Latest / Stuff You Should Know / Whistling!

Transcript

Whistling! · Stuff You Should Know

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff you should know, a production of iHeartRadio.
• 0:11
  Speaker 2: Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh, and there's
• 0:13
  Speaker 2: Chuck and Jerry's here too. And it's become clear to
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: me that I used the slide whistle on the wrong episode.
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: This is stuff you should know. Oh, would they have
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: gotten annoying to you?
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: I think the slide whistle work perfect. And this isn't
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: about slide whistles.
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: No, it's about whistle whistles, which means your mouth with
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: your lips pursed. That's right, So let's just go out
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: of the gate. For the three people who don't know
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: what whistling is, Whistling is the act of making a
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: sound by forcing air through your mouth through a narrow passage,
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: typically with your lips pursed. And that is actually a
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: specific kind of whistling, as we'll see, called pucker whistling.
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: There's other kinds, but that is by far the most
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: common form of whistling. If you can move your tongue
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: a little bit, you can start to get pretty good
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: at whistling. One other thing to start set everything up.
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: There is no genetic basis for not being able to whistle.
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: It's just a lack of practice.
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: Do you whistle right out of the gate, let's hit
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: me with that info. You bet, I don't mean. Can
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: you whistle? Yes?
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: I find myself more going like that, Like I'm not
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: trying to do a song. I don't even know I'm
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: doing it. I like realize I'm doing it as I'm
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: doing it. It's just something to occupy the space around me.
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: I guess. Okay, what about you, Chuck? Do you whistle? Chuck?
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: Are you a whistler?
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: Yeah? I whistle sometimes. I wonder if I annoy people
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: by whistling.
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: Oh, you've never annoyed me by whistling. I can tell
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: you that.
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: But back when, you know, in the early days of
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: HowStuffWorks dot com, when we worked in a big office
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: with you know, fifty people, I used to wonder about
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: stuff like that, like, well, yeah, you know, am I
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: whistling around the office? Is that annoying to people? Kind
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: of like remember the guy who walked around in his
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: sock feet? Oh my god?
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: Why did that bother me so much?
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: Because he walked around in office with sock feet, including
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: the bathroom.
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: Yes, including the bathroom. That's why urinoal in socks it was.
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: I mean, I know that that's just objectively wrong. But
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: I don't the rest of it. I never understood why
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: it bothered me so much.
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: But you just you don't do that. You don't do that,
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: that's why.
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: But you're also not supposed to whistle around the office
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: to FYI.
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and I think I literally kind of was like,
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: I probably shouldn't do that around here, because that was
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: the first office job I ever had.
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: I mean, like, I know for a fact I've noticed
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: you whistling before, but I can tell you it's never
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: bothered me. Ever.
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: I appreciate it. I'm a pretty good whistler, so I
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: like to whistle songs and things.
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: You are a very good whistler.
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: I appreciate that. So well, you know, maybe I'll try
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: a little bit out here and there.
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: Jerry whistles too. You just can't hear it.
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: Oh she's whistling right now.
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: Way to go, Jerry, you're champ.
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: So you mentioned the pucker whistle. That's the most common,
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: you know, whistle that most people walk around doing.
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: That's this.
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: That that's right.
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: I'm going to try to demonstrate them all, so you
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: go through them all, demonstrate them.
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: Okay, that sounds great. Okay, my good friend Eddie whom
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: you've met before. He does what's called the palettal whistling,
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: which is sh that's right, except it makes a whistle
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: sound right, and that is when you put the tongue
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: on the roof of your mouth. I can't do it.
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: Eddie does it really well, so it's always kind of fun.
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: And I'm a big it's just a nostalgia last for
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: me when whenever Eddie breaks out the pal little whistle?
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: Can he spit like that too? You know how you
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: can do like a little little thing of spit like
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: really fast from your mouth by by touching your palette
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: with your tongue.
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: Oh oh, gleaking?
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: Yes, can you do that?
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: I can gleek, but I don't know.
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: If Eddie can, well, then I'll bet you could pallette
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: whistle and I can't. All right, what's the next?
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: The old finger whistle? It's like uh yeah, except again caveat,
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: except it makes a whistles sound.
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: I've never been able to do this. There are different methods,
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: number of fingers where you place them, and stuff like that.
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: The old taxi whistle, that's a that's a finger whistle.
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: Usually I've always been jealous of people who could really
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: bust out a loud finger whistle. I could never do it.
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: Are you jealous the finger whistlers? I mean that's very
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: low on the scale, but sure a little bit.
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: Ok, all right, I mean they're putting their fingers in
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: their mouths, yeah, and walking around New York City.
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: Yep. That's really loud, though.
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: But if you could just Pallett whistle, you can usually
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: whistle as loud as a finger whistle.
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: In my oh, aren't very loud.
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: It's like this right?
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: Oh no, no, I think you're thinking of two different things.
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: Are you thinking of a palette whistle as like a
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: taxi call without fingers?
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: Uh? Yeah, it's the kind of where like your your
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: lips kind of press back in your in your face
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: a little bit and your teeth cairt explosed and your
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: tongue goes up to the roof of your mouth.
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: I think we have a different version of palette whistle.
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: Then maybe I can get Eddie Eddie to record his
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: Pallett whistle.
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: So I know what you're talking about. Then I've seen
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: video of that. Yes, it's coming. It's almost like it
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: comes from the back of the throat.
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean I wish I could do it. When
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: I try to do what he does, it's just nothing
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: comes out.
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: At all palattle whistling except to mix this sound.
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: And then there's throat whistling, which is a very strange
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: looking whistle because your mouth is open. You're you're not
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: you don't have like a puckered purse lip.
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: Oh, that's what I'm thinking of. I don't know what
• 5:57
  Speaker 2: palattal whistling is.
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: If it's not, you know what, I'll at the very
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: least I'll get Eddie to send me an audio thing
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: that I'll text you.
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: Okay, can you text him now? Sure, I'll talk you.
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: Just text for a minute.
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: For the throat whistling. I would want to recommend did
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: you watch those videos I sent you? By any chance
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: I didn't, chuck, I'm sorry. Oh man, that's all right.
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: You have to though, you owe it to yourself, okay,
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: because they're just go to YouTube and type in Ralph Whistler, guys,
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: I guess g I E. S. E. On Kelly and Company,
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: nineteen eighty four, and just witness the beauty of this
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: guy Ralph doing his throat whistling to Georgia on my mind,
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: which got about a half a million, five hundred and
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: fifty thousand views. Then right afterward, in fact, you'll be
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: proddedge to watch the next video, which is best singer
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: ever Whistler redub which is somebody who redubbed him with
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: his strange facial movements. As actual we won't even call
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: it singing, but other mouth noises. That has gotten two
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: and a half million views. Nice and I watched it
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: seven times a day and laughed just as hard every
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: single time. It's man, got funny, It's amazing.
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: Okay, I'll definitely watch it, so Chuck. We can't actually
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: say when whistling started. Some people say that it actually
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: was a proto language, which I find is absolutely fascinating totally.
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: We do know that the that well back into prehistory
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: and the Neolithic Age, people were using maybe even Neanderthals too.
