Hello, Wowsers.
Gladness?
Reggie, now, not basketball tournament stuff. March Gladness tournaments stuff.
“Yeah, exactly. March Gladness is where I think of all the things that made me the Gladness”
this month, and then I put him head to head and a tournament style bracket. Oh, so you do know what I'm talking about. Well, then as you know, the winner of my much Gladness tournament was my new haircut. Do you love it? What do you mean? Don't worry, it'll grow back. Whatever, Wowsers fans, you too can fill out your very own March Gladness
bracket by going to ticacast.com/march. There, you can print your very own free March Gladness
bracket. Then fill it out to see what made you the Gladness this month. Put your favorite things head to head in a tournament of Gladness. One more time, that's tinkercast.com/march. Now, let's get on with the show. We were on the weekend, we were on the weekend, because this is what we do on the weekend. Talking, laughing, me and Reggie, losing and laughing, and then laughing twice. Whatever, we were on the weekend, because this is what we do on the weekend.
Hello and welcome to We Were On the weekend. I'm your host, Dennis. And that's my co-host,
Reggie, the giant pigeon. This is the show where we hang out and chat and listen to episodes of ticacast podcasts. Hey Reggie, want to play a game real quick? Oh come on, just real quick. I want to play ice-buy. What? I do not cheat at ice-buy. That's a lie. Hey, I'll play fair. Promise promise. Yes, okay, here we go. I spy with my little eye. Something blue. No, it's not your feathers. Guess again. No, it's not the rug. No, not my jar of blue
raspberry jelly beans. Give up. It was this tiny piece of blue lint in my pocket. See, I win. Okay, you're turn. You spy with your little eye. Someone who's chaining at ice-buy. Well, I have no idea to whom or what you could be referring. Let's just move on to the Q&A segment. The Q&A segment. All right, let's just give the L answering machine hold up here. Okay, here we go.
“Hi, you've reached Dennis from We Were On the weekend. That's me. Do you have a question?”
Well, I do too. Lots of them. And who's gonna answer all my questions? You? Probably not. But I guess I can answer yours. Leave me a message. Hello. My name is Robin, I live in East Hawaii, Argentina. Hi, Domino. Dennis, why are strawberries red? Why are strawberries red? Oh, I know this one. Yeah, it's because they're embarrassed. Well, strawberries don't have the risk of a raspberry,
or the cool mysterious vibes of a blueberry. So, they're kind of blushing about it. Which is actually pretty cute. But, in various strawberries, it's not the important question here.
“I think the more important question is, what's the deal with gooseberries?”
Make us, Reggie. They don't look anything like a goose. Oh, wait. Do gooseberries turn you into a goose when you eat them? Huh? They don't. See? I think this just proves my point. Go, Sparys. I'm out of here. Next question. Hi, I'm Elijah and I'm from Maple and New Jersey. Hi, Elijah. My question is, how do you understand Reggie? How do I understand Reggie? Good question, Elijah. It's actually quite simple.
I just listen to him and understand what he says.
explaining it than I am. Reggie, you want to take this one? Uh-huh. Uh-huh.
“Social cognition, right? Wow, I couldn't have put it better myself. Thanks, Reggie.”
Next question. Hi, Dennis. Get a lot of butterflies or our own butterflies. Even though they are not need a butterfly. Wow, Reggie. Question. Do I know why butterflies are called butterflies? Even though they are not made out of butterflies. Hmm. Maybe butterflies smell like butterfly? Reggie. Do butterfly smell like butterflies? No. Okay. Well, maybe they make butterflies then? Reggie. Do butterflies
turn butterflies and that's where butterflies comes from? No, right? Um, well, maybe butterflies eat
butter. Reggie, do butterflies? Okay, they don't eat butter. They eat nectar. Well, maybe it was a typo? Like maybe butterflies were supposed to be named Flutter-Bies because they flutter on
“by you, but someone wasn't paying attention and wrote down butterfly instead. Yeah, like a happy little”
accident. It was a happy accident, a happy accident, someone messed up, but that's okay. Well, that's enough voicemails for now. Listeners, if you've got a question for me, call and leave
me a message. The number is 1, 8, 8, 8, 7. Wow. Wow. That's 1, 8, 8, 8, 7. Wow. Wow. I just might answer
your question on WeWow. One though. We can. That takes care of that. Okay. Next is a little segment I like to call inside Tinkercast Studios. Um, inside Tinkercast Studios. This is the part where we listen to an episode of one of my favorite Tinkercast podcasts. And today we're listening to season three episode 21 of "Wow in the World" called "Getting Noesie" about the science of smell. Hey, I'm in this one. Yeah, I yell a bunch of helpful information over the fence.
