WeWow on the Weekend

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.”

Hey, 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 comes in, laughing, and then we go, wait, no, I said laughing twice. Whatever, we were on the weekend, we were on the weekend, we were on the weekend, because this is what we do on the weekend. 'Cause that went welcome to we were on the weekend. I'm your host, Dennis. And that's

my co-host, Reggie, the giant pigeon, who's wearing a top hat for some reason. This is the show where we hang out, chit chat, answer questions from our fans, and listen to Ticacast podcasts. Okay, Reggie, what is with the top hat? You're a magician today, hey, and you're

“going to do a magic trick right here in the show. I love magic. What are you waiting for?”

The floor is yours. All right, I have to introduce you. Everyone, please welcome to the stage. Reggie, the stupid pigeon, you have a magic wand? Okay, listeners, Reggie, the stupid pigeon has taken off his hat, and is tapping the brim with his magic wand. He's saying the magic words. He's reaching into his hat. I think he's pulling something out. Is it a rabbit? Is it a normal-sized pigeon? It looks like a baby, Dennis. Say they

have the whole time. Baby, Dennis would never reveal big Reggie's magic secrets. Okay,

Reggie, that certainly was stupid. But it's time to make baby Dennis disappear so we can get on with the show. Baby Dennis will never disappear. Baby Dennis is eternal. Sorry, baby Dennis, we've got to get you back in your box now. Open it up man. The box is full of jobs. Oh no, no, that's Jane. Your first friends are just throwing mothers to force a little squirrel big dreams. Oh no, stop.

Bernie's slurring. They think Dennis, that is not helping. Yes, Reggie, please tell them to get back in the box if you don't mind. All right, since the box is full of pigeons, baby Dennis, you get back in the hat. Okay, we, my baby Dennis. Okay, let's move on to the new and a segment. The Q&A segment. All right, let's just get the old answering machine hold up here. Okay, here we go. Hi, you've reached Dennis from WeWow on the weekend.

from my questions? You? Probably not. But I guess I can answer yours. Leave me a message.

Hi, Dennis. Hi, my name is Sawyer. Hi Sawyer. I have a high clue for you. Do you want to hear it? You have a high clue. Yeah, I want to hear it. Ready is so cool. Dennis is a big liner together. They rock. Yeah, Dennis, soak. Oh, wow. I think you meant to say winner.

“Dennis is a big winner. Yeah, no, I think that's what Sawyer meant. Oh, Reggie, I want”

to make up a high clue too. High clues are cool. They have a certain number of syllables,

but I forget how many they are. And also, I kind of forget what a high clue is. The end. Thank

you. Thank you. Next question. Hello, my name is Greg. Hi, Grace. What's your question? Why does Jenny page sleep with their eyes open? Why do Jenny page sleep with their eyes open? Right, question. Well, I'm not sure, but I know why I sleep with my eyes open. Yes, Reggie, of course, I sleep with my eyes open for sleep snooping. Sleep snooping, Reggie. It's like sleep

“walking, but it's for snooping instead of exercise. Yeah, with sleep snooping, I could get twice”

the amount of snooping done. Plus, I can also be on the lookout for anyone trying to snoop

on my dreams. No, Reggie, you stay out of my dreams. We hang out enough. Okay, fine. We can hang out in Dreamland, but just this once. Reggie, no, no, right now. Wake up. Next question. Hi, Dennis. It's a go-in from Tennessee. Hi, Evelyn. Do you know, Melia and Guy Ross do you on the weekend? Huh, do I know what Mindy and Guy do on the weekends? Well, I don't think they do anything on the weekends. If I leave them, I'm pretty sure they just sit around

“and wait for me to show up again, right, Reggie? What? They don't stuff on the weekends without me?”