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: We're using bone whistles, the grimmest kind of whistle, which
• 7:40
  Speaker 2: would indicate that we were already familiar with whistles. We
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: probably had figured out how to whistle by then. There's
• 7:47
  Speaker 2: a bioacoustician named Julian Meyer who says the muscles it
• 7:52
  Speaker 2: takes the amount of brain power it takes to whistle
• 7:55
  Speaker 2: is so much less than it is to speak and
• 7:58
  Speaker 2: to use words and creative vocabulary like that. That it
• 8:01
  Speaker 2: just makes sense that we would have evolved to whistle first,
• 8:05
  Speaker 2: at the very least, to get somebody's attention, right, and
• 8:09
  Speaker 2: then once you have somebody's attention, you want to express
• 8:12
  Speaker 2: an idea that just inherently follows. It's almost inevitable that
• 8:17
  Speaker 2: we whistled before we learn to speak.
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: Yeah, there have been legitimate whistling languages discovered on every
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: continent on planet Earth. And then once we move on
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: to recorded history, we know for sure that Greeks and
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: Romans and ancient Greece and Rome whistled because they whistle
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: like to jeer from the audience, like people still do
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: in Europe, at least Europe. I'm sure they do that
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: in other countries, but we boo here in the United States,
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: But in the UK and Europe they whistle when they
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: want to express displeasure.
• 8:51
  Speaker 2: Yeah. There was also so Herodotus in his histories described
• 8:56
  Speaker 2: a community in Ethiopia that lived in caves and spoke
• 8:59
  Speaker 2: like and you know the term troglodites. These were the
• 9:03
  Speaker 2: original troglodites. Yeah, and it's been taken her Auditus has
• 9:07
  Speaker 2: to be taken with a grain of salt because he
• 9:10
  Speaker 2: himself was relying on probably a lot of unreliable sources.
• 9:13
  Speaker 2: He sounds like somebody who would have really bought the
• 9:16
  Speaker 2: stuff that he read on Facebook and put a lot
• 9:19
  Speaker 2: of stuff onto Facebook if you were alive today. But
• 9:22
  Speaker 2: that doesn't mean that there was not like some kernel
• 9:24
  Speaker 2: of truth. And this the Troglodites who spoke like bats
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: has been taken to mean that they had a whistle
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: based language.
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: Yeah, they were all over the place. People just took
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: took whistling and his buddies, Hey, look at this mastad
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: On over here. Let's take this thing down. He says
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: that all in a whistle.
• 9:46
  Speaker 2: He's like And also, have you heard the new Mastodon album?
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: By the way, shout out to Mastodon. I was just
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: the for the second year running the Celebrity Judge quote
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: unquote Celebrity Judge and the Chicken Wing contest for the
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: Kirk with Spring Fling, and one of the other judges
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: was Braun, the drummer of Mastadon Awesome, and he was
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: a super cool dude.
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: Oh I'm sure, how could you not be if you're
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: in Mastadon.
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: Yeah, we'd said there and ate chicken wings together and
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: very seriously reviewed them and rated them.
• 10:17
  Speaker 2: So I'm sure you'd take that seriously. I would too.
• 10:20
  Speaker 2: I would be very disappointed if you just took that
• 10:22
  Speaker 2: as like a lark.
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: Yeah, sixteen chicken wings, wow, lucky. Yeah. Well I didn't
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: eat them all. I ate a house to like four
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: of them, and then most of the rest were just
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: a bite or two.
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: Okay. Do you like smoked wings like you know the
• 10:37
  Speaker 2: Fox Brothers ilk?
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: Yeah, smoke. I have a love hate with smoke on
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: any food it can it's okay, But the same with mezcal.
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: I like it and just little bits and blasts.
• 10:47
  Speaker 2: M uh yeah, I'm with you. Uh. With the smoked
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: wings though, that's that's kind of what I'm on right now.
• 10:54
  Speaker 2: I can eat a lot.
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: Of those those. I mean they the Fox Brothers wings
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: are great.
• 11:00
  Speaker 2: Well, nothing compliments and is complimented by Ranch more than
• 11:04
  Speaker 2: a smoked wing. To me, It's even better than like
• 11:07
  Speaker 2: a regular straight ahead buffalo wing. As far as the
• 11:10
  Speaker 2: Ranch combo works, I.
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: Don't need buffalo anymore at all. I'm a dry lemon
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: pepper guy. Oh all right, These.
• 11:19
  Speaker 2: Days, I always associate that with sports betting and watching
• 11:23
  Speaker 2: like sports on Sunday for some.
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: Reason, well, I do a bit of both.
• 11:28
  Speaker 2: Speaking of dude, have you seen Sorry to all the
• 11:30
  Speaker 2: people who are new to every podcast, have you seen
• 11:33
  Speaker 2: the roast of Tom Brady?
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: Oh? I saw parts of it, but there's no way
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: I could sit through that in earnest, it's so bad.
• 11:41
  Speaker 2: Like the stand up comedians and some of the podcasters
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: did pretty well, Nicky Glazer won the night easily, handily,
• 11:49
  Speaker 2: but when you finally get to Tom Brady's part, it
• 11:52
  Speaker 2: like like it's unwatchable. You just can't you can't look.
• 11:56
  Speaker 2: It's so it's so bad. He's like so going with
• 12:00
  Speaker 2: the joke of how he's the greatest that it becomes
• 12:04
  Speaker 2: kind of painfully clear that he's actually being dead serious
• 12:08
  Speaker 2: at that point. It's not joking at all. It's really tough.
• 12:11
  Speaker 2: I would actually recommend just watching like the first minute
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: and a half of it and see if you can
• 12:15
  Speaker 2: make it that far.
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: I don't know if I could, but shout out on
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: the key Glazer one time stuff you should.
• 12:20
  Speaker 2: Know listener at least yeah, that one time.
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: I mean, I don't know if she still is. In
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: other words, I know what you mean you're just joking.
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: All right, Can we get back to whistling. Yes, that's
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: all my fault. We can move past the history. People
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: get what's going on here.
• 12:36
  Speaker 2: Well, we need to talk about when whistling was like
• 12:38
  Speaker 2: a big deal though in history.
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's what I was getting to. Okay, we're talking Initially,
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: you know that ancient history stuff was like hey, look
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: over here, Hey what should we do? Hey, we're communicating.
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: But if you're talking about whistle why you work? Musical
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: whistling and other words, it's kind of tougher to trace
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: that history because there's nothing, you know, there's no fossil
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: that would indicate anything. But Linda Hamilton, who is a
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: historian and loves whistling, has definitely referenced whistlers in the
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: sixteen hundreds. My bet is that it goes back even
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: further because if people learn to whistle, I believe people
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: are inherently musical, then people are, in my mind, whistling
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: for enjoyment and pleasure.
• 13:30
  Speaker 2: Pleasure. Yeah. Well, even in the Canterbury Tales, Chaucer says
• 13:33
  Speaker 2: the young squire spends his days singing and whistling. So
• 13:38
  Speaker 2: I mean, yeah, that's yes, I agree, I think the
• 13:42
  Speaker 2: first time somebody realized they could whistle, it immediately kicked
• 13:45
  Speaker 2: off the human I guess pastime of whistling for pleasure. Yeah, absolutely,
• 13:51
  Speaker 2: so yeah, they were like, hey over here, Hey, I
• 13:54
  Speaker 2: like that a lot. I'm just going to keep saying
• 13:56
  Speaker 2: hey over here a bunch of times. That was the
• 13:58
  Speaker 2: first time it happened.
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: The first song written by a whistle was called hey
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: over here.
• 14:03
  Speaker 2: So there were actual songs. There were professional whistlers late
• 14:07
  Speaker 2: nineteenth century vaudeville that makes sense, like Vaudeville of George.
