Latest / Stuff You Should Know / SYSK Selects: How do dogs perceive time?

Transcript

SYSK Selects: How do dogs perceive time? · Stuff You Should Know

0:01
Speaker 1: Hey, Palas, how you doing? Charles W Chuck Bryant Here
0:03
Speaker 1: on a Saturday with my select pick for this week
0:06
Speaker 1: from September do thousand nine. One of our many many
0:10
Speaker 1: episodes on dogs, and this is a good one, How
0:13
Speaker 1: Did Dogs Perceive Time? Really really good stuff. Check it out.
0:21
Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Should Know, a production of I
0:24
Speaker 1: Heart Radios How Stuff Works. Hey, and welcome to the podcast.
0:33
Speaker 1: I'm Josh Clark. There's Charles Chuck Bryant. Chuck right, Yes,
0:38
Speaker 1: nice Chuck. We'll get to that in a second. Do
0:41
Speaker 1: it again. That's awesome. Chuck's barking because this is stuff
0:46
Speaker 1: you should know. And this particular stuff you should know
0:48
Speaker 1: is entitled how do Dogs Perceived Time? And I said
0:52
Speaker 1: in dog language just then, I don't perceive time. That
0:57
Speaker 1: is up for debate, my friend, up for vigorous debate.
1:00
Speaker 1: All right, So Chuck, um, let me let me do
1:03
Speaker 1: a little intro here, a little lead in segue. Whatever
1:06
Speaker 1: spoiled your parade? There? What do we call them these days?
1:09
Speaker 1: What do we what segways? Lead In's introstro schke Um, Chuck,
1:15
Speaker 1: about a year ago, well, a year ago this month, Paris, well, France, Paris,
1:22
Speaker 1: France made history, legal history. So uh, they actually used
1:27
Speaker 1: a dog as a witness in a criminal case. Did
1:31
Speaker 1: they get the dog to like bark at someone? Wow?
1:34
Speaker 1: I kid you not like an intruder at the very least.
1:37
Speaker 1: And I hope I'm not a Bangladeshi newspaper here, um
1:40
Speaker 1: because I found it, uh in the Daily Mail, which
1:44
Speaker 1: is not known for satire, but it's all. It can
1:46
Speaker 1: be known for poor reporting from time to time. So
1:48
Speaker 1: you may have egg on your face soon we'll find out. Um.
1:51
Speaker 1: But there was a dog named Scooby that was brought
1:53
Speaker 1: into a doesn't it I should afford to this article? Um,
2:00
Speaker 1: there is a dog named Scooby that was brought into
2:03
Speaker 1: a murder case or a hearing to see if there
2:08
Speaker 1: was enough evidence to try a man for murder for
2:12
Speaker 1: something that was ruled the suicide. And the dog barked
2:14
Speaker 1: furiously at the alleged perpetrator and they gave him a
2:18
Speaker 1: Scooby snack. Yeah, so that was the last I heard.
2:21
Speaker 1: It was from a year ago, but there was some
2:24
Speaker 1: concern over whether the dog's memory would serve it or
2:28
Speaker 1: not because it had been two and a half years
2:31
Speaker 1: since the incident. Okay, that makes sense, and that's kind
2:34
Speaker 1: of key to how dogs may or may not perceive times.
2:38
Speaker 1: The best I could come up with, that's thanks, so
2:41
Speaker 1: um what that What that betrays is a sense by
2:46
Speaker 1: at least the reporter and the courts in Paris that
2:50
Speaker 1: dogs have a memory, that they they If they have
2:55
Speaker 1: a memory, then they should be able to perceive time. Right, Chuck,
2:59
Speaker 1: let's talk about this. What is time? Kidding me? Well,
3:04
Speaker 1: you know my whole deal with time, I've said it before.
3:06
Speaker 1: What a little time is just abstract numbers on a
3:09
Speaker 1: calendar and and hands on a watch, aren't time? Well yeah, no,
3:13
Speaker 1: what you're talking about is the human construct of time. Yes,
3:16
Speaker 1: based on twenty four hours, which is all kind of
3:19
Speaker 1: arbitrary seven days in a week there, well, not necessarily
3:23
Speaker 1: were Here's why. Uh, it was actually kind of ingenious
3:28
Speaker 1: that we should come up with the twenty four hour
3:30
Speaker 1: day because we have these things called circadian oscillators, yes,
3:34
Speaker 1: which are the well they're the fluctuators in our circadian rhythm,
3:39
Speaker 1: which is what makes us fall asleep at night, work
3:42
Speaker 1: up in the morningperaure get hungry at certain times. Neural activity, right,
3:46
Speaker 1: the neural activity and the hormones UM are reactions to
3:50
Speaker 1: things like changes in temperature that are on a daily
3:53
Speaker 1: basis UM, things like um, the changes in natural light
3:58
Speaker 1: right right, So our our reactions to these are circadian oscillators.