Like what? Like go to the grocery store? I want to go to the grocery store. And then maybe go through the car wash? I want to go through the car wash. And then they come home and put all the groceries away and maybe clean the bathrooms? Okay, I don't want to do that. But, Reggie, do you think this means Guy and Mindy are doing something right now without me? Ah, I have to call Mindy. Dilex, Dilex, Dilex, Dilex, Dilex, Dilex, Dilex. Hi, you've reached Mindy. I'm not doing super

fun things on the weekend, and I'm currently unavailable. Oh, no! They might be out riding a donkey. Oh, no, no, no! They're having even more fun than we thought. Okay, Reggie, we have to finish doing the show and go find Mindy and Guy Raza. Make sure they aren't having fun without me. Thanks for your calls, everyone. If you've got a question for me, call and leave me a message. The number is 187. Wow, wow. I just might answer your question on WeWow on the weekend. Okay,

that takes care of that. 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 today we're listening to WoW in the world season three, episode 14 called The Song of the Singing Mouse. Oh, you really like this one, huh? It has your favorite band in it. It has your favorite mouse band in it. Oh, your favorite central American mouse band. Wow,

so specific. Right, that's a good genre. Okay, here we go. And we will be right back. grown-ups, this message is for you. Oh, it's time for Big Toots, Big Favorite. Oh, yeah, the part of the show and you, Big Toot, hit us with your favorite new song. What you got for us today. All right,

It's called the scientifically most danceable song in the whole wide world.

“Wow, that's a big title. Yeah, let me spin you up a clip.”

Whoa, that was totally rocking. Where can we listen to the rest of the song? Anywhere you get your tunes, Bongo, they're out on Spotify, Apple Music, or wherever you like to spin your tracks. Well, thanks for tuning in to Big Toots, Big Favorite here on Bongo and the Big Toot.

In the morning on KWOW, bye-bye now, later.

That's it, now back to the show. - Meals here. - Meals here? - I'll get it red. - Red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red

Red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red

“Pigeon ordered 14 tons of gourmet bird seed to be delivered by mail.”

Reggie!

Three weeks ago, you mailed yourself an ice cream cone, which ended up melting all over my delivery bag.

Oh, sorry! Next time I'll spring for same day shipping on the ice cream. So, what do you have for me today? Okay, well, let's see, let's like a new edition of Gingerbread Architecture Magazine. Ooh, that's a lot! Several invitations to a croquet and multi-level marketing party from your neighbor, Dennis. Yeah, you can keep those. And this huge box.

Oh, what's inside it? I don't know. Well, then, could you shake it? No. Yeah, just shake the box and I'll guess what's inside. Ah, fine. Oh, no. It's got to be calmer. Oh, no. It's what a good, flat-grown herb garden. It's a hand-stop. Stop! Stop! Guy, what? Of course, it's human being. Okay, have a good day, ma'am. I will be going on a long vacation. Ah, ah, ah. So, surprise. Guy, what were you doing in that box? Did I do this to you?

No, you did not do this to me, Mindy. Yeah, you want to say that a little louder for the people in the back. Hmm, Mindy had nothing to do with this. I mailed myself myself. Hi, Guy. Could you keep it down, please? Ah, but, Garaz, you live next door. I mean, if you wanted to come to my house, all you'd have to do is call Reggie to fly you over or take the wham machine or borrow my motor pickle or snack Dennis's roller blades.

“No, the truth is, Mindy, I've been trying to make an effort to be more, I don't know, spontaneous to think outside the box a little.”

Oh, so you literally climbed into a box and mailed yourself to my house next door. Well, yeah, but for Clarissa and Mindy, you see, I've got a surprise for you. Is it in the box? No, so many packs of peanuts. You think I can eat these? No, no, Mindy, don't eat them. The surprise is not in the box. It's inside of me. Oh, so are you going to barfe it up? What? I mean, you just said it was it? Mindy, I got three tickets to the America's squeak hearts high and squeak concert tour. Happy you. What is your birthday? Mindy's birthday is March, September, umpteenth. Wait, that can't be real. There are umpteenth days in March, September.

I wanted to go listen to my favorite elevator music band of that office building elevator downtown.

“Yeah, Carol, is it pretty much just complaining the entire time? Well, that's what friends are for.”

