Hey, Bowser fams! Mindy year! And before we start the show! Oh! Hey, Reg! What's that? A new pigeon dropping? Isn't that the postcard you send out to members of the world organization of Wowsers every quarter? Can I see it? What? You need to see if I'm a member of the WOW first? But Reg, come on! It's me, Mindy! Huh? You're not seeing a Mindy on the list? Okay, uh, try a Mandy. I think Thomas Finkirling signed me up. Yes! Can I get my pigeon dropping now? What? I gotta wait for it in the mail? But it's right there! Okay, fine. Guess I'll go wait out by the mailbox. In the meantime, to get the next quarterly mailing from Reggie, runups, you can sign your Wowser up to be a member of the World Organization of Wowsers by Monday March 16th. It's so top secret I haven't even seen it yet. Now, where'd I put my mailbox? Runups, when you sign your Wowser up to be a member of the World Organization of Wowsers, you also get birthday cards in the mail from me and Guy Ross, access to over a thousand online activities inspired by our podcast, and a welcome kit from me and Guy Ross, including our autographs and a special t-shirt. Plus, you get to help support all the work that goes into powering the WOW at TinkerCast. Runups, visit TinkerCast.com, slash membership to sign up today. That's TinkerCast.com slash membership. That's it! And now, let's get back to the show. 14-3-2-1... ...tinkerCast. The Friday part of the show has never seen before. Oh, my goodness. Alright, I've got my snacks ready. Let's get some music pumping here. Ah, that's better. And let's see, maybe I'll light a scented candler too. What do we got here? Baked beans and bacon? No. What's this one? The wind? Ew! That makes no sense! How about, um, Mother's purse? Ah, perfect. Oh, someone's here! Oh boy, this is gonna be the best lizard island season finale viewing party I've ever thrown! Guy Ross, welcome! Hey, Dennis, I'm here for the viewing party. Great, come on in! Thank you for coming. Uh, sorry. Am I early? No. I mean, kind of. I put an early arrival time on your invitation because we're best friends. Right. Oh, well, I brought some snacks. Oh, snacks! What do you bring? What do you bring? What do you bring? Oh, vegetables. It's actually crudite. It's French. Oh, like French fries? No. Rats. Well, hand it here and I'll just, uh... There we go. Hey, did you just throw my snacks in the trash? No! No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Yes, yes I did. Anyway, let me give you the tour of my home, Guy Ross. Over there we have the living room. That's where we'll be watching the lizard island season finale. Over there is Mother's room. We're not allowed in there. And where we're standing now is the kitchen, where I cook and keep my collection of family heirloom tomatoes. What? heirloom tomatoes, Guy. Open-pollinated non-hybrid heirloom tomatoes. They're sweet and delicious and not very pest-resistant, which is why they're rotting and covered in flies. And these heirloom tomatoes are family heirloom tomatoes. Pass down from my great, great, great, great Uncle Dennis. Who? Oh, hold that thought. Coming! Oh, there, young man. Is your mommy home? Tommy, no! This is my viewing party, not Mother's. Oh, okay. Oh, sorry, we're late. The traffic was terrible. Yeah. Grab a G-Force, you live like three houses over. There's no traffic. We're talking about internet traffic. The Wi-Fi we still from you is terrible. Oh. Well, welcome to my home. Please make yourself comfortable. Oh, well, well, well, would you get one of this place finger-line? Yeah, this place is real nice. Oh, hey, look. Free snacks. No! Stop eating my family heirloom tomatoes. You're gonna be haunted by my great, great, great, great Uncle Dennis. Oh, whoops. What? Let me try one. Give her here, boy. No! If you want vegetables, there's crudite in the trash. Oh. Tomatoes aren't vegetables. They're fruits. Not according to the United States government, Tommy. Oh, boy. Ah! Okay, don't eat any more of my tomatoes. No, tell me what to do. Andy, you're dressed like a lizard. Whoah! Uh, yeah. I wasn't going to not dress up for the lizard island season finale. Finally, someone who appreciates good television. Come on in. Thank you. Oh, careful. Waddle, waddle, waddle, waddle, waddle. Long and old, but tomato, finer legs. Hey, I said quit eating those. Yes, you are. Dennis, where's the TV remote? Oh, uh, it's under the blue coffee table in the basket of mother's knitting needles. Thanks, got it. Hello. Hey, this one tastes like stale popcorn. Faker likes stuff that. These are family heirlooms and they are not for eating. Oh, come on, hey, Mindy, nice. Uh, costume. Oh, thanks, GuyRaz. I made it myself. Uh, huh. And why exactly are you dressed up like a giant lizard? Well, because we're about to watch the season finale of lizard island. Lizard Island? Huh? What is that? Okay, Ross. It's only the most watched reality show on TV about lizards falling in love with each other. Does this mean you haven't