I know. Guy Ross and Mimby are so lucky to have me listening in on their every word. Okay, here we go. And, thank you. WeWow will be right back, grownups, this message is for you. That's it, now back to the show. Now, get your free smells by one step and get away three. I'm talking to you here people.
Who wants to bring me? What are you doing? The sun's not even up. You're going to wake up the whole neighborhood. And it's about time, wake up, stable. Good morning, Guy Ross. Can I interest you in a jar of freshly ground coffee? Uh, well, and as long as I'm up, might as well take you up on that offer. You just stay right there. I've got to grab my robe and it'll be down in a minute. Who wants some fresh outers? I've got to make a frying.
Freshly cut grass. Blow it out for a fake candle. Coal out there. Okay, maybe I'm up and out. How about that jar of freshly ground coffee? Oh, sure. Uh, Reggie one jar of freshly ground coffee? Here you go, Guy Ross. That will be
“free 99 plus tax. Mindy? Yeah. Uh, this is just an empty jar. Where's the coffee?”
Uh, it's in the jar. Mindy, I know what coffee looks like in. I can assure you that there is nothing in this jar. Well, that's because smells are invisible, Guy Ross. It smells. Yeah, if you want your freshly ground coffee smell, you're going to have to open that jar. You woke me up and got me out of bed for nothing. Open the jar, Guy Ross. Okay. And a visible coffee. What's next? Mindy, this jar won't open. That's because I put a child
proof lid on it. Here, let me take a crack at it. There, your freshly ground coffee smell. You weren't kidding, Mindy. This coffee smell is almost as good as the real thing.
Uh, now where is the real thing?
What? You've coffee? Oh boy, do I ever? I have fresh single origin beans
“imported from Peru's Kahamarkar region, hand picked and sorted, fully washed and sun-dried,”
roasted to perfection. And here we have a... Oh, my craft. Never mind, I don't have coffee.
Mindy, are all of these empty jars filled with odors? Yeah, I mean, look here we've got the smell of wet clothes left in the washing machine for three days. And this one is that super specific convenient store smell. And this one over here is rotten eggs. Oh, that one smells like Uranus. What? What? Uranus, the planet. It's made up of gas called hydrogen sulfide, bears an uncanny resemblance to rotten eggs. Let's surprise you, didn't know that.
Oh, okay. Well, scientifically speaking, he's not wrong. Thanks, Dennis. You welcome. So, Mindy, do you have any good odors in these jars? Yeah, um, let's see here. Oh, try this one. Uh, what is that? The smell of a pile of dirt? Dirt? No, you're smelling beads. You know that purple root vegetable that you roast in the oven
and eat on salads. Turns your poop, pink. Oh, you know, for some reason, beads have always
smelled like dirt to me. What else you got? Oh, let me... Oh, I know. Here, try this one.
“What do you think? I think that one might be completely empty, Mindy.”
Actually, Guy. I can smell it from here. It's Lily of the Valley. Yeah, your right, Dennis. This one is Lily of the Valley. Lily of the Valley. As in that highly poisonous woodland flowering plant. Exactly. My mother would wear the scent every fall as I left home for boarding school. She said it signified the return of happiness. How my mother loved boarding school? What is he talking about, Mindy? Okay, so the scent of Lily of the Valley is one of those smells
that skin care and beauty product companies are always trying to recreate. Demene for like
perfumes and soaps and loathings. Yeah, it contains this chemical called burgeonal and for a lot of people like Dennis, even a tiny droplet of this stuff can smell super intense. But what about
“for people like me who can't smell it at all? Well, you're not a long guy, Oz. You see,”
this geneticist named Casey Trimmer. She got together with the team of researchers at the Monel Chemical Census Center in Philadelphia and Rockefeller University in New York City. And she and her team set out to find out why different people smell different things differently. And just to be clear, a geneticist is the type of scientist who studies how certain features are passed down from different generations of people, right? Right. Like how I inherited my mother's
sense of smell and my great grandfather's sense of entitlement. So I'm wondering, did Dr. Trimmer and her team suspect that genes or what makes you you and Mimi have some kind of role to play in the way different people experience different smells? You know it, so she and her fellow researchers decided to conduct a little scientific experiment. Who? I love a little scientific experiment. What do they do? Well, I could tell you. Yeah. But I'd rather show you. Come on,
help me lug all these smells to the old factory in my backyard. Oh, factory in India isn't the old factory system literally your sense of smell? Yeah, but while you're sleeping, I built a literal old factory in my backyard. I wanted to have a place where I could bottle up and reproduce all my smells. How long was I sleeping? Oh boy, finally something I can help with. Let me consult my eavesdropper on my neck. Okay, let's see, says here. 10 p.m.
