Do fidget toys really help people focus?

Hi friends, you might have heard that Bark, Sandin and I are on the road this spring with brains on live. We've been to several cities so far and it has been so much fun. Our next two stops are Atlanta and Fort Lauderdale. That's at the end of March. Then we just announced that we added Lawrence, Kansas in May and Columbus, Ohio in June. We're also heading to Chattanooga, Durham, Milwaukee, Portland, Buffalo and Ann Arbor, Michigan. We hope you'll be able to join us at one of those shows. We can't wait to see you to get tickets and get more information. You can head to brainson.org slash events. That's brainson.org slash events. You're listening to the brains on universe. You're listening to brains on, where we're serious about being curious. If you've ever had the wiggles or couldn't stop clicking a pen, if you twirl your hair or tap your fingers, you know all about today's topic, fidgeting. It's something so common, a lot of us don't even realize we're doing it. When I was talking with a patient and I asked them if they fidgeted, they said no. I noticed they were grabbing things off of my desk. They're grabbing my pencil, my stapler, other things on a desk and I said, well, what are you doing right now? You're fidgeting with things on my desk. We'll hear from someone who studies fidgeting and learn how sometimes it helps us and sometimes it doesn't. Plus armpit farts, mouth trumpets, and a few theories on why we fidget in the first place. Not here. We just moved into our brand new headquarters and... It has that new headquarters smell. A lot of dust. We're still renovating. Part of why we moved is because our shows are now independent. That means for the first time ever, Mark, Sandin, and I actually own the stuff we're making. It also means we need your support. But helping is easy. Join SmartyPass. You'll get ad-free episodes, invites to special hangouts with us. You can even get a personal message from me. Go to BrainsOn.org slash SmartyPass to sign up. Hi, boss. Here's the coffee you ordered, boss. Why, thank you, Sandin, fellow boss. And here is the coffee you ordered. Oh, thank you, boss. That's right. Now that we're independent, we're both our own bosses and assistants who fetch coffee. We do it all, except being CEO. That's Gangadour's job. Gangadour is a business monster now. But no worry, Gangadour still loves dance. Gangadour dance and analyze pie charts. Pie chart tastes like paper. Blueberry pie tastes like blueberry. Analysis. Anyway, join SmartyPass to help brains on universe grow big and mighty like a muscular elephant or a really tall cow or a giant strawberry robot pie. Go to BrainsOn.org to join and tell the world, yes, I want more shows with real science made by real people and occasionally one very shouty monster. Thank you. Brains on! This is Brains On from the Brains On Universe. I'm your host, Molly Bloom, and I'm here with Penelope from Cambridge, Massachusetts. Hi, Penelope. Hi, Molly. Today, we're finding out about fidgeting. Fidgeting is moving your body, but you're not really trying to do anything specific. Usually, you're making a small movement over and over without really thinking about it. Sometimes you fidget with an object like a pen. Other times, you just use your body. Now, Penelope, this episode was inspired by a question that you sent to us. Yeah, I was wondering how and why fidgets help some people focus but distract others. This is such a great question. Now, Penelope, when you say fidgets, what do you mean? Well, you know, those things that have started to pop up in stores recently, like for a while, fidgets, those metal fidget spinner things were really popular, and then those like colorful rubber poppets that are supposed to be like bubble wrap and you would go like that kind of thing. Yeah. So, do you find fidgets help you focus or do they distract you? Well, I really think they can do both. I particularly like sometimes like fidgeting with some of my Rubik's cubes, especially the ones that have magnets in them so that they snap into place. I find that really satisfying. That is very satisfying. So, what do you think the difference is between a fidget and a toy? Well, I think it's kind of just how you use it. Like once again, back to Rubik's cubes. If you're just like fidgeting with it mindlessly while focusing on something else and not paying much attention to it, I think it's a fidget. But if you're putting a lot of your attention and focus into it and energy into it and trying to solve it, it probably becomes more of a toy. That's a really good distinction. So, you're saying that it's a fidget if you're just kind of not really thinking about it, but just kind of moving it and then it becomes a toy when you're like concentrating on it. Yeah. That's really great. Do you fidget without fidget toys? Yeah, I think everyone does, even if they don't notice like just shifting their chair or tapping their pencils on the desks or their foot. Mm-hmm. When do you find yourself needing to fidget the most? Usually when I'm anxious about something, probably. Yeah, for me, I do it a lot when I'm kind of bored but trying to focus. Yeah. Where I'm like, okay, Molly, don't look at your