• 14:11
  Speaker 2: They had so many acts doing so many different things.
• 14:13
  Speaker 2: Of course there were whistlers, but it caught on, and
• 14:16
  Speaker 2: in the first pretty much half of the twentieth century,
• 14:20
  Speaker 2: there were a lot of whistling acts, whistling performers. They
• 14:24
  Speaker 2: have names like Ronnie Ronalde, Muzzy Marcellino, just perfect names
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: like that, and they were big enough that I think
• 14:31
  Speaker 2: in nineteen forty nine Ronnie Ronalde sold out Radio City
• 14:35
  Speaker 2: Music Hall for ten weeks and he was a whistler.
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: Every night for ten weeks.
• 14:41
  Speaker 2: Yes, yeah, not just like once and then ten weeks later,
• 14:44
  Speaker 2: I mean like every night for ten weeks.
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: Yes, that's a six thousand cap venue.
• 14:50
  Speaker 2: He was a whistler.
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: Oh man, I mean that just so was how big
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: it was. It was usually people. I mean, if you
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: had a whistling act, you were doing one or you
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: were doing usually both of two things, which is whistling
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: songs and things and then mimicking song birds.
• 15:06
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and that's still a thing. I watched Pucker Up,
• 15:09
  Speaker 2: the documentary on whistling. Did you see it?
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: I did.
• 15:13
  Speaker 2: It's great almost in the way that it starts out too.
• 15:17
  Speaker 2: I was like, this is indistinguishable from an episode of documentary. Now,
• 15:22
  Speaker 2: like the first half hour, it really was not tell it.
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: Apart, Yeah, except there was no Fred Armiston her Yeah.
• 15:29
  Speaker 2: But I was just waiting for him to pop up.
• 15:30
  Speaker 2: It was like that go on. But it's a really
• 15:33
  Speaker 2: really sweet, charming documentary and all the people involved are
• 15:36
  Speaker 2: pretty great. But one of the first people, I think,
• 15:39
  Speaker 2: the first whistler they introduce you to a guy named
• 15:42
  Speaker 2: Joe Siddano. He as doing bird impressions out in the
• 15:47
  Speaker 2: woods and the birds are responding to him. It's really
• 15:50
  Speaker 2: neat to see. You're like, wow, this guy's communing with
• 15:52
  Speaker 2: the birds right now out in the world.
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: Yeah, he's talking better watch what you say though, buddy, Yeah,
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: for sure. So it was going on pretty well, whistling
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: very very big in vaudeville, like you said, in a
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: popular act just period, so much so that there was
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: an academy. In nineteen oh nine, the Agnes Woodward, California
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: School of Artistic Whistling opened up, and she had some
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: pretty high profile clients, including John Wayne. I guess wanted
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: to learn how to whistle really well, Pat Boon, Bing Crosby.
• 16:22
  Speaker 2: If you're in a Western, you better know how to whistle.
• 16:24
  Speaker 2: That's my guess why John Wayne needed to learn at.
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: Least whistle for your horse at the very least.
• 16:29
  Speaker 2: Sure. Yeah, your horse loves to hear you whistle.
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: That's a funny joke though in a Western, it's like
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: the cowboy who can't whistle probably feels pretty bad about himself.
• 16:38
  Speaker 2: Probably that reminds me of the singing horse in Top Secret.
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, that was just on an episode of Scott
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: hasn't seen, so that's fresh in my mind.
• 16:49
  Speaker 2: Oh okay, good, So you remember the singing Horse.
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: I remember that, and that it just made me remember
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: how funny that movie is. It is really is.
• 16:58
  Speaker 2: So I think you were a kind of getting to
• 17:00
  Speaker 2: this point where all of a sudden, almost overnight, every
• 17:05
  Speaker 2: whistling act just went away. The world said, we're done
• 17:08
  Speaker 2: with whistling. Stop whistling, And very interestingly, whistling is like
• 17:13
  Speaker 2: not just a musical act, but just kind of as
• 17:15
  Speaker 2: a pastime, something that people just generally did. Went away
• 17:19
  Speaker 2: at the same time too, And I saw that it
• 17:22
  Speaker 2: was chalked up by some people to the advent of
• 17:24
  Speaker 2: the transistor radio, and then eventually the walkman and the
• 17:28
  Speaker 2: iPod I think it was somebody on Pucker Up kind
• 17:31
  Speaker 2: of made this case. And it really makes sense because
• 17:34
  Speaker 2: one of the reasons people would whistle before is because
• 17:37
  Speaker 2: you're just keeping yourself occupied, you're keeping yourself entertained, you're
• 17:41
  Speaker 2: creating music for yourself to enjoy. And that need for
• 17:46
  Speaker 2: that went away when we were able to carry around
• 17:50
  Speaker 2: things that could do that for us, starting with the
• 17:52
  Speaker 2: transistor radio.
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: Yeah, for sure. It also had a bad reputation, even
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: in certain instances in the eighteen hundreds in the UK
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: there were stores that banned whistling because it was used
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: as a sort of language basically between pickpockets and thieves
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: to warn each other. It is still sort of sort
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: of a trophy shorthand for someone that's up to no good,
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: usually somebody trying to play it off as if they
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: are carefree. Oh yeah, like if you were, Yeah, if
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: you were doing a sketch, a comedy sketch about a shoplifter.
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: Every time the shop owner looks over at the shoplifter,
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: they would probably like look up at the sky, and
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: that would kill absolutely. And it's just become sort of
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: a trope. Is a shorthand again, just another sort of
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: weird use for whistling.
• 18:47
  Speaker 2: So it's just like roller skating. You remember how like
• 18:50
  Speaker 2: roller skating was huge in the late seventies and all
• 18:52
  Speaker 2: of a sudden, just overnight, it went away, But like
• 18:56
  Speaker 2: Black culture was like, nope, we're still roller skating, and
• 18:59
  Speaker 2: roller skating continue to be a thing. That kind of
• 19:02
  Speaker 2: happened with whistling. The world was like, we're done with whistling,
• 19:05
  Speaker 2: but a subset of people were like, no, we're going
• 19:08
  Speaker 2: to keep whistling and kept the dream alive of whistling
• 19:11
  Speaker 2: over the years. And I say, we take a break
• 19:14
  Speaker 2: and we come back and talk about a few contemporary whistlers.
• 19:17
  Speaker 2: Let's do it, okay, Chuck, So we're talking about people
• 19:47
  Speaker 2: who whistle today sometimes for a living. There was an
• 19:51
  Speaker 2: artist in the nineties named Marge Carlson who whistle a
• 19:55
  Speaker 2: lot of saccharine Christian songs and was known as America's
• 19:58
  Speaker 2: Sweetheart of bird songs. She was quite a good whistler,
• 20:01
  Speaker 2: but she had albums like she released albums where rather
• 20:06
  Speaker 2: than singing, it was all instrumental, and one of the
• 20:09
  Speaker 2: instruments was her whistling.
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and that's still a thing. I'm sure you looked
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: at these videos, Josh, but there is big things to Anna,
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: by the way, who put this together for us, very cool,
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: robust article. But she found Molly Lewis, who is a
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: contemporary professional whistler, just a wonderful whistler, releasing that She
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: has an EP called The Forgotten Edge. She performs live
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: in concert. There's a very fun YouTube with Molly on
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: one of those Sunday morning shows.
• 20:43
  Speaker 2: I can't remember, yes, Sunday Morning. It was good little segment, Yeah.