4:03
Speaker 1: And if you put them all together, like sleeping at
4:05
Speaker 1: night and and um waking up in the morning, that's
4:08
Speaker 1: our circadian rhythm. But the circadian clocks actually exist on
4:13
Speaker 1: about a twenty four hour period. That makes sense then.
4:16
Speaker 1: So but like you said, days on the calendar and
4:19
Speaker 1: all that, that's that is a human construct. Yeah, So
4:22
Speaker 1: what we're trying to get to the bottom of is
4:24
Speaker 1: whether or not dogs can perceive this not necessarily the
4:28
Speaker 1: human construct of time, but of time in and of itself,
4:32
Speaker 1: which is essentially a past present in future exactly. And
4:36
Speaker 1: I know that one thing that we will talk about,
4:39
Speaker 1: and maybe we'll talk about right now is you have
4:41
Speaker 1: three dogs? Do you have any dogs? I have two dogs?
4:44
Speaker 1: What shut up? I have two dogs, and I'm actually
4:48
Speaker 1: fostering two feral puppy rescues, which you know, so right now,
4:50
Speaker 1: if you want to get rid of those two dogs,
4:52
Speaker 1: because we could get rid of them like that if
4:54
Speaker 1: we plug this on this UM on this podcast, we're
4:56
Speaker 1: kind of picky about who we give them to. Okay, well,
4:58
Speaker 1: how about this, if you're not a cre and you
5:00
Speaker 1: love dogs and you live in the East Lake area, Atlanta,
5:04
Speaker 1: to send us an email if you want one of
5:06
Speaker 1: Chuck's puppies. Very cute. Yeah, so, anyway, if your dogs
5:09
Speaker 1: are anything like my dogs, they and actually my cats too,
5:13
Speaker 1: they know when the food bell is going to ring. Sure,
5:16
Speaker 1: actually they start. Emily calls it food abuse. They start
5:19
Speaker 1: the food abuse typically about an hour and a half
5:22
Speaker 1: before they typically get fed every afternoon and in the morning.
5:26
Speaker 1: We feed them pretty much straight away in the morning,
5:28
Speaker 1: so they know. They know then. But my dog Lucy
5:30
Speaker 1: dude comes in the room and looks at you with
5:33
Speaker 1: her head cocked, stamps on the floor with her feet
5:35
Speaker 1: and goes m and I'm waiting her for her literally
5:39
Speaker 1: to one day say feed me one day. I told
5:43
Speaker 1: him if she did that one day, I would be
5:45
Speaker 1: surprised for about a second. So, Chuck, here is where
5:49
Speaker 1: we reached the bone of contention. The sorry for that pun,
5:53
Speaker 1: I'm not Jonathan Stricklin. Your dogs do the same thing, though, right, Well, no,
5:56
Speaker 1: my my dogs are fed constantly. They always have food.
5:59
Speaker 1: They for some reason, I'd lucked out, and they they
6:02
Speaker 1: just eat eat whenever they want, whenever. I can't imagine that.
6:05
Speaker 1: It's pretty cool, Like dogs eat their food like it's
6:07
Speaker 1: the first time they've ever been fed before. My dogs
6:10
Speaker 1: they're pretty laid back when it comes to stuff like that.
6:12
Speaker 1: Are they fat? No? Really, No, they're they're healthier than
6:16
Speaker 1: I am. Well, they're healthier than a lot of people
6:20
Speaker 1: I know. No, they're very They regulate their food and
6:23
Speaker 1: take on their own It's weird, but but I know
6:27
Speaker 1: what you're talking about. So the question is this, do
6:31
Speaker 1: your dogs no, based on past experience that food is
6:36
Speaker 1: coming at a certain time of day, not necessarily like
6:40
Speaker 1: five thirty five pm, but say as far as the
6:44
Speaker 1: dog's concerned, when sun is low and sky over there.