been watching it? Not really, Mindy, I've been watching this documentary series in the German expressionist movement of the 1930s. It's actually super interesting. No, it's not. Oh, it's not. Huh. Previously on lizard island. Hurry, everyone. It's starting. It's starting. It's starting. Huh? What's starting? Lizard Island. What? Everyone just sit down. I'm going to go get some hot water. Oh, mind with extra butter, please. And tomatoes. It's time. Oh. Mindy, my show may come across as boring to some people, but it's very informative. I've learned a lot from that show. And I've learned a lot from my show, too. From lizard island? Uh-huh. But it's a reality show about lizards, Mindy. What could you possibly learn from that? Okay, well, first of all, GuyRaz, reality TV is just as valid of an art form as any documentary series that you might be watching. Well, why? And I will have you know that the whole show is actually based on scientific research. It's having real world impacts. Really how? Well, this whole show is about lizards falling in love, right? I guess. I mean, I've never seen the show before. Okay, well, it is. It's about lizards falling in love. Well, how is watching a show about lizards falling in love having a real world impact? Well, I'm so glad you asked. Because one in five lizard species are currently threatened by extinction. And if we don't understand how and why lizards fall in love and make more lizards, well, these threatened species may not be around for very much longer. I don't know, Mindy. I'm not even sure lizards have the ability to fall in love. Well, that's because you haven't seen the show, GuyRaz. If you'd seen sunny and Ned, you would get it. Sunny and Ned? Oh, yeah. They're the two main lizards on the show. They live in Melbourne, Australia. And they're about to find out if sunny is going to pick Ned to be her partner for the 28th season in a row. 28th season? Okay. I'm back. Did I miss anything? And tonight it all comes down to this. Will our two lizard lovers leave the island together? We'll true love cockroach. We'll sunny pick Ned, scales and all. Oh, this is so exciting. Mind if I just, uh, squeeze in here. How? Let's give you a little space. Oh, Dennis, there's a perfectly good armchair over there. When did you go sunbat? Yeah, between Mindy's lizard costume and grandma G-Force laying on it horizontally. I don't think there's enough room for all of us on this couch. I love it. I want to talk about the show with you, the two biggest lizard island fans at this party. Two biggest fans, Dennis. I hadn't even heard about this show until about 10 minutes ago. Okay, fine. Tommy, you want to talk about the show? No. I want a chit chat. Oh. Okay. Mr. Rousey. I really love what you've done with your house here. Tommy, this is my house. I liked it better when it was made out of gingerbread. You are a huge distraction. Oh, here we go. Everyone's just. In Melbourne, Australia, our lizard lovers join for their final date. So, if this is the end of the 27th season, Mindy, are you telling me that these lizards have been together for 27 years? Yes, isn't it the cutest thing ever? Well, that's one way of putting it. Well, how else would you put it? Another word I'd use is unusual. Unusual, what do you mean? Well, don't most animals and the animal kingdom have multiple partners through their life? Yeah, particularly with mammals. Really? Yeah, they tried mammal island a few years ago and it did not work out. Yeah, it was a big thumbs down from Dennis. Turns out that only 5% of mammals stick with their partners for life. At least that's what scientists have estimated. Which I guess wouldn't really work with the show's tagline. One true love for life. Exactly. See? Now you're getting it. Yeah, GuyRaz. Now you're getting it. You're gonna be a real lizard head in no time. Lizard head? Oh, yeah. That's what the fans of the show are called. There's a lot of us. Well, after 27 seasons, that's not surprising. I know. So Mindy, if this show has been around for 27 seasons, does that mean that mating for life is a lot more common amongst reptiles and lizards? Well, that's the problem, GuyRaz. See, there hasn't been a lot of research done on lizard love. Huh. In fact, the only reason they even know about the mating habits of shingleback lizards? That's what Sunny and Ned are. They're shingleback lizards. Yeah, the only reason scientists even know about their relationship is because they accidentally stumbled on it while researching something completely different. Really? How did that happen? Well, if I know this show, which I do, they're probably about to explain all of it in a flashback scene right about now. It all started for our two little love lizards back in 1982. Hair was teased, shoulders were padded, and one reptilian biologist by the name of Michael Bull was looking for ticks. Ticks? As in those tiny parasites that get into your skin and suck your blood? Yeah, those ticks. Why would anyone be