phone, do something else. And I'll take out some silly putty and I'll play with it and it helps me a little bit. So you sent this question and you said, why do some people find them helpful but distract others? And I'm wondering what made you think of that question? In the fidget box in fifth grade, I noticed that a lot of kids were like trading them under the desks and stuff and getting distracted by them or like tossing them around and things like that. And sometimes like fighting over them and they didn't seem to be very helpful to be honest. So I was wondering. So you, that distinction you made, they were using them in that way where they focus on them rather than just use them as a helper. And were there fidgets that were your favorites to use in class? I really liked these squishy rubber egg things but they were taken out of the box after kids kept tossing them around the classroom. Oh man, yeah. You know, if it's shaped like a ball, someone's gonna throw it. Brains on! The toys we call fidgets are actually pretty new. They've only gotten popular in the last 10 years or so. Well, for me, that's almost my whole lifetime. Okay, yes. They've been around as long as you can remember, but these fidgets are not something that your parents had in elementary school. But that doesn't mean fidgeting, is it? Absolutely. Sometimes people need to fidget. So there have been toys and other things to fidget with for a very long time. They just weren't called fidgets. Like bowding balls. They date back to the Ming dynasty in China. Yes, that's over 500 years ago. Bowding balls are two metal balls that fit in the palm of your hand and you can twirl them around making them switch places with each other. Or yo-yos. Those have been around for thousands of years. Or even silly putty. You know that rubbery, gummy stuff you can stretch and squish? That's been around since 1943. Or the Rubik's Cube. It's a blocky puzzle with lots of colorful squares. And it was invented in the 1970s. Even without toys, we find ways to fidget. Playing with your hair or your jewelry. Giggling your foot or tapping your fingers. Twirling your pen or even doodling. Lots of humans, young and old, fidget from time to time. But why? Why do humans feel the need to fidget? Experts aren't 100% sure why we fidget but one possible reason is that we fidget when we really just wanna be moving our bodies. Yeah, at school I see a lot of kids fidget when we've been sitting still on our desks for a long time. You might start to feel antsy. And it makes a lot of sense why. Our ancient ancestors had to spend all day hunting and gathering food. They were always moving and we were built to move a lot too. But these days we spend a lot of time trying to be still. And fidgeting lets us move our bodies in a small way when we can't move in a big way. To get some of the ants out of your pants? Yep. Or wiggle out the jiggles? Sure. So that's one big reason we fidget. We also fidget sometimes when we're bored. Like when we're daydreaming or just zoning out. Penelope, you said earlier that you fidget when you may be anxious. Do you ever fidget when you're bored? Oh yeah, definitely. Don't we all? Yes, I think we do. So when I'm feeling bored or fidgety, I like to play with something in my hands. I'm a big, silly, putty fan, very squishy. I can make it into different shapes. And honestly, I think I've started using my phone as a fidget, which is not a good habit. Hi Molly. Hi Penelope. I hope I'm interrupting something. Oh, it's brains on intern Rebecca Rand. You are interrupting something. Actually, we're doing our episode about fidgeting. Perfect. I was hoping to interrupt that. I'm here to explain that fidgeting is a form of self-regulation. I've heard of self-regulation. It's a way you can control or regulate your energy level or your feelings. Exactly. I self-regulate all the time. We all do. Like the other day, I was auditioning to play the mouth trumpet in my local body parts band. Body parts band? Yeah, you know, the TriZip Triangle, armpit tuba, mouth trumpet. Puh, puh, puh, puh, puh, puh, puh. So I was doing the audition over my computer and my heart was beating so hard that I couldn't even hear myself mouth trumpet. So I told the person on the other line that I needed a quick break. I ran to the freezer, got a bag of tater tots and held it to my face. You put frozen food on your face? Wasn't that super cold? Yes, that's exactly the point. Having something cold on my face helped me, well, chill out. I self-regulated. And now I'm the first chair mouth trumpeter in the body parts band. Puh, puh, puh, puh, puh, puh. Oh, okay, but sometimes instead of needing to calm down, I need to hype myself up. Like right before taping Smash Boom Best, I always put on spandex and danced to Beyonce's entire catalog. Is that self-regulating too? Totally. These are just different ways of using our bodies to regulate our thoughts and feelings. And fidgeting is just another way to self-regulate. Especially if there's no Beyonce or frozen tater tots handy. Oh, I always have tater tots handy. Speaking of which, I've got some hot tots in the oven I need to take out. Be right back. Hey Molly, while we wait, how about we do