6:50
Speaker 1: Ye know, they're they're like Italians playing Native Americans, right,
6:55
Speaker 1: what you think, I'm dumbbell? So um? Or is it
6:59
Speaker 1: a start kadiean oscillator? Well, that's the circadian oscillator. It
7:02
Speaker 1: could be, yeah, it could be. What what that is
7:06
Speaker 1: is you're they're using their memories of past experiences to
7:09
Speaker 1: predict the future, which is episodic memory, which is our
7:13
Speaker 1: construction of time. Or is this semantic memory, which is
7:19
Speaker 1: totally different but related. Do you want me to go
7:22
Speaker 1: into this because this is outside research, I have no choice.
7:25
Speaker 1: Then semantic memory is alright, Chuck. Let's say that you
7:30
Speaker 1: have brain damage to your phontel loane in fact, which
7:33
Speaker 1: is where your episodic memory is h is located. That's
7:37
Speaker 1: the region that controls episodic memory, which is learning from experience. Right. Um,
7:43
Speaker 1: you could conceivably learn how to play chess right, right,
7:49
Speaker 1: but you won't remember where you learn how to play chess, right,
7:54
Speaker 1: much like uh, they say a baby learned how to
7:57
Speaker 1: walk and talk, but they don't remember that day you
8:00
Speaker 1: taught me how to walk, right, They don't have to
8:01
Speaker 1: relearn crawling or walking or taught on a day to
8:05
Speaker 1: day basis, right, because they learned it. And that's semantic memory.
8:08
Speaker 1: That's like facts and rules and and and possibly motor
8:12
Speaker 1: movements or whatever. Or you know, if I run into
8:14
Speaker 1: this wall, it's going to hurt my face because I'm crawling,
8:18
Speaker 1: But they don't remember, you know, somebody teaching them like,
8:21
Speaker 1: come crawl to me that kind of thing, right, So yeah,
8:25
Speaker 1: that's semantic memory. Episodic memory would be like, um, what
8:30
Speaker 1: did you have for breakfast this morning? At a fruit smoothie?
8:34
Speaker 1: You had a fruit smoothie. Remember what delight look like?
8:36
Speaker 1: I remember what what smelled like. That is precisely episodic memory.
8:41
Speaker 1: And uh, I should probably give a shout out at
8:42
Speaker 1: t RS and tall, who I'm like just blatantly ripping
8:45
Speaker 1: off right now. Um. The the chess example was one
8:49
Speaker 1: of Zental's uh examples of semantic memory. And what you've
8:54
Speaker 1: just said, um is almost word for word, Uh, an
8:58
Speaker 1: example of episodic memory. You said, you know you remember
9:02
Speaker 1: these other details, whereas had you said, um, I had
9:06
Speaker 1: I had a smoothie this morning, I must have because
9:09
Speaker 1: I have a smoothie. Right, that would be well, not
9:13
Speaker 1: the burping part, but if you always had it, and
9:15
Speaker 1: that'd be more like semantic memories. So we reached the
9:18
Speaker 1: question do dogs perceived time or are these reactions that
9:24
Speaker 1: appear like they're there keeping track of time some way,
9:29
Speaker 1: maybe through a circadian oscillator, based on semantic memories. And
9:33
Speaker 1: there's been a lot of studies that, not necessarily on dogs,
9:36
Speaker 1: but on other animals. Right, Yeah, what's uh, what's this
9:39
Speaker 1: crackpot's name Roberts, No, what's this guy's name Dr Roberts. Yeah,
9:44
Speaker 1: I have to say I'm gonna take issue with Dr
9:46
Speaker 1: robertson William Roberts. He's an animal cognition researcher right off
9:51
Speaker 1: the bat. You're taking issue with that, not that part. Yeah.
9:55
Speaker 1: He did some studies on pigeons and primates to name
9:58
Speaker 1: a couple, and long term in short term memory as
10:01
Speaker 1: far as remembering a sequence that they would I guess
10:04
Speaker 1: the pigeons would peck it out and the primates would
10:07
Speaker 1: tap it out and uh to get a reward. And
10:10
Speaker 1: they found that they have pretty good short term memory
10:13
Speaker 1: for this kind of thing, right, which is what that's
10:15
Speaker 1: working memory, right, yes, but long term as reference memory, Yeah,
10:19
Speaker 1: but as far as the reference goes, they couldn't remember
10:21
Speaker 1: it that well if there was if there was a
10:23
Speaker 1: big break in between, right. Um. Roberts actually wrote a
10:28
Speaker 1: very famous paper as far as animal cognition goes, where
10:33
Speaker 1: he basically said that he concluded animals are stuck in time.
