WeWow on the Weekend: Boarding School Memories and Hermit Crab Houses!

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Hey, Wowzer fams. Mindy here. And before we start the show, did you know that you can listen to your favorite songs from wow in the World all summer long? That's right, Reg. Whether you can't stop singing Oops, I slipped on a penguin or you can't stop dancing to the scientifically most danceable song in the world, you can now listen again and again and again on your favorite music player. Just search wow in the world in your music app. Oh, good point, Reg. And if you're looking for more, for more summer jams from your favorite Tinkercast podcasts, you can find songs from Flippin Mosey and Once Upon a Beat. Wherever you get your music, that's it. And now a quick ad break, and then back to the show.

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Ah, ah, ah, ah. We wow on the weekend. We wow on the weekend. We wow on the weekend. Cause this is what we do on the weekend. Talking, laughing, me and Reggie singing, laughing. And then we. Oh, wait, no, I said laughing twice. Whatever. We wow on the weekend. Yeah, we wow on the weekend. We wow on the weekend. Cause this is what we do on the weekend. Hello and welcome to Wee Wow on the Weekend. I'm your host, Dennis, and that's Reggie. Yes, Reggie the giant pigeon. Right, Reggie the giant pigeon with a black belt and karate. We're here in my mother's basement bringing you wow and wonder on Saturdays and Sundays. That's right, Reggie. This show is super casual. We're still in our jim jams. See, mine have little Reggies on them, and Reggies have little Dennis's on them. Anyway, how's about we get to it and answer some of the many, many yo, many banana fan and fo fanny questions from our devoted listeners? That's right, Reggie. It's time for the Q and A segment. The Q and A segment. All right, let's just get the old answering machine pulled up here. Okay, Here we go. Hi, you've reached Dennis from WEW on the Weeknd. That's me. Do you have a question? Well, I do, too. Lots of them. And who's gonna answer all my questions?

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You?

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Probably not, but I guess I can answer yours. Leave me a message.

C

Hi, Dennis. We love your show. I'm Galilee. And I'm Genevieve, and we're from Portland, Oregon. We have a question. Our question is, does dog's fur grow the same as humans? Bye.

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Does dog's fur grow the same as human? Humans? Uh, humans don't have fur, Reggie. That's not fur. That's hair. Ah, quit looking at my arm. Fur. Next question.

C

Hi, I'm Noah from Calgary, Alberta, Canada. And my question is in getting nosy about the science of smell. You said that you went to boarding school. What boarding school did you go to?

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What boarding school did I go to? Well, Noah, I'm a proud alumnus of Count Montague's School for Nosy Little Children. I studied many important subjects. Snooping, prying, busy body studies. And the history of listening at closed doors with a cup pressed to your ear. And I was awarded Eavesdropper of the month seven times. Where'd you go to school, Reggie? Yale. No, you did not. Oh, whatever. Next question.

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Hi, Dennis. I'm Emma and I live in Charleston, South Carolina. I don't have a question, but I have a riddle. What do you call cheese that isn't yours?

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Oh, it's. It's. Let's see. Oh, brie. Brie. Because it rhymes with me. Oh, no, you're right. That can't be it. Don't tell me, don't tell me, don't tell me. What are cheeses? What are cheeses? Gargonzola. Gargonzola. No, no. Cheddar. Cheddar. Pepper Jack. Pepper jacks. Pepper Jack. Swiss. Pepper jack. Swiss cheese. Queso. Queso fresco. Parmesan, Gruyere, Harvardi. Stilton. Polish Sheep's milk.

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Cheese. The answer is nacho cheese.

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Nacho cheese. Emma, are you sure that's a cheese? Oh, nacho cheese. Like nachor cheese. Ah, that is good. Now I'm hungry. Yeah, we better move on so we can go make nachos soon. Thanks for your calls, everyone. If you've got a question for me, call and leave me a message. The number is 1-888-7-WOW. Wow. I just might answer your question on Wee Wow on the weekend. O. That takes care of that. All right, next up is a little segment I like to call Inside Tinkercast Studios. Inside Tinkercast Studios. This is the part where we revisit an episode of one of my favorite Tinkercast shows. And this weekend, we're revisiting episodes from the very first season of wow in the World. Today we're doing a story from episode four called the Hermit Crab Housing crisis. Oh, good question, Reggie. Are hermit crabs crabs or hermits? Hmm. I'm gonna say crabs because I don't know what a hermit is. Is it a type of frog? Oh, right. No. Well, let's play the episode. Okay, here we go. And play.

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Wee wow will be right back. Grown ups, this message is for you.