the... Mr. Sound. Oh, yes, okay, Penelope, let's get to it. Here it is. Okay. Wow, that Mr. Sound had a lot of parts. What is your guess? I have no idea. I definitely heard someone walking at some point, I think, and then it sounded like someone was eating something, but before it sounded like maybe they were like spinning something and was knocking something over, maybe something metal, I was thinking. Good ears, do you wanna hear it again? Yeah. Okay, let's hear it again. Okay. So last time you were like spinning something metal. Somebody chewing, what do you think now? Well, the first part sounded a bit like putting a lot of coins into like a vending machine or a claw machine. Okay, so you think maybe possibly a vending machine? And what do you think about the chewing? No idea, maybe the person ordered a bag of chips and is eating them now. I like that guess. It also kind of sounded like those clickety-clackety, you know, mechanical keyboards with the video games and stuff. Oh, yeah. Okay, I don't know what this is either. I'm gonna guess an excited baby alligator doing a claw machine at an arcade and they got so excited they started just crunching on the handle because they're a baby alligator. That's kind of what it did sound like. Right? Okay. Yeah. We will hear it again, get another chance to guess and hear the answer at the end of the show. So stick around. Hey, friends, we're making a new mystery sound extravaganza with a twist. This time, we're only gonna feature sounds found in nature and we want to hear from you. Get outside and record a mystery sound made by the natural world. Animals, water, the weather, whatever. Tell us what makes the sound in your recording and send it to us. Penelope, what's one of your favorite sounds found in nature? I really like the sounds of like water flowing down rocks and like a stream or a brook. Yes. My school is near the woods so sometimes I like to go there and just like listen to it. Oh, that sounds very peaceful. That's such a nice break from the school day. Well, listeners, share your nature sounds by heading to brainson.org. While you're there, you could also send us your drawings and questions. Keep listening. You're listening to brains on. I'm Penelope. And I'm Molly. And I'm Rebecca. Back with some sizzling spuds. Anyone want a hot and tasty touch? Yeah, of course I do. Yeah, sure. Mmm, so good. So good. Okay, today we're talking about fidgeting. Scientists aren't totally sure why we fidget, but one idea is that it helps us self-regulate. Self-regulating is what we do when we're trying to change how we feel. You can do it when you need to get hyped up or calm down. So Rebecca, you said fidgeting is a form of self-regulation? Yep. Fidgeting is just another tool humans use to help ourselves. And to help me explain, I've brought none other than my body parts band. We've got Billy on the beatbox. Billy on the armpit parts. And Tina on the tummy tom-toms. Cool, nice to meet you. So one time when we might need to self-regulate is when we're trying to pay attention in class. Paying attention is actually a lot of work sometimes. Totally. It takes a lot of energy to ignore random feelings and sounds and other distractions going on around you. And it also takes a lot of energy to follow what the teacher is saying and absorb all that information. And sometimes fidgeting can help give you the energy you need to do all that. How so? Well, imagine you're in class and your energy levels are like this. The teacher is talking on and on about something and it's getting really hard to concentrate. Your head is getting heavy. It starts to nod. But you can't sleep now. There's a quiz tomorrow. You gotta pay attention. So you sit up in your seat and you start to doodling. Doodling is actually a kind of fidgeting. The way the pencil feels in your hand, the way it sounds scratching against the paper, all of that information travels up to your brain and can kind of help wake you up a bit. And just like that, you're in the zone. Yep. Some people prefer to jiggle their leg. Others twirl a pen. A lot of times we do this without even thinking about it. Researchers believe that all of these behaviors can help us stimulate our brains and wake it up so that we can focus. We're self-regulating. It's like telling your body band to kick up the tempo. Exactly. Remember how I mentioned doodling? Well some research has found that doodling can help people do better on certain tasks and even remember better compared to people who don't doodle. Wow, so fidgeting can be super helpful. Sometimes, yeah. Fidgeting is your body's way of trying to change your mental state. But it doesn't always work. Yeah, like sometimes a kid might start doodling, but then they start drawing something really cool. But then they realize they've started to lose track of what's happening in class. Exactly. It seems like probably the best fidgeting is something that is just interesting enough that it stimulates our brain but not so interesting it distracts us. But wait, if we use fidgeting to make our minds more awake, then why do people fidget when they're nervous or uncomfortable? Yeah, that's like your brain is already going too fast. But didn't fidgeting make it go faster? Excellent