Wow, so when is it the concert? Well, looking at my watch. Huh, what? That's weird. What's weird? Oh, all of the numbers on my watch are out of order. Oh, that's because I scrambled them all up for you. You what? So while ago, I got mad about daylight savings time and I took it out on your watch, but hey, I got you that hour back. Mindy, you're welcome. Rajee! Reggie, we've got a surprise for you.

Wait for it. Wait for it. Wait for it. Reggie, the three of us are going to see America's week hearts live and in concert on their hide and squeak tour, and it's a surprise. I just went. Oh, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Slow down, Reggie. I'm not exactly picking up what you're saying. Mostly because I don't speak pigeon, but also because you're talking faster than Mindy. I got this. Say what, Reggie? Yeah. Uh-huh. Oh, wow, really?

Oh, wow. What's he saying, Mindy? He's saying that America's week hearts are at the center of a brand new scientific breakthrough. A scientific breakthrough?

And their performance is basically going to take us through a whole reenactment of the experiments that led to the breakthrough.

What in the world? This is going to be even better than I thought.

“They're going to do an experiment on stage. What are they a singing duo of lab rats?”

Actually, they're lab mice, guys, but not your typical lab mice. Wait, did you say America's week hearts are mice? Well, yeah, they're my favorite band. What do you think they were going to be singing humans? Oh, wow. Come on, Guy Ross. That'll up on Reggie's back. Here we go. See for yourself once we get there.

Okay, but I'm not sure this is what I signed up for. Singing mice, we're going to come up with next a band of singing chipmunks and musical starring cats. Okay, Reg, prepare for takeoff because here we go. I think our surprise landing is scaring all the mice away. Come back here, you little mice. Come back.

And I think all the mice are scaring Guy Ross away. We got a God's stop. I'm not going to bite you. They're here for the concert. Just like us.

“All right, the concert. We're here to see Mindy's favorite band.”

America's week hearts, the little item concert. They're just like any other band. They're her who laughed mice. Tickets, please. Hey, I've nothing to be freaked out about. We're all mammals. Um, garage tickets? Oh, right. Three tiny tickets.

Thank you. I should have known by the size of these microscopic tickets that this concert would be performed by mice. Here's your program.

It explains the scientific breakthrough connected to the band.

And on the back, there's a coupon for America's squeak hearts merch booth. [Bell] [Bell] [Bell] Hi, I'm home.

We'll take three matching sets of mouse ears. Okay. Three matching America's squeak hearts, hide and squeak tortea shirts. Three matching sets of mouse traps clip on earrings. And Mindy, Richie doesn't have earlobes.

Okay, make that too. And three big wheels of cheeks. Here you go. Thank you. Oh, Mindy, they're about to start. Come on. So, Mindy, I'll read you saying something earlier about this being a concert

that reenacts a scientific breakthrough?

Oh, yeah, it's pretty amazing. So, what all starts off with this neuro-scientist? And a neuro-scientist is a scientist who studies the nervous system or the way our brains and spinal cords and nerve cells work together in our bodies.

Yeah. And so, this neuro-scientist named Michael Long and his team of researchers from New York University School of Medicine noticed something very unusual about a particular species of mouse that lives in the tropical cloud forests of Central America.

A species of mouse called the America's squeak hearts?

The mice in the band have a completely different name.

And that name is Scotin' Nomus Tequina. Hmm-hmm.

“Mindy, Mindy, I told you I don't speak pigeon.”

That's not pigeon talk I was, that's their name. Ha, they also have a nickname, which is much easier to say. Olston's singing mouse. Aha, Emma, let me guess. That unusual observation made by Dr. Long and his team

was that these mice could sing? Yes, but there's more. Go on. These scientists discovered that these mice can sing over 100 different musical notes.

And... Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Gracias.

We are America's squeaks. At the moment they are many central America's squeaks. But it's confusing. This one goes out through all the ladies. Ah, come on.

No, really. What you're about to see are the two lead singers of the band engage in a little rap battle to win the hearts of the lady mice in the audience. Or at least one in particular, though she could be any one

of these mice for all we know. A rap battle, you mean like a singing duel to win the affection of a mate? Well, yeah, basically. And while there are other mice that will sing for love

or whatever you call it in the Rodent World, most of the time human fears can't hear them. But these singing mice? Well, they come in loud and clear. What just happened?