Guy began snoring loudly. Then 205 a.m. Guy mumbles in coherently in his sleep. In 331 a.m. Guy wakes up and reads a text message I sent him. 10 p.m. 334. Guy text back. New phone, who this? 335. I paid. Wait, wait, wait, just a minute. Before we dive in any stinky experiments, can we just talk about our old factory sense or how we humans are able to smell in the first place? Sure, let me see your nose here,
Guy Ross.
odor detecting receptors. Now let's count them. One, two, three, four. You know the old thing,
“you can pick your friends, you can pick your nose, and you can pick your best friends,”
nose and a pinch. That is not how that's saying goes. Well as I was saying, our noses are full of these little teeny tiny smell receptors, just waiting to catch the tiny molecules that come in through the air that we breathe. And then what happens? So when we breathe in those molecules through our noses, depending on the molecule, different receptors will activate or wake up and then work together to send that odor message to our brains. Our brains then process that smell and let us
know whether it's good or bad. Like freshly baked cookies, they're a sweaty sock. Yeah, these receptors can also tell you whether the smell is recognizable or unrecognizable.
Like the smell of your own house, or a food you've never tried before. And of course they can
also tell you whether what you're smelling is safe or unsafe. Safe like newborn babies, or unsafe like the smell of harmful chemicals. You got it, our ability to smell is how our noses help us to make sense of the world around us. And how many smells or sense or odors can our body's olfactory system actually detect? Gyros, the human nose, just like this one hanging off your face here. Gyros, your nose has the power to tell the difference between at least one
trillion different smells. And I'm working on getting one of each of them bottled up in my new backyard olfactory.
“Mindy, humid a life-size model of a human nose. Wait, is that supposed to be my nose?”
Surprise! I don't know how I'm supposed to feel about this. Come on, let's go inside. Is there a door? A door? In a nose? Uh, the nostrils are more. We're going to climb in like the
giant odor molecules that we are. What? I'll climb in first and then I'll pull you up, okay?
You, I'm on my hand. Andy, why is it so sticky in here? Sorry, I guess I forgot to tell you that we would be welcome to buy a thick layer of mucus, but it will all be worth it when we get to the factory part. Just walk, walk, walk, walk, cross, ah, mate stepping through the smell receptor laser gaze. Analyzing odor, beef dog, beef dog? Ah, yeah, I installed a bunch of smell receptor sensors in the old factory, and for some reason every time I enter it, it recognizes me as the smell of a beef dog.
Do I smell like a beef dog? Okay, Mindy, this is surprisingly high tech. Thank you very much. Well, what is it going to think that I smell like? Well, why don't you pass through the smell receptor and see for yourself? Okay, passing through. Analyzing odor, Italian white ruffles and
“fresh uni. What? I think I need to do over. No time for doovers, Mr. Truffle pants, Oony face. Don't”
you want to see the rest of the old factory? Now this is where magic happens. All of the machines you see here are bottling up millions of different smells from dirty hot dog water to newborn happy smell. And you built all of this while I was sleeping last night. Well, yeah, with a little help
for Reggie. Okay, a lot of help for Reggie. Okay, fine, Reggie, basically built the whole thing while
I eat crunchips and watch TV. Some indie you were saying earlier that those researchers at
Rockefeller University conducted a little scientific experiment to see why so...
experience smells differently. Oh, yeah, that's right. And I wanted to recreate that experiment
“here in the old factory. Great, so do we have everything we need? Let's see here, we've got 150 jars”
and different smells ready to go. Okay, so assorted odors. And that's pretty much all we need. Oh, right. Oh, how can I forget? Thanks, Reg. We're also going to need 300 people. 300 people, how are we going to get 300 people in your backyard nose factory? Easy. We're going to get them to participate by giving them something for free. People have free stuff. Free smells. Of course. You're whipping up what I put down, Guy Ross. Be right back. And 10 neighbors. Today only we're giving away
free smells. So get them all the last. And, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, okay, I'm back. No luck getting 300 people to take you up on your offer of free smells, huh? Well, you know, uh, everyone, please come in one at a time. Be civilized. Okay, have a seat. Yep, just have a seat right there. Free smells. Can you believe it? I hope my free smell is sea breeze. I want lemon tarts.