looking for them? Guy, this is it! They're getting to that part. You see, at first Dr. Bull was interested in studying the different species of ticks that lived on shingleback lizards. To study these ticks, he would capture shingleback lizards, mark them, take various measurements, then release them. Huh, sounds boring. Tommy! Shush! But after several years and thousands of lizard measurements, Dr. Bull noticed something interesting. Ooh, I'm listening! He noticed that each year in the springtime, the same male and female shingleback lizards would somehow find each other and pair up. Wow! This happened year after year, with lizard pair after lizard pair, including our very own sunny and net. I love this show! For 27 seasons now we've watched sunny and net pair up every single spring. But the question remains, will their love continue? Or will this year be the end of their relationship? Find out after these messages. Tired of eating? Yeah! Okay, I'm gonna go get more snacks. Does anybody want anything? I'll take your glass of milk. Gross, but okay. And now take another one of them hair loom tomato. No grandma, G-Force! No more eating my family heirlooms! Well, huh. Mindy, Guy, anything? Uh, no thanks, Dennis. I'm good. Me too! Okay, be right back. So, Mindy, in that flashback, it looked like those shingleback lizards keep the same partners for long periods of time. Ooh, Guy Ross, it sounds like you might be getting into lizard island now. Well, I'm just interested in its scientific applications. Sure you are. Your secret safe with me. It's true. Well, anyhow, as for the love lives of lizards, there hasn't been a whole lot of research into it because of something called bias. Huh, you mean when someone favors one thing over another? Exactly. In a lot of animal research, we're more likely to research animals that are cute and cuddly than scaling and slimy. So you're saying that there's a lot more research done into animals like bears and cats than snakes and lizards? Yeah, which is why we don't know much about how lizards feel or love or... Ah! It started again! Welcome back to the season finale of Lizard Island. Yes, you're milked, Tommy. Oh, I don't want it anymore. So, wait a minute, Mindy, you really think that these lizards are able to feel emotions like love? I mean, maybe. Like any good citizen scientist, I'm just going off my observations, Guy Ross. Okay. Like this one moment I observed in season five, it's... Oh, look! Looks like they're doing another flashback. And who could forget the tragic twist of fate from season five? When past contestants Trevor and Dominique were crossing the road? Oh, I can't watch! Oh, man, this was brutal. And Dominique? Oh! Was tragically run over by a truck? Ah! One worldwide, whatever! Oh, it's so sad! Wait a minute, Mindy. Did this really happen, or is this just one of those reality TV shows set pieces to pull on my heartstrings? No, this really happened, Guy Ross. This is a real life scientific observation. And what does this have to do with lizard love again? Well, just keep watching. In a heroic act of everlasting love, Trevor stood by Dominique for days, hoping that she might revive. Wait a minute, Mindy. This looks an awful lot like morning, you know, feeling sad when someone close to you dies. That's what I'm trying to say, Guy Ross. Scientists point to instances like this to suggest that lizards might just have real life emotions. Huh, I knew that some apes and even some birds mourned when someone from their social group passed away, but I never thought it was a thing with reptiles. Exactly. Lizards are a lot more emotionally complicated than we think. Really? Oh, yes. Check it out. They're doing another flashback. The courtship of sunny and Ned has been one for the ages. Who could forget this moment of shivori when Ned not only caught dinner, but then proceeded to give the meal to sunny in an act of true romance? Oh, what's here? Oh, okay, wait a minute. Is this real though? Or is this one of those stunts that the producers set up? Guy Ross, it's a reality TV show, of course it's real. I mean... I know what you mean, Guy Ross. And yes, these are actual observations that real researchers have made about lizards in the wild. Wow, so it turns out that reptiles might have more human-like social lives than we first thought. Yeah, and those intricate social lives make for great TV. Oh, these are the most romantic lizards I have ever seen. It's so touching. You know what, Mindy? I think I'm starting to get into this show. Oh, yeah, that's the spirit, Guy Ross. I knew we'd turn you into a lizard head. I wouldn't go that far, but I am interested in seeing how this show could have an impact on the real world. Well, the thinking is, the more we can understand about how reptiles interact with each other... And fall in love! Right, the more we know about all that, the better job we can do at protecting and conserving them. I guess that makes sense. Oh, the final ceremony has