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Hey grown ups. Mindy here. And it should come as no surprise that I love talking to people. I do it every Friday on two. What's in a People who Wow Edition? And I've got to tell you about something else designed to bring the joy of conversation back to kids. It's called Pinwheel Home and it's a modern take on the landline phone. The Pinwheel Home is just like the phones you remember, except it connects using your wifi and plugs into a regular Wal Wall outlet. Plus, adults approve all contacts so you don't get strangers or spam calls. And calls to other Pinwheel Homes are free so you can talk to all your friends. Pinwheel Home lets kids safely connect with their friends and family. Plus it builds conversation skills and promotes independence. Visit pinwheel.com wow to learn more. That's P I N w h e l.com wow to learn more. That's it. Now back to the show.

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What in the world

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you Go get him, Scrappy. Don't give up the fight. You're a fierce little hermit crab with a broken shell and abs of steel.

E

What the.

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Give him your best shot.

E

What are you doing, Mindy?

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Oh, hey, Guy Raz. I'm just watching an episode of House Hunters Hermit Crab Scene Smackdown Edition. It's a real estate reality show mixed with professional wrestling, and it stars Hermit Krabs.

E

Okay, and so why are you watching it with the TV turned off?

A

Oh, that's because it doesn't exist. So I'm watching it in my head.

E

Okay, so you're sitting in front of a blank TV shouting at it and cheering on a hermit crab trying to

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fight for the ultimate dream shell to call home. Here. Do you want to take a peek inside and see for yourself?

E

Uh, just of your head.

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Here, I'll do it for you.

E

Whoa.

F

And in this corner, Hulk Hermit With a shell so strong you could bounce a nickel off it.

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Tell me what you see.

E

Well, I see one very confident looking hermit crab in a wrestling ring in the middle of a suburban neighborhood where all the homes are shells.

A

Oh, this is where all the action happens.

F

And in this corner, we have cranky crab meister with a broken shell and an attitude to match.

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What else do you see?

E

And now I'm seeing another hermit crab. Yeah, yeah, that's Crabby Crabmeister dragging himself into the ring. He does not look happy. In fact, I think his shell might be. It looks like it might be really heavy for him to carry. Is that the one you were rooting for, Mindy? Because I don't think he's gonna make it, that other hermit crab.

A

Oh, Hulk Hermit.

E

Yeah, Hulk Hermit definitely has the advantage here. Just look at his beautiful shell. It's just stunning.

A

Okay, pause the imagination.

E

Ah, Mindy. We were just getting to the good part. They were about to fight for the title of the ultimate dream shell to call home.

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Well, that's Guy Raz. If you had to place a bet on which of those two hermit crabs would win the shiniest, strongest shell in the end, who would you pick?

E

Mindy. Without question, it would be Hulk Hermit. He just looks like a winner. Definitely had the upper claw. The other one.

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Crabby Crabmeisters.

E

Yeah, that one. He was just kind of falling apart. His shell was cracked and he could barely even carry it into the ring.

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Well, Guy Raz, the results of this match might just surprise you.

E

Oh, really?

A

Have you ever want so badly that you would do whatever it took to have it or achieve it, Even if it seemed like a major stretch?

E

Oh yeah, like the time I tried to order a kale salad at KFC and they called the police.

A

That really happened? Uh, nevermind, don't answer that. Anyway, so it's the same thing with hermit crabs.

E

How so?

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Well, two scientists, one from the University of Mexico and one from Texas A and M University here in the US recently spent a lot of time with hermit crabs.

E

That certainly seems like time well spent.

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And after getting to know these tiny little hard shelled creatures, they started to notice a few things.

E

Like what?

A

Well, like the fact that much like we humans, hermit crabs just want to have a nice place to live.

E

Like with a pool and a two crab garage?

A

No, like a really nice shell.

E

Oh. So how do they find them?

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Well, basically by Fighting for it.

E

Hence the hermit crab cul de sac wrestling ring reality show happening inside your head.

A

Exactly. So as anyone who has ever had a hermit crab for a pet knows, hermit crabs basically spend their whole entire lives just looking to move on up in the world. They're constantly on the hunt for better fitting shells that are strong and free of cracks and will last a long time until they're ready to move it on up again.

E

And if there are two hermit crabs living together and one of them has a nice roomy shell and the other one has a damaged, smaller shell, then the one with the crummier shell is willing to to fight for the other hermit crab's shell.

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You got it, Guy Raz. The hermit crab with the messed up shell will straight up try to kick the luckier crab out of his lap of luxury shell and not even apologize.