question. And the short answer is we don't know for sure. Fidgeting can sometimes be just a sign that someone is feeling nervous. But it's possible it might also help calm our brain's sound too. Let's say you're at the doctor's office and you're waiting to get a shot and you're really nervous. Your heart is beating fast and all your thoughts are going off in different directions, like this. But then you start to fidget. Maybe you find a clicky pen nearby. And the sound and feeling of the clicks travel up to your brain. The clicky pen gives your brain something steady to focus on. It helps distract you from any feelings and thoughts that might be overwhelming you. And all of a sudden, your thoughts have slowed down and you feel a little bit more comfortable. So lots of people fidget and fidgeting can sometimes be helpful for us. Right, it can rev us up or calm us down. But it's good to remember that one person's fidget can be another person's distraction, especially if that other person can see it or hear it, like if you're clicking a pen or tapping your foot. So be considerate of other people and try to fidget in ways that don't bother the folks around you. Well, thanks so much for telling us about fidgeting, Rebecca. No thank you guys, it's been a blast. But we gotta bounce. The body band and I are heading to Coachella. We're playing at Coachella, the music festival. Oh, no, no, no, Coachella. It's where we sit on the couch and eat snacks together. It's very exclusive. Sounds fun, I love snacks. Bye, Rebecca, bye, body band. Bye. Okay, while we were moving into this new headquarters, the mail really piled up. So we've been making our way through all the questions, jokes, drawings, and cool facts that you sent us. Let's see what's new by checking the mail bag. Let's see. Okay, this one is a drawing. Let's open it. Oh, wow, this is, I have no words. I'm just kidding, I always have words. I'm going to describe this explosion of color and creativity. Cue the fancy arty music. This one says, taping an episode from your biggest fan, Kate. So Kate drew the taping of an episode. So what we have here is, there's a table. There's me, Molly. I have a purple shirt on. So cool. It's my favorite color. There's a microphone in front of me. Then we've got Mark in a green shirt. Another microphone. We've got Manica in a red shirt. Another microphone. Hi, Manica, we miss you. And we got Sandin in a blue shirt and another microphone. Sandin's also wearing glasses and so am I. And then we have Kate in a yellow shirt with a microphone. And Sandin off to the side, we've got Bob in a lovely plaid shirt and jeans. Gungador looks to be dancing with ballet shoes on. Incredible. We've got Elevator saying, hi, I'm Elevator. And then in the corner, we have a speaker that says, hi, I am Harvey. Oh my gosh, Kate, this is so excellent. Thank you for sending it to us. Well, Kate, I hope I did your work justice. If you want to see today's Mailbag masterpiece, head to Brains On's Instagram to check it out. That's Brains underscore on. And to send us your art, a science joke, or your idea for a new room at Brains On headquarters, go to BrainsOn.org. See you in the Mailbag. Today, we're talking about fidgeting. Lots of people do it and fidgeting has lots of uses. It can help you when you feel antsy and need to move. Or it can help you focus and calm down. But fidget toys, the kind of toy that you asked us about Penelope, those are fairly new. We've brought in an expert on fidgeting and fidgets to help us answer your question. Her name is Dr. Julie Schweitzer. Dr. Schweitzer also talked to us for our episode all about ADHD. You can find it wherever you're listening to this episode. She's a psychologist at the Mind Institute at the University of California, Davis. And she's also a neuroscientist, which means she studies the brain. Hi, Dr. Schweitzer. Hello, Penelope. Great to be here with you. Yeah, I'm excited to talk to you. My first question is, when did you first notice fidget toys being used by your patients? The first time I noticed it when I was talking with a patient and I asked them if they fidgeted, they said no. And I noticed they were grabbing things off of my desk. They were grabbing my pencil, my stapler, other things on a desk. And I said, well, what are you doing right now? You're fidgeting with things on my desk. And the person said, oh, yeah, my boyfriend complains about that all the time. I take their remote control and play with their remote control at times. So sometimes people were doing it and they didn't even notice it. What kind of neuroscientists are you? Well, I study the brain in relationship to development. So that is regarding how children's brains develop as they grow and also in relation to attention deficit hyperactivity disorders. So kids who wiggle a lot or have trouble paying attention or some challenges with self-control. And we look at that over time also. So those are the main areas and attention. We're trying to figure out where attention lives in the brain. So those are the main areas that I'm studying in the brain still. Are fidget toys more helpful than other objects? You can fidget with like if at home you just found a zipper or a pen. Are the