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: Very good little segment, like you said, and she just
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: Molly just seems terrific, very enthusiastic about whistling.
• 20:54
  Speaker 2: Yes, she's a whistler, but at the same time she's
• 20:57
  Speaker 2: like bewildered that she's actually making a career of whistling,
• 21:01
  Speaker 2: like she's able to do that.
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: Yeah, she's kind of laughing about it, and not like
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: in a put down way. You just kind of like,
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: I'm good at this weird thing and it's just kind
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: of crazy.
• 21:08
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 21:09
  Speaker 2: She's got some contemporaries too, a lot of I think
• 21:14
  Speaker 2: actually Molly competed too, a lot of the people who
• 21:17
  Speaker 2: you would have heard of as whistlers at least now
• 21:20
  Speaker 2: if you really dig into whistling, you'll end up hearing
• 21:22
  Speaker 2: about him like Chris Olman, Yurt or sorry hert Chatrow,
• 21:27
  Speaker 2: who's just an amazing person. Apparently they competed in like
• 21:32
  Speaker 2: the International Whistling Finals, And as you kind of start
• 21:36
  Speaker 2: to dig into the world of whistling, some names kind
• 21:38
  Speaker 2: of bubble up to the top. And that's because they're
• 21:40
  Speaker 2: essentially competitive whistlers. There's whistling competitions that are held over
• 21:45
  Speaker 2: the years, and some people who are just the best
• 21:47
  Speaker 2: of the best at whistling will compete. So in addition
• 21:51
  Speaker 2: to Molly Lewis, you'll run across the guy named Chris Olman,
• 21:53
  Speaker 2: who's a champion whistler, a guy named hert Chatrow, who's
• 21:57
  Speaker 2: another champion whistler, and they're just amazing and if you
• 22:01
  Speaker 2: if you listen to them, it's like, especially if you
• 22:03
  Speaker 2: just just go watch Pucker Up the documentary. I think
• 22:05
  Speaker 2: it's even on YouTube for free. Yeah, like you'll start
• 22:09
  Speaker 2: to realize that people have their own style, their own techniques.
• 22:14
  Speaker 2: It's not just like there's one way to whistle. People
• 22:16
  Speaker 2: have figured out a bunch of different ways to whistle
• 22:18
  Speaker 2: in different combinations of those ways to whistle, and they're
• 22:22
  Speaker 2: keeping it alive.
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: Like I said, that's right. I mean, Sammy Hagar may
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: say there's only one way to rock, but he will
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: also say there's a lot of ways to whistle.
• 22:31
  Speaker 2: That's right. And he said for those about to rock,
• 22:34
  Speaker 2: we salute you, and.
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: We salute Sammy because he just got a star on
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
• 22:39
  Speaker 2: Oh really, congrats.
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: Yeah, way to go, Sammy. So if you are a
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: great whistler and you, you know, maybe compete in these
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: competitions and you're like, well, not popular enough to get
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: my album out there, like Molly Lewis, you probably could
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: find a home. It sirked us Ola because they have
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: had quite a few whistlers over the years perform with
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: them as circus is a bit of a modern day vaudeville,
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: and they have all kinds of fun things like that. Yeah,
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: we go every year here in Atlanta. It's a nice
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: fun tradition for the fam. You can also whistle on
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: songs and soundtracks. Molly Lewis whistled on that Barbie soundtrack.
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: That's so great. Of course, who can forget the good,
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: the bad, and the ugly Sergio Leoni's famous famous spaghetti
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: Western in which Alessandro Alessandroni did that very sort of
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: iconic whistle for that movie.
• 23:32
  Speaker 2: Oh, it's iconic for sure. I mean it signifies anytime
• 23:36
  Speaker 2: somebody is you're suddenly like potentially in danger because an
• 23:42
  Speaker 2: extraordinarily capable killer has showed up?
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: Is that?
• 23:46
  Speaker 2: I don't know if I'd described that.
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: Correctly, No, like if the s was about to go down?
• 23:52
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I guess so.
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: And as a refresher, of course, Clinty Sort was a good,
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: Lee Van Kleep was a bad and Eli Wallach was
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: the ugly anyway, I know, do you want to bust
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: that one out for us.
• 24:09
  Speaker 2: Like that?
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: Yeah? That was great.
• 24:11
  Speaker 2: I got another one too. There's actually a name you
• 24:14
  Speaker 2: know that whistling part where eld Driver is going to
• 24:18
  Speaker 2: kill the bride at the very beginning of Kill Bill
• 24:21
  Speaker 2: Volume one. Yeah, that song is called Twisted Nerve and
• 24:28
  Speaker 2: it's like the creepiest song you've ever heard in your life.
• 24:30
  Speaker 2: And it's from a nineteen sixty eight British thriller called
• 24:33
  Speaker 2: Twisted Nerve. You know the song I'm talking about.
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: I mean, i'd probably recognize that it's been wat since
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: I've seen that though.
• 24:39
  Speaker 2: It's just creepsville. And for some reason, I think it's
• 24:42
  Speaker 2: because it's whistled in part is why it's creepy. It's
• 24:45
  Speaker 2: a creepy song.
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: All right, I'll have to check that out. You want
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: to take a stab at it her?
• 24:49
  Speaker 2: Now? Sure you know the song?
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: No, but I feel like applauding.
• 25:06
  Speaker 2: I think we should overdub the actual song where I
• 25:09
  Speaker 2: start just impress everybody.
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: That'd be pretty great. Of course, we have to name
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: the fact that sometimes people will whistle as a character.
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: Let's say, if you're Woodstock in Peanuts, Jason Saranus did
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: the Woodstock whistles. And there's got any Percy Edwards who
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: is an animal impressionist and he voices whistles for a
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: lot of animated characters.
• 25:35
  Speaker 2: He also was the voice er I guess the character
• 25:39
  Speaker 2: of Fiz Gig in the Dark Crystal. Essentially that one
• 25:42
  Speaker 2: of the pets.
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: You just whistled, And what did I just whistle? What
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: did I do? I indicated something, didn't I?
• 25:50
  Speaker 2: You expressed emotion, in this case admiration or being impressed.
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: That's right, And what we're talking about is why people whistle.
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: And we've kind of poked around here and there. You
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: know first about the fact that there were languages and
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: stuff like that. If you lived in a mountainous region,
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: A very good way to communicate over a longer distance
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: like that and maybe give a direction is to have
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: some whistles that you agree on. Rather than try and
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: get someone to understand you saying you know, there is
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: wood over here, you might have a whistle that can
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: indicate that a little more clearly. Over a great echoe.
• 26:26
  Speaker 2: Distance, there's also yes. And that's the whole point. Echoe
• 26:30
  Speaker 2: distances are basically the basis of what are known as
• 26:34
  Speaker 2: whistled languages, and they're a whistled version of your local language.
• 26:40
  Speaker 2: So like if you were saying there's wood over there,
• 26:42
  Speaker 2: you'd be like, right, and it actually works, like your
• 26:48
  Speaker 2: whistle can travel way farther. I saw something like five
• 26:50
  Speaker 2: hundred and fifty meters on like a nice spring day,
• 26:54
  Speaker 2: compared to forty meters for just speech one hundred and
• 26:58
  Speaker 2: twenty meters for shouting. One hundred and fifty meters is
• 27:01
  Speaker 2: what your whistle will carry. And there's like neurologists and
• 27:05
  Speaker 2: linguists are just fascinated by this, Like how could you
• 27:08
  Speaker 2: kind of imitate a sentence in whistle and the receiver
• 27:13
  Speaker 2: here's the sentence essentially in the same way as if
• 27:16
  Speaker 2: you spoke it. Like it goes to show like there's
• 27:19
  Speaker 2: a lot that you can strip out of speech and
• 27:22
  Speaker 2: still get the point across. That's what whistle languages to you.