E

And they're doing all of this without any lawyers getting involved.

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Guy Raz, the scrappy hermit crab will walk right up to the lucky hermit crab and start banging like cr. Then that hermit crab will get all annoyed and start fighting back. And in the end, only one hermit crab gets to call the shell home. Because they're basically like one bedroom hermit crab studio apartments.

E

Well, that doesn't seem very fair.

A

I never said hermit crab life was fair, Guy Raz.

E

Well, what's so bad about having a cracked shell anyway? I mean, isn't there beauty and imperfections?

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Well, that's one of the things that these scientists set out to discover. So one of the things that they began to notice was that when hermit crabs have broken shells, they themselves are in pretty bad shape as well.

E

Like their health.

A

Yeah, they become really unhealthy and weak.

E

And all of this is because of their cracked shells?

A

Yep. A bad shell can make a hermit crab really miserable. And by miserable, Guy Raz, I mean crabby. You get it? You get it?

B

Uh huh.

A

Ugh, nevermind.

E

But does it make the hermit crab even more determined to want to leave his or her shell and find a new one?

A

Well, that's exactly what these scientists were thinking. Thinking. So they started to experiment.

E

And what did they do?

A

Well, they set up a hermit crab wrestling arena.

E

You're making this up, Mindy.

A

Well, not entirely. They got a bunch of hermit crabs off the coast of Mexico. Some had broken shells, and some shells were fully intact.

E

And then what did they do?

A

They gave them all awesome wrestling names.

E

No, they didn't.

A

Okay, fine. But they did put them in a tiny wrestling ring. And in one corner of the ring, they put one Scrappy hermit crab with a sad little broken shell.

E

And in the opposite corner of the

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ring, they put a strong, healthy hermit crab with a pretty good shell.

E

And in the middle, in the middle

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was a glowing, strong, shiny, roomy, lap of luxury shell that the scientist had attached to a thread.

E

A hermit crab's dream home.

A

You know it.

E

And then they throw fought for the new shell.

A

They did. And the thread attached to the shell was also attached to a pulley and a dynamometer, which is a special device that measures force or power.

E

And that was so they could measure which hermit crab was the strongest.

A

Yep. And then they had pairs of hermit crabs wrestle each other. And once again, two with broken shells, two with intact shells. And who do you think came out the the strongest?

E

Mindy, I'm gonna place all my money on the underdogs here. I'm gonna guess that the broken shelled hermit crabs proved to be stronger.

A

Welp, you'd think that what doesn't break you makes you stronger, but that's just not the case here.

E

I really thought this story would have a happier ending.

A

Who says that this is the end? These scientists discovered that in the case of hermit crabs, what doesn't break you makes you scrappier. Meaning while they don't have the muscle strength to beat their opponents in a fight, what they do have is the sheer raw willpower to match their opponents when going for what they want.

E

Okay, so you're saying they can win the fight for the best shell just because they're willing to fight so intensely for it?

A

Yep. And as it turns out that after living for a long time in these old broken shells, these hermit crabs value the better life that a new shell would bring them so much that they're motivated to fight harder than even the strongest hermit crabs around.

E

And they ultimately win the title of world's best shell.

A

Not always. But their chances of winning are way better than their general health and muscle strength would suggest.

E

So now I'm dying to see who wins the hermit crab dream shell in that reality show you were watching in your head.

A

Ready to pop the top?

E

Nope.

A

Okay, I'll do it.

F

He may be little, he may be weak, but using tenacity and sheer aggression, I give you your champion. The underdog, crabby Crabmeister.

B

I did it.

F

He will trade his crab shack for a spacious four bedroom shell with a swimming pool and indoor tennis court. Such luxury.

E

Knew he had it in him. It's just too bad they can't share.

A

Yeah, I agree. But you know what they say about crabs. Guy Raz they're very shellfish crabsolutely Mindy.

F

Oh wow.

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That episode made me really emotional, Reggie. Because I'm just like that underdog hermit crab. Reggie. No, not because I smell like a crab. Because I'm scrappy and independ. And it's only a matter of time before I get my dream home with a pool and indoor tennis court. Well, let's wrap this up. Thank you everyone for listening to this episode of Wee Wow on the Weeknd. If you have a question for me, call and leave me a message at 1-888-7-WOW-WOW. That's 1-888-7-WWOW. I just might answer your question on Wee Wow on the weekend. Hey Reggie, should we do the goodbye song? Okay, that's the end of the show. I'm not scared cause I'm a really strong crab and I'll do another show tomorrow. But for now that's the end of the show. Bye.