happened. Everyone be quiet! And so it's all come down to this. The burning question of the season. Sonny, will you pick Ned to be your partner for the 28th year in a row? Sonny says yes. Yes! 28 times yes! I knew she could do better with this perfect for each other. Oh, well, I guess this show isn't so bad after all, Mindy. I knew you'd like it, Guy Rossi, and good news for you, because you've got so many seasons that we can catch up on. Oh, no. There's season one where Ned caught that fly, or season four where they introduced a snake into the house, or season six where Sonny told Ned. Wow, and the world will be right back. Grown-ups, this message is for you. Hey, grown-ups. Spring is right around the corner. And as schedules fill up with activities and travel, let IXL help you stay on top of your child's learning. IXL is an award-winning online learning platform that fits seamlessly into homeschooling. It offers interactive practice in math, language arts, science, and social studies for grades pre-K through 12th. IXL offers personalized learning for every child and gives parents clear insight into their progress. At TinkerCast, making learning fun is our bread and butter. So we love that IXL has games, awards, and celebrations to keep students motivated and engaged. Make an impact on your child's learning. Get IXL now. And wow, and the world listeners can get an exclusive 20% off IXL membership when they sign up today at IXL.com slash wow. Visit IXL.com slash wow to get the most effective learning program out there at the best price. That's it. Back to the show. Hi, thanks for calling wow in the world. After the beep, get ready to record. I'm Van from Northwest, Arkansas, and I am 7 years old. My well in the world is that an armadillo can hold its breath underwater for 6 minutes. Say hi to grandma for 2 years. And Thomas's sing-erling. And don't don't don't stack man. Hi, name being Guy Ross. My name is Miles. And I'm from Columbus, Ohio. And my well in the world is that a pernose python once exploded after trying to get an alligator. So my name is Oliver and I'm from Lollymau, Carolina. And my well in the world is that jelly says lived before the dinosaur. I'm Nora, an 11-team poll. And my well is that that can shame upside down, so using any muscles and their teeth is a hydrogramidgy force. Oh yeah. Oh, swingly. And Ritchie, bye. I love you, show. Woo! Hi, name being Guy Ross. My name is Charlotte and I'm from Salt Lake City. And my well in the world is that black holes are strong enough to suck in light. Say hi to stay this night cat for me. And I mean Guy Ross, my name is Logan from Indianapolis, My Well. Is that some cat allergic to people say hi to Mindy. I love spinoff. Hi. I'm a spinger. I'm a GeForce. MOTION! And I'm done, done, done, done. That is my best. I am Stuttichman. My name is Joseph and I live in Knoxville, Tennessee. And my well in the world is that fire saw in the interest can chew poison out of two glands on their heads. My name is Annex. I am nine years old and some golds were on North Carolina. And my well is draped tongue is a dark color to prevent sunburn because they spend most of their time in the sun. Hi, my name is Garnas. My name is Glent and I live in Boston, Massachusetts. My well is that broadfishes catch their prey in six milliseconds. Is it not bonkers balls say hi to Dennis? Grandma GeForce. Oh, nice. Thomas bingering in Reggie for me. Oh, that's cool. Bye. End of messages. Wow, and the world is written by Mindy Thomas and Tom Van Kalkin with help from me. Gairas. The original sound design and music editing is done by Tyler Thol with help from our supervising producer, Jed Anderson. You can also hear Jed Anderson and the voices of Dennis, Thomas Fingerling, Reggie, and many of the other silly characters you hear on our show. Jessica Bodie keeps her fact straight as our fact checker and Meredith Halpern ranzer powers the wow at TinkerCast. Team Song was composed and performed by three time Grammy nominees, The Pop-ups. Find them at thepopups.com. Special thanks to Steph Sosa, Henry Moskull, Anna Daniker, Rebecca Kaban, Kit Ballinger, Sona Ali Muhammad, Anna Zegorski, and all of the other Tinkerers at TinkerCast HQ. To keep the wows rolling, visit us at TinkerCast.com where you can become an official member of the world organization of wowsers. Learn about upcoming events, shop our wows shop, find our New York Times bestselling books, and learn about all of our other amazing podcasts from TinkerCast. Grownups, you can follow wow in the world on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter at wow in the world. And our email address is helloatinkercast.com. And if you're a kid with a big wows to share with us, call us at 1-888-7-WOW-WOW for a chance to be featured at the end of our show, or an upcoming episode of Two Wots and a WOW. Thanks again for listening, and until next time, keep on wowing! Wow in the world was made by TinkerCast, and set to you by Wundery!