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, if you think about it, there's only
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: a handful of words that you might want to communicate.
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: You don't have to say, hey, we have firewood over here.
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: You just have to be able to say fire here
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: or or vegetable here, you know, And you can just
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: combine very rudimentary expressions to one another informative expressions. What
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: would you call that? Information? Sure, an informative expression.
• 27:52
  Speaker 2: I like that, actually, I like that a lot more
• 27:54
  Speaker 2: than dumb old information. Also, the other person says, what
• 27:59
  Speaker 2: kind of a right, the initial person says tomatoes, and
• 28:03
  Speaker 2: the second person goes tomatoes a fruit, and the initial
• 28:06
  Speaker 2: person says, is it? And it just keeps going on
• 28:08
  Speaker 2: like this. But imagine people doing that whistling.
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that'd be pretty great. We have the legendary wolf whistle,
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: which of course is the that originated they believe as
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: a call like shepherds was used. Would use that to
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: communicate that there are wolves about, and then that evolved
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: to something that you know, a street manhole repair cover
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: person in New York City might do to any woman
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: that walks by.
• 28:36
  Speaker 2: Still supposedly, in twenty eighteen, France banned wolf whistling with
• 28:40
  Speaker 2: a seven hundred and fifty euro fine on the spot.
• 28:43
  Speaker 2: You would be like, you need to pay this on
• 28:45
  Speaker 2: the spot, And that fascinating because it's a it's a
• 28:48
  Speaker 2: form of sexual harassment.
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: Yeah, look at France.
• 28:52
  Speaker 2: And I saw that the or furthest back that a
• 28:55
  Speaker 2: wolf whistle in that context can be traced to is
• 28:58
  Speaker 2: that nineteen forty three Tech Savery cartoon Red Hot Riding Hood,
• 29:03
  Speaker 2: where the cartoon wolf is like watching Riding Hood like
• 29:06
  Speaker 2: perform on stage and just completely loses his mind.
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: Any wolf whistles, that's right, you know earlier the old uh?
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: I mean that can that one in itself can mean
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: several different things. You could be impressed by something and
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: go like that, or you could use it sort of
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: derisively if someone did something really embarrassing or bad at
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: a party.
• 29:29
  Speaker 2: True, you just made my stomach turn? Wow? Well yeah,
• 29:32
  Speaker 2: effect of a whistle in certain contexts.
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: And usually like an eye roll and something along with
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: it will help indicate that expression. But it's just really
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: fascinating how many different sort of you can express disappointment
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: or excitement, Like, how many different things you can do
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: from just a simple whistle.
• 29:48
  Speaker 2: Wonder where your car is?
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: Yeah, how would you do that? Wait? I thought that
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: was vegetable here.
• 29:59
  Speaker 2: And one other thing we have to talk about. We
• 30:01
  Speaker 2: mentioned communicating with animals, and we talked about this in
• 30:04
  Speaker 2: I think They're communicating with animals episode appropriately enough. The
• 30:08
  Speaker 2: greater honeyguide, which is a type of bird found in
• 30:11
  Speaker 2: Tanzania Mozambique that honey foragers. Human honey foragers have learned
• 30:16
  Speaker 2: to communicate to whistle to the greater honey guide to
• 30:19
  Speaker 2: get them to come out of the trees and lead
• 30:22
  Speaker 2: them to a beehive.
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: Amazing.
• 30:25
  Speaker 2: I love that. Communicating with animals, I think is just fantastic.
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: It's the best. Maybe we'll take a break in a sec,
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: but we'll go over some quick superstitions involving whistling, and
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: you know, instead of going through all these I think
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: they can all almost be lumped into. Whistling in a
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: certain place or at a certain time can bring bad luck.
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: It seems like Polynesia, Iceland, Hawaii, Mexico, Hong Kong, Scandinavia.
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: There's so many countries where if you whish, like I said,
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: in the wrong place or at the wrong time, it
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: can be a bad omen. It can mean there's ghosts about,
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: or there's spirits about, just sort of depending on when
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: and how it's done.
• 31:11
  Speaker 2: Yeah, usually it's whistling in the dark or after dark.
• 31:16
  Speaker 2: Is a terrible idea in a lot of these cultures
• 31:18
  Speaker 2: around the world, and that the bad luck that you're
• 31:20
  Speaker 2: going to bring yourself is summoning spirits, demons, that kind
• 31:23
  Speaker 2: of thing who will snatch your soul essentially. But I
• 31:26
  Speaker 2: find it fascinating that whistling in the dark or whistling
• 31:30
  Speaker 2: after nightfall is like almost a universal superstition.
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: Well, I've never heard of that.
• 31:37
  Speaker 2: I hadn't either, but I mean all of the different,
• 31:39
  Speaker 2: like widespread cultures that share that belief, it suggests that
• 31:46
  Speaker 2: it's a very very very old superstition.
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: Yeah, for sure.
• 31:51
  Speaker 2: So you want to take that break.
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: Yeah, we'll take the break and we'll talk more about
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: whistling and basically how you do it right after this. Okay,
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: all right, we're back with promise on teaching you to whistle.
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: It is very cute when you have a kid and
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: they try to learn to whistle and think and claim
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: that they are whistling when they are not. At least
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: that was my case early on, when Ruby was trying
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: to learn how to whistle, she'd be like, Daddy, I
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: can whistle. Oh, let's hear it. And what can you
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: say besides hey, that sounds great, keep at it.
• 32:53
  Speaker 2: You were like, and gave Brad and iyrol exactly and
• 32:58
  Speaker 2: she was like, what is that?
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: That is not even a whistle. But it does take
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: some time to learn how to whistle. Some people never learn,
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: but you can teach yourself. What you're doing basically is
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: creating your mouth becomes an instrument and becomes a chamber.
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: Basically where you are passing air from one small opening
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: from your lungs where the air comes from out of
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: your puckered lips. And you do that with the standard
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: pucker whistle by placing your tongue. And you might even
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: realize at first, I was like, wait a minute, the
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: tongu's not on the roof of your mouth. But the
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: tongue is absolutely at the roof of your mouth. The
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: very back of your tongue is at the very back
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: of the roof of your mouth, not the front of
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: your tongue. The front of your tongue is pressed against
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: the bottom row of teeth. And that's what you do.
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: You just start blowing. You form that O shape with
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: your mouth and just practice, practice.
• 33:54
  Speaker 2: Practice, Yeah, it's really neat. It's called the Helmholtz chamber
• 33:58
  Speaker 2: that you're forming, which is a type of resonance chamber.
• 34:01
  Speaker 2: And because you're forcing air through a large from smaller
• 34:05
  Speaker 2: holes into a larger hole back into a smaller hole
• 34:08
  Speaker 2: and your tongue's there by moving your tongue, you can
• 34:11
  Speaker 2: adjust like all sorts of weird currents that you're creating
• 34:14
  Speaker 2: in the air pressure and that creates the vibrations that
• 34:17
  Speaker 2: make the sound, which is why when you move your
• 34:19
  Speaker 2: tongue around, you change notes and pitch and timber and
• 34:23
  Speaker 2: all sorts of crazy stuff. And that's whistling. That's pucker whistling.