ones that you buy engineered or designed in a certain way to be more helpful? Well, I'm not so sure about that. I think that certain people like the way certain fidgets feel. And that's not always predictable. Some people really like getting feedback. So when you're clicking a pen and you feel what it feels like for the pen to click up and down. Some people really like that. Some people just need to rub something. So I think it really depends on the person. But I don't know if ones that are specifically engineered for that are really necessarily more helpful. Do you think it's OK because it's different for everybody to only let some kids have fidgets in the classroom but not others? That is a really hard and good question. I think you have to consider who else is in the classroom. And if the fidgets are distracting to other people. And I think people have to be really sensitive about what their needs are versus other people in the classroom too. So if they are going to have a fidget, I would hope it would be something that wouldn't be very distracting to others. So maybe it's just some material that they rub their fingers on or maybe it's a band either on their wrist or on the chair or something like that. But not something that's so distracting. So if it's something that really helps people, I want people to find a way to be successful in the classroom. So I think we should try to find ways to accommodate them. But we have to balance that. So it sounds like fidgeting can be helpful for kids when their board are anxious. That's really cool. I was wondering, though, would they also fidget less if we help them deal with what's making them board or anxious? And is that more important to get to the underlying problem? Or is it OK to use fidgets in the long term? That is getting at something really important. I do think what's really needs to be done is, yeah, what's find out? Why are these kids anxious? What's making them nervous is maybe what we're asking them to do too hard. Can we break it down into smaller steps? Can they start working on a problem, the easier part of it, and then go on to the harder part of it? So they're not feeling so anxious. Can we teach them some breathing exercise and stretching and do that first? Because once you learn those tools, you can take that with you anywhere. And in terms of anxiety, I think sometimes people are getting a little confused because I think just because people fidget doesn't mean that the fidgeting with the fidget tool is helping them. Sometimes they're fidgeting when they're anxious because that's a symptom that they're anxious. And so that's why you do need to go back to saying, OK, well, how can we help them feel less anxious? Do fidget toys help people with ADHD more than they would help someone else? I think so. We have a little bit of evidence suggesting that that people with ADHD tends to help their attention more. And I think we're learning now that it probably helps their attention more when they're doing a test that's not very hard, but it may be to test this little boring kind of repetitive. But we're trying to learn more about that, too. Is there a research that does show that fidgets can help us concentrate? The research on that is still mixed. And I think what's important to understand is that there are fidget tools or toys and then there's your natural behavior. And what we have really strong evidence for at this point is your natural behavior, just moving your legs and your hands and so forth. That seems to have pretty good evidence that it helps you manage your attention and so forth. When it comes to fidget tools, fidget toys, I think the variety of them is so diverse that we don't know enough about how those help. And I personally am concerned that some of them are more distracting than actually helping. If you're spending so much time concentrating on your fidget rather than doing your work or thinking about other ways of calming your nerves, then I think that there's less evidence for that. What's your favorite way to fidget? Probably now in the past few years, I do have a little ball that I use that I squeeze. But when I was younger, I was just twirling my hair. I'm not a huge fidgeter, but my brother growing up was a huge fidgeter. And that's how I got interested in that. So when we were eating dinner, the forks and knives were always clanging at the dinner table. So that and then watching children in preschool really got me interested in that. And seeing how sometimes when it did seem like they were trying to concentrate, that they were moving more. But that was moving themselves physically rather than actually having a toy or something like that. Are there rules to help guide our behavior when we start to fidget? I think some of it is really common sense. And if you're spending so much time concentrating on your fidgets, then what's happening around you or listening to what your teacher is saying or concentrating on your homework, then that's the time where you need to put your fidget away. Because sometimes what you can do is you can interact with your fidget in the beginning and then just put it off to the side and every once in a while, maybe you can touch it or get up and stretch. And