Isn't this bonger balls that back and forth call in response vocal turn taking? It was like a fast-paced musical conversation.

“You know, Mindy, now that I think about it,”

I guess that is pretty amazing.

Thank you. Gracias. I mean, I mean, all the different vocal muscles and parts of their little mouse brains had to work together to create that snappy

back and forth sing-off. I mean, that's just not something you see very often in the animal kingdom. Well, unless you count us humans. Well, that's just the thing I was.

The doctor along in his team noticed this in the wild cloud forests of Costa Rica and decided to invite these singing mice back to their lab at NYU. And just like that, they came?

Well, they did promise them some pretty cushing. You know, like work out equipment in their cages organic meal worms, dry cat food three times a day fresh fruit, a lucrative record deal on national tour. It took all of that to get these mice

to visit their lab at NYU. Yeah.

“I mean, Dr. Long has actually been quoted”

as saying that they're kind of divas, especially when you compare them to their lab mice cousins. So Mindy, once Dr. Long and his team got the seeing mice settled into their plush laboratory apartments, what do they do?

Well, they began rehearsal. And by rehearsal, you mean? I mean, they let the singing mice sing their brains out. While researchers studied their brains

over a few different experiments. So, let me just make sure I've got this straight. The researchers knew that these mice could sing but they wanted to know what was happening in their brains that allowed them to sing

duets or musical conversations. Well, basically, yeah. So humans have the unique ability to take turns while talking in a conversation. You know, so immediately starting a new sentence

when the person you're talking to ends theirs. Huh. And in fact, that pause between when one person starts talking and the next person picks up

is only about a fraction of a second.

I guess that means that our vocal muscles and our brains have to work together extremely quickly and send signals back and forth to make that happen at such a fast speed. Right.

But why? And how? And what part of our brains control this complicated operation? And that must be where the experiments

with the singing mice divas come in. Well, they prefer to be called America's squeak hearts, but yeah. See, these researchers were hoping that by studying the pretty simple brains of these mice,

they might better understand how back and forth conversation works

So what was the first experiment?

Oh, hang on. I'll tell you in a second. Thank you. Okay. We'd like to welcome a special guest

up to the stage. Let's give it up for the world knows that for me. What a family. What?

It's just through name. One of those dolphins. Yes. Wait, are they? Flathing onto the stage?

Yes. Should they be in the water?

“Hey, shouldn't those dolphins be in the water?”

See, bottle mows dolphins are one of the only other mammals

besides humans and singing mice

that sing in that vocal turn taking style. Huh. Watch this. Wow. Maybe they can sound a little better under water.

So back to these brain experiments, Guy Ross. Oh, yeah. Where are we? The first thing they did was take the two mice and put them in separate cages

where they could hear each other but not see each other. And then the researchers just sat back and listened. And what did they hear? Well, they heard the mice having a musical conversation.

Huh. In fact, they learned that they sing differently together than they do when they're alone or solo. That's interesting. But what's really interesting

is that they learned that these mice have certain unspoken rules to their musical back and forth.

“Just like we humans do when we're having a conversation.”

Rules, huh? Well, I did notice when the mice are on stage having their singing duel that they seem to be very polite with each other.

I mean, they never sang over each other

and they seem to pay attention to when the other mouse was finished before picking up the next verse and then they never interrupted. Hmm.

Huh? Not like some humans do. You know, once these researchers figured out the way these mice communicate through song, they wanted to figure out what part of their brains

were responsible for telling them when to sing and when to wait their turn. And how do they do that? Okay. So they use these tiny electric sensors

or tools to help them read the signals that the mice's brains were sending to their vocal muscles. And by seeing what part of the brain was lit up or active while they were singing,

“they could determine what part of the brain”

was responsible for telling the mice when to sing. Exactly, those guys, and they discovered that it was the part of the brain known as the Oral Facial Motor Cortex or the OMC for short.

Oh, my! That's really the game for the mother knows. Don't burn me. Okay, all right, all right. What he's missed on is we're going to speed things up to be.