• 34:27
  Speaker 2: That's what you're doing. I love it. I love that
• 34:30
  Speaker 2: there's like an explanation that makes total sense. It's deeply
• 34:34
  Speaker 2: satisfying to me. It would suck if we're like, we
• 34:37
  Speaker 2: still don't know how we whistle. I think I would
• 34:40
  Speaker 2: lose my mind if that were the case.
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: Yeah, And you know, when we're saying things like moving
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: your tongue around and the tongue is pressed against the
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: top of your mouth, like if you don't know how
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: to whistle, and that's frustrating you and you're just moving
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: your tongue all over the place, it's they're very very
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: subtle movements. Like I said, I didn't even realize my
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: tongue was a against the back of the roof of
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: my mouth. I didn't either until I started whistling and
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: I was like, oh, wait a minute, I guess it is.
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: And then the back of my tongue, very subtly moving
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: back and forth against the back of the roof of
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: my mouth is what creates the different tones and pitches
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: and warbles and what have you. So it's not it's
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: just all just very, very slight movements. You're going to
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: frustrate yourself if you don't know how to whistle and
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: you're trying just all these crazy things with your tongue
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: in your mouth.
• 35:28
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Chris Olman, that champion professional whistler, he spoke with
• 35:33
  Speaker 2: Vox and said, I'll give you four steps to whistling. First,
• 35:36
  Speaker 2: form and O with the shape of your mouth. Second,
• 35:39
  Speaker 2: press the tip of your tongue to your teeth, usually
• 35:41
  Speaker 2: the bottom row of the inside of the bottom row
• 35:43
  Speaker 2: of your teeth. And then he said, blow gently. This
• 35:46
  Speaker 2: is important. You want your air to be focused and constant,
• 35:49
  Speaker 2: not necessarily hard. The hearder you blow, it's actually it
• 35:53
  Speaker 2: makes it more difficult to whistle. You just wanted to
• 35:56
  Speaker 2: kind of blow concertedly but not hard. And then lastly,
• 36:01
  Speaker 2: you just keep practicing. And the way that he put
• 36:03
  Speaker 2: it is you practice each one of those steps in secession.
• 36:08
  Speaker 2: So you just keep forming an over and over until
• 36:11
  Speaker 2: you've got the mouth position going.
• 36:13
  Speaker 1: Yeah. I feel good because my steps were exactly like
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: the pros.
• 36:18
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I guess you just intuitively knew how to whistle.
• 36:21
  Speaker 2: You just taught yourself like that? Is that what you're saying?
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: No, no, no, I'm saying the way I described it
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: how to do it was. Oh, of course he's.
• 36:28
  Speaker 2: A pro, So you're a pro podcaster.
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: So should we talk a little bit about famous whistling stuff?
• 36:36
  Speaker 2: I think so. I mean, at the very least, we
• 36:38
  Speaker 2: have to talk about to Have and Have Not?
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: Uh yeah, the I mean take it away.
• 36:44
  Speaker 2: Then, okay. So there's an adaptation of a Hemingway novel
• 36:48
  Speaker 2: To Have and Have Not, with Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart,
• 36:54
  Speaker 2: and there's a very famous line where Bacaull says, you
• 36:56
  Speaker 2: know how to whistle, don't you, Steve? You just put
• 36:59
  Speaker 2: your lips together and blow. And that's probably the most
• 37:03
  Speaker 2: famous movie line about whistling ever. Uttered everybody knows that one.
• 37:07
  Speaker 2: Then you might not know a movie it's from or
• 37:09
  Speaker 2: who said it, but you've heard that line. Don't even
• 37:13
  Speaker 2: kid yourself.
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: The very famous whistle while you work from Stow White
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: and the Seven Doors. Of course, the Andy Griffith Show.
• 37:22
  Speaker 1: I remember very distinctly when my brother, when I first
• 37:25
  Speaker 1: visited him in Los Angeles in the early nineties, he
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: drove me up and up and around, and finally I
• 37:32
  Speaker 1: came upon through the Hollywood Hills and I came upon
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: this weird lake and I was like, well, what is this?
• 37:37
  Speaker 1: And he just started whistling Andy Griffith and I was like, no,
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: He's like, yep, this is it. I knew it wasn't Mayberry,
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: but I didn't know really anything about how movies were
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: made at the time. Sure, so it was just surprising
• 37:50
  Speaker 1: to see that, Like the bat Cave is the Hollywood
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: Hills and the Andy Griffith Lake is right there.
• 37:55
  Speaker 2: Yeah, same with the Hills in mash the Hills of Korea. Yeah,
• 38:01
  Speaker 2: there's a lot of songs too. We gotta we gotta
• 38:03
  Speaker 2: name check a few of these songs that have whistling
• 38:05
  Speaker 2: in them. Yes, there's walk like an Egyptian. It's a
• 38:09
  Speaker 2: good one, precisely, Okay, Yeah, demonstrate them all. Otis Redding's
• 38:18
  Speaker 2: Dock of the Bay very nice.
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: My whistle is very dry. Right now, I'm not at
• 38:25
  Speaker 1: my top.
• 38:26
  Speaker 2: Form Scorpions, Winds of Change.
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: I can't think of that one. I know that song?
• 38:31
  Speaker 1: What is it?
• 38:35
  Speaker 2: Oh, that's right, Yeah, it's good. There's also a bunch
• 38:39
  Speaker 2: of others. Me and Julio down by the schoolyard, Don't worry,
• 38:43
  Speaker 2: be Happy. Maybe the iconic whistling song, that one sudden
• 38:47
  Speaker 2: part where Axel Roses starts whistling in patience.
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that was on my list. That's a great whistle.
• 38:53
  Speaker 2: Lile, I Love You The Pixies song.
• 38:56
  Speaker 1: Uh huh yeah, yeah, I'm going to see them next week.
• 39:00
  Speaker 2: You're going to see the Pixies yea where.
• 39:03
  Speaker 1: They're playing Chastain with Modest Mouse.
• 39:06
  Speaker 2: Oh neat, So is Kim deal back with them yet?
• 39:08
  Speaker 2: Or no?
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: Oh no, no, no, she's she's never coming back.
• 39:11
  Speaker 2: Oh okay.
• 39:12
  Speaker 1: And not only that, they kicked out pause their their
• 39:15
  Speaker 1: bass player that they've had for the past eight or
• 39:17
  Speaker 1: nine years.
• 39:18
  Speaker 2: Wow. We black Francis is going on a tear.
• 39:21
  Speaker 1: Huh yeah. I don't want to speak out of school
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: about why that may or may not have happened, but
• 39:26
  Speaker 1: it seems fairly disappointing from what I've read. Wow, yeah,
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: but I'm still going.
• 39:32
  Speaker 2: Uh, what else was there? Oh? Mariah Carey is a
• 39:35
  Speaker 2: famous whistler.
• 39:37
  Speaker 1: Well, eh, I know you're kidding around there. Mariah Carey
• 39:41
  Speaker 1: is noted for singing in what's called the flute register,
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: or the whistle register, which is a vocal register. It's
• 39:50
  Speaker 1: the highest one in the vocal register, higher than falsetto.
• 39:54
  Speaker 1: Even that very very few people can do. And they
• 39:57
  Speaker 1: call it the whistle register or the flute register because
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: those pitches can generally only be made by flutes and
• 40:03
  Speaker 1: whistles rather than a singer like Mariah.