10:37
Speaker 1: And I just made air quotes for those of you
10:39
Speaker 1: out there listening in podcast land, Um, and by stuck
10:42
Speaker 1: in timing means that they they live exclusively in the present,
10:46
Speaker 1: that they don't have the capacity for forming uh, long
10:50
Speaker 1: term episodic memory. Episodic is the key word. It is
10:54
Speaker 1: very much they because I know at home you're saying, no,
10:56
Speaker 1: I taught my dog to sit when she was one.
11:00
Speaker 1: That's not the same thing. That's what we're talking about
11:01
Speaker 1: with the baby and learning how to walk, right, Um,
11:04
Speaker 1: but that's that's not There's a lot of examples out
11:09
Speaker 1: there in nature that would kind of um, but lie
11:13
Speaker 1: Dr Roberts idea that your animals or dogs are stuck
11:17
Speaker 1: in time. Well, A good one is squirrels foraging food
11:22
Speaker 1: store for the winner and doing it year after year
11:24
Speaker 1: after year. Um. I believe Roberts actually addressed that and says,
11:30
Speaker 1: but they continue hoarding even when their stores inexplicably disappear,
11:35
Speaker 1: which I assume some researchers went and stole squirrels nuts
11:38
Speaker 1: and then uh studied them to see what they would do.
11:41
Speaker 1: I don't understand that at all. I don't either. Seems
11:43
Speaker 1: like they would that would make them want to hoard. Yeah,
11:46
Speaker 1: so I kind of have an issue with that one
11:49
Speaker 1: a little bit. But it's possible. I'm not entirely seeing
11:51
Speaker 1: that point all the way. I don't see the point.
11:54
Speaker 1: I'm not quite sure what what he meant there. But um,
11:57
Speaker 1: there's also one about the bananas, right, Chuck. The is
12:00
Speaker 1: there are some primates that were given choices between more
12:03
Speaker 1: or less bananas. Yeah, and predictably at first, if you
12:06
Speaker 1: offered an ape one banana or two bananas, they're gonna
12:10
Speaker 1: take the two bananas. But they found that when they
12:12
Speaker 1: started increasing the number of bananas, like ten compared to twenty,
12:17
Speaker 1: they would just go for the tin bananas, they wouldn't
12:19
Speaker 1: he and he thought this meant they can't. Uh, they
12:23
Speaker 1: have no concept of the future, like maybe I should
12:26
Speaker 1: take these bananas because I might be hungry tomorrow right now.
12:29
Speaker 1: That's um that I think Roberts fails to take into
12:32
Speaker 1: account social structure, right. Uh. We we know that we
12:36
Speaker 1: could use tim bananas for tomorrow, but we also have
12:39
Speaker 1: things like um, preservation techniques or refrigeration available. That's what
12:43
Speaker 1: I thought too. And if you go back in time,
12:46
Speaker 1: just a few thousand years ago, um, two hunter gatherer
12:49
Speaker 1: societies or even hunter gatherer societies that are around now,
12:53
Speaker 1: they don't store food at all. They forage for what
12:55
Speaker 1: they need right then, and that's what they eat. I
12:59
Speaker 1: would imagine that that would actually explain a lot of
13:01
Speaker 1: the primate decisions. There's no real reason to their society
13:06
Speaker 1: isn't set up on this idea that I need more
13:10
Speaker 1: and more to protect myself in the future, exactly. I
13:12
Speaker 1: don't know that that necessarily means that they don't have
13:15
Speaker 1: any concept of the future. I think that there's all
13:18
Speaker 1: these other explanations out there, right, and they may like one.
13:21
Speaker 1: I was when I read that. The first thing I
13:23
Speaker 1: thought was, maybe they're not. They've never taken more than
13:26
Speaker 1: tin bananas in their life because they've never needed to,
13:28
Speaker 1: so it doesn't even dawn on them that that should
13:31
Speaker 1: be something they would do. Exactly. I guess what we're saying,
13:33
Speaker 1: both of us around the same page here. There are
13:35
Speaker 1: other explanations, and I think one of the things I
13:38
Speaker 1: took from this article was that, uh Roberts found it
13:41
Speaker 1: conclusive that animals are stuck in time by cherry picking
13:45
Speaker 1: some uh some studies here, and we we kind of
13:47
Speaker 1: disagree with them. Yeah, there's a lot of other factors.
13:50
Speaker 1: I know that my dog Lucy is stuck in time
13:52
Speaker 1: at five thirty pm every day because she's always asking
13:56
Speaker 1: for the food. So I guess another problem. It's entirely possible.
