: work that into a song, is what I'll say.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's a good sound. Isn't it.
Speaker 2: And I'll also say last year I had a fantastic
Speaker 2: song called Lanoya, which was from Italy, but it had
Speaker 2: Cumbia elements, which is of course a Colombian music form.
Speaker 3: So the president is already there and she came in
Speaker 3: I believe she came in seventh, So just saying yeah, same,
Speaker 3: I have no guess this is what this sound is.
Speaker 2: I believe it is some sort of bird.
Speaker 1: All right, Dimitri, you's still going with birds, what about you?
Speaker 2: Jeremy, No, I'm gonna switch it up. I'm gonna say
Speaker 2: this is some sort of weird Colombian. Oh, maybe it's
Speaker 2: one of the I don't know if they're Colombia.
Speaker 1: Should not just stop that sentence there, I'm gonna it's
Speaker 1: a weird Colombian.
Speaker 2: No, no, no, I'm saying, I don't know if they're Columbian.
Speaker 2: But you know those those squirrels from South America that
Speaker 2: are like super colorful. Maybe it's one of those.
Speaker 1: Sure, well, fellas, I'm not going to tell you because
Speaker 1: we're gonna have to find out on next week's episode
Speaker 1: of Creature Feature. That's right, I'm making you wait, where
Speaker 1: we will reveal who is making the sound if you
Speaker 1: think you know and you want to write to me
Speaker 1: or to me at Creature Featurepod at gmail dot com
Speaker 1: with your guesses. You can also ask me animal questions.
Speaker 1: I on occasion will answer your questions on the air
Speaker 1: and special listener questions episodes. Sometimes I'll respond directly to
Speaker 1: your email, depends on how rejuvenated I am that day
Speaker 1: by the video of ducks eating peas. But yes, please
Speaker 1: write to me or if you have cute pictures of
Speaker 1: your pets or if you have that you feed peas too,
Speaker 1: I want to hear about it. Guys, thank you so
Speaker 1: much for joining me today. Where can people find in
Speaker 1: Just go and listen to their Eurovision podcasts.
Speaker 2: It's very easy to find wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 2: Eurovangelists is the name. We've got new episodes every week
Speaker 2: and the new Eurovision and the new Eurovision season starts
Speaker 2: in literally next month. We will start hearing new songs.
Speaker 1: And it's happening.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's all. It's nearly upon us. But we also
Speaker 2: have many episodes about Eurovision history. We did a whole
Speaker 2: series of three episodes where we ranked all of the
Speaker 2: twenty first century Eurovision winners, which might be a good
Speaker 2: entry point for people who are like, what's this thing
Speaker 2: all about?
Speaker 3: We also cover We also cover subjects that we just
Speaker 3: kind of want to speculate on, and group songs together.
Speaker 2: We most recently did.
Speaker 3: An episode about Eurovision's guilty Pleasures, the songs we like
Speaker 3: but arguably we shouldn't, so we do. Also it's a
Speaker 3: fun stuff. You can also find us on the Instagram.
Speaker 3: You're Evangelist is right there on Instagram. We do all
Speaker 3: sorts of fun little updates, news. Sometimes we do the
Speaker 3: occasional giveaway of Eurovision and or your Evangelist merch.
Speaker 2: So yeah, we're everywhere. You can find us. You're Evangelist everywhere.
Speaker 1: Of course to meet you. And he's talking about guilty
Speaker 1: songs that they shouldn't like, but do you like. He is,
Speaker 1: of course talking about the power ballad about committing war crimes.
Speaker 2: Time history. That's not my pick. I like the silly songs.
Speaker 1: Guys, Thank you so much for listening. If you're enjoying
Speaker 1: the show and you leave a rating review, you know
Speaker 1: that I love it. You know I read all of
Speaker 1: them and I absorb your comments like a happy little sponge.
Speaker 1: And thanks to the space Cussics through their super awesome
Speaker 1: song ex Alumina. Creature features a paraduction productionon of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 1: For more podcasts like the One Who Just Heard, visit
Speaker 1: the iHeartRadio app Apple Podcasts, or Hey guess what you
Speaker 1: listen to your favorite shows. I don't judge you. I'm
Speaker 1: not your mother. I can't tell you what to do,
Speaker 1: but you know, try to eat some peas along with
Speaker 1: your bread. See you next Wednesday.