• 40:06
  Speaker 2: Once you hear it described as the whistle register, and
• 40:09
  Speaker 2: you hear those notes that she's sitting, you're like, oh
• 40:11
  Speaker 2: my god, that sounds exactly like a whistle. It's like
• 40:13
  Speaker 2: a perfect name for it. Yeah, but she's singing it.
• 40:16
  Speaker 2: It's absurd. Yeah, and all it should be essentially impossible
• 40:20
  Speaker 2: what she's doing. She's not the only one. Minnie Ripperton
• 40:23
  Speaker 2: is another famous one who hit the whistles register. Yeah,
• 40:27
  Speaker 2: the famous seventies souls songstress. All those are the two
• 40:31
  Speaker 2: of that come to mind. Okay, but that's I'm just
• 40:35
  Speaker 2: impressed to no end by that.
• 40:37
  Speaker 1: What about the what's the name Aguilera.
• 40:41
  Speaker 2: Christina Aguilera.
• 40:42
  Speaker 1: Yeah, Yeah, she's got that whistle range. I've heard it.
• 40:45
  Speaker 2: Does she really sure? Okay?
• 40:48
  Speaker 1: I think she's there's a couple of younger artists. Actually,
• 40:51
  Speaker 1: she's not one of the younger artists anymore either.
• 40:53
  Speaker 2: Really No, we're pretty old chun Yeah. Uh.
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: You mentioned those competitions. The I think granddaddy of them
• 41:01
  Speaker 1: all was shuttered unfortunately in twenty fourteen. It started nineteen
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: seventy three, the Louisbourg or louis Bourg, I don't know
• 41:09
  Speaker 1: how they say it. They're in North Carolina, and it
• 41:12
  Speaker 1: was a big one, and like I said, it shut
• 41:14
  Speaker 1: down in twenty fourteen, and I believe it's now just
• 41:19
  Speaker 1: its own event. It was part of the Louisbourg College
• 41:21
  Speaker 1: Folk Festival and now it's the National Whistlers Convention. So
• 41:25
  Speaker 1: it more morphed then shut down.
• 41:28
  Speaker 2: Yeah. I think it just became so popular people are like,
• 41:30
  Speaker 2: we want this to be its own event. Yeah. Somehow,
• 41:34
  Speaker 2: for some reason in twenty fourteen, that was the last one,
• 41:37
  Speaker 2: and that was the competition that's featured on Pucker Up
• 41:40
  Speaker 2: by the way. That National Whistler's Convention, I think it
• 41:42
  Speaker 2: was international. And then luckily a ficionaudo named Caroline Kaufman,
• 41:48
  Speaker 2: who said, hey, we're going to keep this going, created
• 41:51
  Speaker 2: the Masters of Musical Whistling competition in Pasadena, I think
• 41:56
  Speaker 2: starting in twenty twenty. This year's and off year, but
• 41:59
  Speaker 2: the website promises it's coming back in twenty twenty five.
• 42:03
  Speaker 1: I love it. We should finish probably on some Guinness
• 42:07
  Speaker 1: records because my friend, if we want to take the
• 42:10
  Speaker 1: time and do a lot of paperwork, we could very
• 42:14
  Speaker 1: easily hold our own Guinness World record, and I kind
• 42:17
  Speaker 1: of think we should do it. What well, in twenty fourteen,
• 42:21
  Speaker 1: there was a Guinness record for the most people whistling
• 42:24
  Speaker 1: at the same time at a single venue, and it
• 42:27
  Speaker 1: was a mere eight hundred and fifty three people at
• 42:29
  Speaker 1: the Spring Harvest in the United Kingdom. We could bust
• 42:33
  Speaker 1: that record at one of our live shows very easily.
• 42:37
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, we totally. That's a great idea. We got
• 42:40
  Speaker 2: to get that in the works chuck.
• 42:42
  Speaker 1: Yeah, which means who's going to do all the work,
• 42:46
  Speaker 1: because we talked about about, oh god, how much work
• 42:49
  Speaker 1: it is, and most people give up because there's so
• 42:50
  Speaker 1: much work to officially get a record, you know verified.
• 42:54
  Speaker 2: This feels like a jerry job. Oh yeah, right, what
• 42:59
  Speaker 2: are we going to get everybody to whistle?
• 43:01
  Speaker 1: Oh goodness, I mean probably the stuff you should know
• 43:05
  Speaker 1: jingle theme.
• 43:07
  Speaker 2: Oh that's a good idea. I was thinking winds are
• 43:09
  Speaker 2: change and we would invite the escorpions to sing a
• 43:11
  Speaker 2: capella to the whistling.
• 43:13
  Speaker 1: That's a good idea. We could just get up there
• 43:15
  Speaker 1: and go what were you doing?
• 43:25
  Speaker 2: I think it was a Christmas Carol. I don't know
• 43:27
  Speaker 2: which one though.
• 43:29
  Speaker 1: Wow. All right, well, as long as no one does
• 43:31
  Speaker 1: what you do, we'll be just fine.
• 43:34
  Speaker 2: I thought we harmonized quite nicely. Oh okay, Well, let's
• 43:38
  Speaker 2: talk about some world records, because yes, I agree, we
• 43:40
  Speaker 2: should break that one, and we'll ask Jerry to help
• 43:43
  Speaker 2: us with that.
• 43:44
  Speaker 1: We could do that everywhere, but probably DC, that's right,
• 43:49
  Speaker 1: or Atlanta. Well, we'll get in Atlanta.
• 43:52
  Speaker 2: Yeah, we'll see. So in two thousand and four, this
• 43:56
  Speaker 2: is insane. Okay, no, this isn't a saying. This is
• 44:00
  Speaker 2: still pretty impressive. Marco Ferrera in two thousand and four,
• 44:04
  Speaker 2: and then Luca Zoki or Zochi Nozoki in twenty fourteen.
• 44:10
  Speaker 2: They hold the record for the world's loudest whistle. They
• 44:13
  Speaker 2: each reached one hundred and twenty five decibels. Again, I
• 44:16
  Speaker 2: don't remember what episode we were in, but that's like
• 44:19
  Speaker 2: rock concert level decibels. I think it was our plane travel.
• 44:23
  Speaker 1: That's that is amazing. Yeah.
• 44:26
  Speaker 2: Yeah, uh, the one that really knocks my socks off, though,
• 44:30
  Speaker 2: Is the one that Joshua Lockert broke?
• 44:32
  Speaker 1: Oh the highest pitch? Yes, dude, I don't even know
• 44:35
  Speaker 1: what that means.
• 44:37
  Speaker 2: Okay, so he has the world record for the world's
• 44:39
  Speaker 2: highest whistle in frequency ten five hundred and ninety nine hertz,
• 44:44
  Speaker 2: which is almost eleven kill it hurts, right, go look
• 44:50
  Speaker 2: up on YouTube eleven kill it hurts tone. And I
• 44:55
  Speaker 2: played it and I had my volume up about halfway
• 44:58
  Speaker 2: and it was just silent, and I was like, is
• 45:00
  Speaker 2: this a prank? Is this a joke? Like somebody goes
• 45:02
  Speaker 2: around and puts up like videos like they're playing a tone,
• 45:04
  Speaker 2: but then doesn't put any sound to it. And I
• 45:07
  Speaker 2: turned it all the way up and only then could
• 45:10
  Speaker 2: I hear it. It was that high pitched. It was
• 45:12
  Speaker 2: almost above like audible range of hearing. That's how high
• 45:16
  Speaker 2: pitched it was. That guy did that with a whistle.