Let me go, not? There we go. What? What is happening? They're singing so fast.

They're all out of tune. Oh, wow, this is just like an experiment. Huh? So using those same electronic sensors, long in his teens, speed up the signals

that the mice's brains were sending to their vocal muscles. And before they knew it, the mice were going all bonker balls and singing all the wrong notes and completely out of tune.

And I'm guessing that if they speed up the signals, then they also experimented with slowing them down. You know it. Thank you. Thank you.

Gracias. Hello. Let's slow be down. Let's go see. Are they singing in slow motion?

Oh, almost seems that way. See, after experimenting with what would happen if they speed up those brain signals, they decided to experiment when slowing them down. And what happened?

Oh, it turns out that these mice could still sing the right notes. There were just longer spaces in between and it took them a lot longer to finish. Amazing. Thank you.

Thank you. And thank you all for coming through the show. We've got one more song. Oh, yes, I know. The band is going to sit this one out.

He's called, "Who turned out the lights?" Oh, this must be the last part of the experiment. They turned out the light? Well, metaphorically speaking, yeah, kind of. See, after speeding up and then slowing down

they decided to turn that OMC section off completely.

They just turned out the lights. They shut off the mice brains? No, no, no, no, not the whole brain.

“Just that one little tiny part, the OMC,”

and only temporarily. And what did they find? Well, they found that the mice could still sing. Yeah. But only to themselves.

In other words, they could no longer sing back and forth to each other. No more musical conversation. They became solo artists. Only temporarily, before the mice even knew it,

they turned that OMC part of their brains back on and that was the end of the experiment. Me, incredible. Mindy, this must mean that the OMC part of the singing mouse's brain isn't what gives them the power to sing,

but it is what gives them the power to sing it a back and forth way, just like we humans and bottle those dolphins. Winner winner, else trapped dinner. Thank you.

Yes, yes. We've been in a nice singing audience.

“On your album, it's called 9 in straight.”

Please. Check it out. Yes. Love. And be nice to one another.

Winner's not Chase.

Wow, what an amazing concert.

Yeah, thanks for surprising Reggie and me with the tickets, Guy Ros. Well, that was our first time seeing them perform live since the experiment. Yeah, and about those experiments.

You don't mindy. I'm wondering if these researchers are planning to take what they've learned and use this new information to help solve other problems with human communication. Well, it just so happens that they are.

See, now that we understand how the OMC part of the singing mouse's brain controls its ability

“to have singing conversations with other singing mice?”

Dr. Long and his team are planning future studies to see if they can find the human version of the OMC in our brains. With the thought that it might hold clues as to how we humans are able to have such quick

back and forth conversations. Yeah, right. But not only that, they're hoping that they can take what they learn from these experiments and come up with new ways to help people

whose brains don't let them have these quick back and forth conversations. So like some people with autism who's brains work differently or maybe people who have had strokes where parts of their brains stop working all together.

Or people like me who sing all the wrong notes all the wrong times and can't stop interrupting. I think that might be something worth experimenting on in your own, Mindy. Speaking of experimenting, is that

Reggie backstage trying to communicate with the bottle nose dolphin? And I thought a mouse wrap battle was going to be the weirdest thing I saw today. What in the world?

Wow, that was so cool. I can't believe we can learn all this stuff about our own brains from little mousees. Like the way we communicate is so... It's just like really...

You know, like... What's the word? Communicationy. Yeah, communicationy. Oh baby Dennis, what are we going to do with you?

Do more magic tricks. Oh that's actually a great idea. We could do more magic tricks.

But first we need to wrap up the show.

Thanks to all you listeners out there for tuning into WeWOW on the weekend. If you have a question for me, call and leave me a message at 1-8-8-7-WOW. That's 1-8-8-8-7-WOW.

I just might answer your question on WeWOW on the weekend. Okay, should we do the goodbye song? Here we go. That's the end of the show. I need to go and magically saw baby Dennis and half

and then put him back together. What? But I'll do another show tomorrow. But for now, that's the end of the show. Eat eat.

Bye.