I think it's really important to try to think of other ways to get movement in. So maybe that is taking that stretch break. Maybe it's also chewing on something. So maybe you have some carrots or some raisins, something, you know, some kind of healthy snack because we're starting to learn to also moving your mouth can be helpful. And then your hands are free. So if your hands are tied up by touching a fidget, you're not able to type as well. You're not able to write. So don't let the fidget overtake your life. Use it constructively to help you, but don't let it become more than what you're supposed to actually be working on. That's really good advice. Thanks for answering our questions, Dr. Julie. Oh, thank you so much. These were great and I hope my answers have been helpful to you. Fidgeting is very common. Lots of people fidget from kids to grown-ups. There are lots of ways to fidget. You can fidget with your body or with things around you. Scientists aren't sure why we fidget, but one idea is that fidgeting is a form of self-regulation. That means it's something we do to control how we feel. Fidgeting can help you focus, but it can also distract others. So be mindful of your fidgeting. That's it for this episode of Brain Zahn. It was written by Rebecca Rand and me. Editing by Shaila Farzahn and Sanatatn. Engineering help from Jess Berg with sound design by Mark Sanchez and fact checking by Niko Gonzales-Whistler. Original theme music by Mark Sanchez. Special thanks to Heidi Shin, Wesley Wong, and Mr. Fan for letting Penelope take the day off of school. We also had production help from Rosie DuPont and Anna Weggel. And we want to thank our friends at Code of the North, especially Ken DeBorsky, for all of their help with our website. There are lots of ways to support the show. Subscribe to Brain Zahn Universe on YouTube, where you can watch animated versions of some of your favorite episodes. Or head to brainson.org. While you're there, you can send us mystery sounds, drawings, and questions. Penelope, are you ready to hear that mystery sound again? Yes. Alright, here it is. What do you think? Well, still kind of the same one from before, but I was also thinking like maybe a pinball machine? Ooh, a pinball machine, and someone crunching. Yeah, I don't know. I'm sticking with my baby alligator answer, because that's what it sounds like to me. You ready for the answer? Yeah. Alright, here it is. Hi, my name is August, and I'm from Indianapolis, and that was the sound of me getting a gun ball from my gun ball machine. Oh. So the vending machine was actually closer. Yeah, you were close. Like honestly, throughout that whole thing, you were saying like vending machine, putting a coin in, correct. You said twisting something metal, correct. You said pinball, which is almost like gum ball. So I think I'm giving us partial credit. I mean, I'm giving you partial credit. I'm giving me no credit because no baby alligators were involved. Now it's time for the brain's honor roll. These are the incredible kids who keep the show going with their questions, ideas, mystery sounds, drawings, and high fives. Desia from Wackerton, Ontario, and from Auckland, New Zealand. Matthew from Virginia. Saul from Chevy Chase, Maryland. Edda from Bellion in Washington. Angie from Vaughan, Ontario. Liam from Fredericksburg, Virginia. Gabriel from Minneapolis. Liam from Binyon, Philippines. Rao from Nottingham, England. Eden from Egan, Minnesota. Jude and Ella from New Hampshire. Zuri from Sacramento. Maxwell from Colorado. Charlie from Milwaukee. Florence from Minneapolis. Mariana from Sanford, California. Quint from Brainerd, Minnesota. Ellie and Edison from Portland, Oregon. Rosie and Teddy from Falls Church, Virginia. Eli from Cornwall, Ontario. Gabriel from Salt Lake City. Eli from New Orleans. Violet from Champaign, Illinois. Sanua from Minneapolis. Weston from Latham, Ohio. John from Cincinnati. Theo and Isaac from Charlotte, North Carolina. Dallas from Riverview, Florida. James Guss and Evelyn from San Angelo, Texas. Jack Thomas and Anne from Toronto. Jariah, Asher, Gideon, Josea, and Adelaide from Salem, Oregon. Shiersha from Weaverville, North Carolina. Cecilia from Minneapolis. Genesis from Sierra Vista, Arizona. Parker from Regina, Saskatchewan. Jamison and Bennett from Monroe, Washington. Amaru from Sevastopol, California. Elias from Elverson, Pennsylvania. Zachary from Newton, Massachusetts. Zaki from Sydney, Australia. Merlin from Mount Vernon, Washington. Hugo from Indianapolis. Benji from Houston. Caden from Oceanside, California. Owen from Loveland, Ohio. Elliot from Los Angeles. Asa and Levi from Tacoma Park, Maryland. Bax from Los Angeles. Elijah and Levi from Seattle. Liam from Binyon, Philippines. Toby from Minneapolis. Lolo from San Antonio, Texas. Abel from Tampa, Florida. Madeline from Woodbridge, Virginia. Liliana from Mississauga. Jade from Waianae, Hawaii. Fiona from Syracuse, New York. Isabel from Sydney, Australia. Umar from Kuala Lumpur. Milo from Minneapolis. And Alder from Oregon City. We'll be back next week with an episode all about electric cars. When you might just hear this sound. Ha! So I've got a lot of shish in my whoosh. Thanks for listening.