• 45:20
  Speaker 2: It was It's amazing. I didn't hear it, but just
• 45:22
  Speaker 2: from knowing what that tone sounds like, I can't imagine
• 45:25
  Speaker 2: a human being doing that.
• 45:28
  Speaker 1: I'm playing it right. Oh wait, turn it.
• 45:30
  Speaker 2: Way up, but keep your wineglasses out of the room
• 45:34
  Speaker 2: because they will shatter.
• 45:37
  Speaker 1: I'm hearing nothing, right, turn it up. No, it's up
• 45:41
  Speaker 1: all the way.
• 45:42
  Speaker 2: Okay, well that's what I'm saying, like it's it's amazing,
• 45:46
  Speaker 2: Like I finally did hear it. I can confirm it's
• 45:48
  Speaker 2: not just a prank.
• 45:49
  Speaker 1: Oh wait, I got it. Mm hm, oh my god.
• 45:53
  Speaker 2: Somebody whistled like that.
• 45:56
  Speaker 1: That's crazy.
• 45:58
  Speaker 2: Yeah, we should just tell everyon We've been playing it
• 46:00
  Speaker 2: this whole time, just to prove our point. You can't
• 46:03
  Speaker 2: hear it because it's so high.
• 46:05
  Speaker 1: Occasionally, ever since Ruby was a kid, I'll be in
• 46:07
  Speaker 1: the car here and there, and I'll go, everyone knows
• 46:11
  Speaker 1: I can sing lower than the new human, and then
• 46:15
  Speaker 1: she'll try and sing lower, and then I'll go, and I.
• 46:17
  Speaker 2: Can sing higher than any Oh, that's pretty high.
• 46:20
  Speaker 1: She will always, but it's not singing, of course, and
• 46:22
  Speaker 1: then she responds back fussly and is also not singing.
• 46:25
  Speaker 2: Do any of you have the whistle register ability?
• 46:29
  Speaker 1: Uh? No? No? And I feel bad that I really
• 46:33
  Speaker 1: lamed out on whistling, because I'm a prettyod whistle. I
• 46:35
  Speaker 1: can do some good warbles and stuff, but of course
• 46:37
  Speaker 1: under the gun, I'm all dry mouth. It's just not happening.
• 46:40
  Speaker 2: Were you nervous.
• 46:42
  Speaker 1: Yeah that too. I'm not no, but I'm not even
• 46:51
  Speaker 1: getting any warble.
• 46:51
  Speaker 2: It's like a beautiful little lark flew into the room.
• 46:54
  Speaker 1: As soon as we had stop, I'll be whistling like
• 46:57
  Speaker 1: a songbird. I guarantee it. It just I'm locking up right now.
• 47:00
  Speaker 2: I've got that last whistle was great. I've got one
• 47:04
  Speaker 2: little fact to share.
• 47:05
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 47:06
  Speaker 2: So in one of the nineteen eighty four editions of
• 47:09
  Speaker 2: the British Medical Journal, there was a case study about
• 47:12
  Speaker 2: a patient who suffered a stroke and as they were recovering,
• 47:16
  Speaker 2: there are only way to communicate. They couldn't talk. They
• 47:20
  Speaker 2: had an elated mood. I saw it, described it so
• 47:22
  Speaker 2: imagine a really happy person who could only whistle. That's
• 47:25
  Speaker 2: how the guy was communicating as he came back as
• 47:28
  Speaker 2: he was recovering from his stroke. Isn't that amazing? I
• 47:31
  Speaker 2: couldn't talk. He whistled. He wasn't whistling in words. He
• 47:34
  Speaker 2: would just whistle as if he were communicating. That is
• 47:38
  Speaker 2: really sweet, I thought, so too. Yeah what else? Anything else?
• 47:43
  Speaker 1: I got nothing else?
• 47:44
  Speaker 2: Well then, everybody. That means, of course it's time for
• 47:47
  Speaker 2: listener mail.
• 47:50
  Speaker 1: Hey guys, this is a follow up on trash in
• 47:54
  Speaker 1: the book plug this seems just like a wonderful thing. Hey, guys,
• 47:57
  Speaker 1: wanted to write in and give an extra big hat
• 47:59
  Speaker 1: tip your recent New York City trash episode. What joy
• 48:02
  Speaker 1: That episode brought me. I live in New York City
• 48:05
  Speaker 1: and I have what one may say is an obsession
• 48:08
  Speaker 1: with trash here Wow started during COVID as I was
• 48:11
  Speaker 1: locked down with my partner who then lived on Roosevelt
• 48:14
  Speaker 1: Island and his apartment head views of the East River
• 48:17
  Speaker 1: the path of the container garbage barges from ninety first
• 48:20
  Speaker 1: Street Marine transfer Station. I watched them, made efforts to
• 48:23
  Speaker 1: identify them, film them, and eventually it led to me
• 48:26
  Speaker 1: writing a children's book about New York City trash.
• 48:29
  Speaker 2: Awesome.
• 48:30
  Speaker 1: It's so cool. Seeing the multitude of the garbage was
• 48:32
  Speaker 1: jarring and all very fascinating. The book is about Gary,
• 48:36
  Speaker 1: a city rat, and his adventures with Marge. The garbage barge.
• 48:40
  Speaker 1: Is definitely not a full capture of the city's garbage,
• 48:42
  Speaker 1: but a story of one of its many routes. I
• 48:45
  Speaker 1: now live in Brooklyn with my partner, so I no
• 48:47
  Speaker 1: longer have regular views of the garbage barges boo, but
• 48:51
  Speaker 1: I still visit the river to look at them. Needless
• 48:54
  Speaker 1: to say, I love your other previous garbage related episodes
• 48:57
  Speaker 1: as well, and I want to say general thank you
• 48:59
  Speaker 1: for your show. I've been a listener since twenty sixteen,
• 49:01
  Speaker 1: learn so much from you across so many topics. And lastly,
• 49:05
  Speaker 1: I'm greatly looking forward to your live show in New
• 49:07
  Speaker 1: York at the end of the month. That is from
• 49:10
  Speaker 1: Jessica Chang in Brooklyn, New York. And Jessica's book is
• 49:13
  Speaker 1: Gary meets Margethebarge.
• 49:16
  Speaker 2: That's awesome. Congratulations, Jessica. That's a great book idea. Yeah,
• 49:20
  Speaker 2: I gotta get that one.
• 49:22
  Speaker 1: So go go buy it, go to some independent bookseller
• 49:25
  Speaker 1: of your choice or look it up online and it's
• 49:27
  Speaker 1: port Jessica.
• 49:28
  Speaker 2: And then yeah, just walk in and say I'll take
• 49:31
  Speaker 2: one copy of Jerry meets Marche the Barge please, that's right,
• 49:35
  Speaker 2: and they'll go.
• 49:38
  Speaker 1: Another one.
• 49:41
  Speaker 2: If you want to be like Jessica and let us
• 49:43
  Speaker 2: know about an awesome book you wrote, we would love
• 49:46
  Speaker 2: to hear that. You can write about your book in
• 49:48
  Speaker 2: an email and send it off to Stuff podcast at
• 49:51
  Speaker 2: iHeartRadio dot com.
• 49:55
  Speaker 1: Stuff you Should Know is a production of iHeartRadio. For
• 49:58
  Speaker 1: more podcasts, my heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts,
• 50:03
  Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.