“I need everyone. Just be patient. The free smells are coming. In the what is happening?”
I told you, Guy Ross. I'm just recreating the experiment that was conducted by the researchers in the study. Excuse me, will these free smells be good smells like cool mountain air and freshly baked bread or will they be bad smells like toots, farts, and flaccilots? They seem pretty restless for the free smells. You promised, Mindy. I think we better get started. Okay, um, uh, good morning, everyone. And, welcome to Mindy's old factory and odor and pouring. Now, before I give each of you the free smells that I
promised, I am going to need you to participate in a little scientific experiment.
Mindy and Liz, there's a catch. There's always a catch. I'd like to introduce you to my
lab assistants, Guy Ross, and Reggie. Say hi. Hi. Now, throughout the course of this experiment, Reggie and Guy Ross here will be bringing out 150 jars of different odors or as I like to call them, smells. I will instruct you on what smells to try and then on a sheet of paper, you will rate the intensity of each odor on a scale of one to seven. One being that you find the odor extremely weak and seven being that you find the odor extremely strong. And I'm assuming three
or four if it's somewhere in the middle. You got to Guy Rossie. Next on a scale of one to seven, you will rate how pleasant you found the odor to be. One, if you found it to be extremely unpleasant and seven, if you found it to be extremely pleasant. Let's do this. Reggie, bring on the smell. Wow. Wow. That's a lot of odor, Mindy. Friends and neighbors, what you're looking at here are 150 different odors collected, bottled, and in some cases,
produced by yours truly. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. And now let the experiment begin.
Now Reggie, Reggie is this really happening right now. First odor of business is cilantro.
Guy Ross, please open the jar and release the odor. Okay. And now I need everyone to take a throw sniff and rate its intensity and pleasantness on a scale of one to seven. Oh, are you sure
“that cilantro, Mindy? It smells like soap. I think Reggie begs to disagree Guy Ross. Next up,”
opening the jar of pee odor from a person who's been eating asparagus. And everybody's sniff. Oh, gross. I was like normal pee to me. Now please rate your findings and feel free to
Conclude any notes you'd like to add.
Guy Ross, go ahead and open the odor. Okay, please be something pleasant. Please be something
pleasant. The next odor of business is Dad sweating after losing a game of forgetball smell.
“Oh, wait, there's actually a scientific name for this odor. I think it's called”
in Prostano and while some people find it pungent and gross, how other people think it smells like vanilla or they can't smell it at all. And last but not least, drum roll please. Guy Ross, please open the jar of human tooth. The tooth? Not just in your tooth, Guy Ross. This is a certified and licensed grade a gluten-free USDA approved or organic Mindy tooth. You bottled your own tooth?
Sure did. And there's more where that came from. Oh no, don't tell me. Here's what most humans
I average about 15 tooth today. And for the last 30 days, I have bottled every single one of them. Which means? Which means that every single person in this old factory is going to take home
“their own jar of certified organic Mindy tooth. Wow, humans really will take anything”
and it's pretty. But there's a catch. Before any of you leave here today and before I give each one of you your free jar of tooth, I'm going to need a small jar of your blood. What? No. Anything for science, Guy Ross. There are limits to that Mindy. What are
of limits? Maybe you can invite people to your giant backyard nose factory and take their blood.
If I don't take everyone's blood then how am I supposed to reenact and show you the rest of the experiment? You know what? Why don't you just give these people their free smells and let them go and then you can just tell me what happened after the researchers took the blood samples. Fine. Everyone, please line up, single file, and get your free smells. I'm for you. I'm for you. Thank you very much for participating in our study.
I'm for you. I'm for you. I'm for you. Reggie, I'm going to come over here and take over. My arm is getting tired from lifting all these jars of tooth. Okay, so let's these framed and professional scientists working in an actual laboratory took the blood samples from the people who participated in the study. What did they do with them? Oh, so Dr. Trimmer and her team took the blood samples back to another lab and then they studied the DNA of each person. And by DNA you mean
the instruction manual for our bodies. Right. And those DNA instructions are what make you you and me me. And in this experiment, the scientists wanted to get a good look into each person's
“blood so that they could study that instruction manual. And what were they looking for?”
Well, they were looking for and comparing different genes in each person's factory system. The system of the body that helps us to smell. Right. And what they found was pretty wow. Oh yeah, what did they discover? They discovered that even the timeiest change in even one of the 400 olfactory receptors, meaning those little smell sensors that send messages to our brains after catching older molecules. Yeah, they found that even the timeiest change could
completely change the way one person experienced a certain smell compared to another person. So that would explain why Dennis could smell that lily of the valley plant and I could smell nothing at all. Or why I might be smelling beads and you think you're sniffing dirt? Or why some people might smell sweat? Well, other people think they're smelling vanilla. Or why I might smell parmesan cheese and you might smell hang on gotta get the jar open. You've got to smell this
guy Ross. Okay, here we go. Smell this. Oh, that smells like vomit. Thanks to your DNA, it does, but I can assure you that this is parmesan cheese smell. I wonder if it works the other way around.
Smitty, better we know that even the timeiest changes to our smell sensing ol...
change the way a person experiences smell. What can we do with this discovery? Well, according
“to Dr. Trimmer, just knowing this is going to help us to better understand how smell might”
affect our overall health. Yeah, I imagine our sense of smell actually plays a pretty big role in why we choose the foods that we do. Yeah, but don't go around thinking you can just blame your DNA on why you like or don't like every smell. Believe me, I try it. Yeah, there can be lots of different things that can affect the way we perceive or experience smell. Yeah, for example, the way we interpret smell is related to the same part of our brain that holds memories,
and that plays a big role in how we're able to taste or smell different foods. Speaking of which, are you catching a whiff of that smell coming from outside? Yeah, but who would be grilling at this hour of the morning? Probably someone who was woken up before the sun and who's body clocked now thinks it's lunchtime. Well, there's only one way to find out through this naughty nasal cavity. To what? Come on, what do you guys want? Oh, I've been bottling up my runny nose this for years.
I finally found a good use for them. I'm going to give me morning guide. Hey,
YouTube bookers want to come over for some burgers, get it, bookers, burgers, and you don't get it. Wow, that was so cool and now I want burgers. Oh, yeah, and Lily of the Valley. I love reliving my fond memories of boarding school. The perfume mother used to wear as she drove me 12 hours to count Montague's school for nosy little children. Anyway, let's wrap up the show and go fire up the grill for burgers, Reggie. Thanks to all you listeners out there for tuning into Wewawa on the
weekend. If you have a question for me, call and leave me a message. At 1, 8, 8, 8, 7, wow, wow. That's 1, 8, 8, 8, 8, 7, wow, wow. I just might answer your question on Wewawa on the weekend.
“Okay, let's go. So, what do you want on your burger, Reggie?”
Pharmacute earthworms, Reggie. Well, I just thought you were more of a honey mustard earthworm, kind of pigeon. What about ranch? Catch up? Do Ziki? Wait, is it pronounced Ziki or Zatziki? Thanks for joining us for this edition of Wewawa. Our show is written by Ruth Morrison and Jade Anderson. The role of Baby Dennis is played by Jade Anderson. Oh, the whole place, the role of Big Dennis.
No, you mind. TV. Original sound design and production is done by Henry Moscow, with contributions from Jade Anderson and Tyler Tholl. Original music for Wewawa was composed and performed by Tyler Tholl. Special thanks to Jessica Baudy, Rebecca Kaban. Dr. Natasha Krandell, Kenny Curtis, Kristen Yang, Meredith Helpin, Ranzer, Tweet Mack, Jody Nussbaum, Ali Paxima, Guy Raz, Linda Rappenberg, Steph Sosa, Mindy Thomas, Anna Zagorsky,
and all of the other tankerers at Tinkercast HQ. Be sure to visit Tinkercast.com, where you can become an official member of the World Organization of Walesers. Learn about upcoming events, shop our wow shop, find our best selling books, and learn about all the other
amazing podcasts from Tinkercast. Thanks again for thinking, tinkering, experimenting, and exploring
with me this week. Be sure to check out episodes of "Wow in the World" on Mondays, to what's in a "Wow on Fridays" and "Wewawa on the weekend" with Dennis on the weekends.
“And remember, who was, "Wow in the World" was made by Tinkercast, and said to you,”
by Wandery.