14:18
Speaker 1: Check that we're Our brains just aren't big enough to Uh,
14:21
Speaker 1: they're not as big as Robert's brain. Um, did you
14:25
Speaker 1: ever hear that? Like, goldfish have an eight second memory span?
14:29
Speaker 1: I've never heard that, So I have a right you
14:32
Speaker 1: have a goldfish and I do have a goldfish here? Yeah, Molly,
14:35
Speaker 1: she's very cute. Its name Molly. I didn't know that. Interesting. Um,
14:40
Speaker 1: But having an episodic memory makes it almost impossible to
14:44
Speaker 1: think about um not having one. So like, if a
14:48
Speaker 1: goldfish does have a memory of eight seconds, does that
14:51
Speaker 1: mean that every eight seconds all of its memories are purged,
14:53
Speaker 1: like getting rid of the browser history in your computer? Um?
14:58
Speaker 1: Or as new experiences come into the present, are older
15:01
Speaker 1: ones pushed out after they hit this eight second maturity level?
15:05
Speaker 1: And how how do they test that on a goldfish? Anyway?
15:08
Speaker 1: Perfect chuck, perfect segue. Here's the biggest problem. Robert's position
15:14
Speaker 1: is almost inherently species ist. You're familiar with this term, Yeah,
15:19
Speaker 1: this is a legitimate term. I'm not making this up.
15:21
Speaker 1: Animals have no souls. Animals don't have souls. It's impossible
15:25
Speaker 1: for an like a dog to be happy because that's
15:28
Speaker 1: a secondary emotion and are self aware enough. There's a
15:32
Speaker 1: competing explanation for all of this, um. Species ists tend
15:36
Speaker 1: to rely very strictly or remain very strictly within the
15:41
Speaker 1: structure um provided by the scientific method and all his
15:45
Speaker 1: studies here, he probably came out from that frame of mind.
15:47
Speaker 1: Sure right, UM. But there's another way of looking at it,
15:50
Speaker 1: and that is that humans simply haven't come up with
15:53
Speaker 1: tests that are clever enough to get definitive proof that
15:57
Speaker 1: an animal can experience happiness, or can or is aware
16:02
Speaker 1: of time, the future, of the past, that kind of thing.
16:05
Speaker 1: You can take that way too far, like after you know,
16:08
Speaker 1: test after test after test that proves the opposite, you
16:11
Speaker 1: could still conceivably say, well, there's a test out there
16:14
Speaker 1: that that we haven't come up with you proves that
16:16
Speaker 1: they can. Um. But I think that the testing that
16:19
Speaker 1: has been done is very much below that threshold so far.
16:24
Speaker 1: I don't think we have a clue, um, what we
16:28
Speaker 1: animals are capable of as far as consciousness goes, because
16:31
Speaker 1: we have such a loose grasp on our own consciousness. Sure,
16:33
Speaker 1: and we can't uh certainly can't delve into an animal's
16:36
Speaker 1: brain and see what they think and they can't tell
16:38
Speaker 1: us anything. I guarantee you one thing. I bet you
16:41
Speaker 1: Dr Roberts is not a dog owner. Agreed. Agreed, because
16:45
Speaker 1: you have dogs, dude, and I guarantee you we're going
16:48
Speaker 1: to get tons of mail from people saying, are you kidding?
16:51
Speaker 1: My dog displays emotion every day? And you know, I
16:54
Speaker 1: guess Caesar that the dog whisper might say, you know
16:57
Speaker 1: that's you're putting your human construct on the dogs. From
17:00
Speaker 1: my mind, yeah, anthrow anthropomorphizing. Yeah, I don't know, man,
17:04
Speaker 1: my dog is they're both pretty emotional. Well, yeah, Anthropomorphizing
17:09
Speaker 1: is the go to ammunition for species ists. And I
17:13
Speaker 1: don't want, I don't mean to say that anybody who's saying, like, no,
17:16
Speaker 1: animals can't be happy because it's secondary emotion and they
17:20
Speaker 1: lack that sense of self awareness that required to experience this,
17:23
Speaker 1: uh secondary emotion is a species ist. But the too
17:27
Speaker 1: often go hand in hand. And it's really interesting that
17:29
Speaker 1: there's a line drawn right now between people who think
17:34
Speaker 1: animals don't have a soul and people who think animals
17:38
Speaker 1: can be happy and all of the implications that come
17:41
Speaker 1: with that. Jerry, I bet you think your dog is
17:43
Speaker 1: a soul right, Jerry saying yeah, just to give the
17:46
Speaker 1: sweetest face and nodded yes, yes. So, um, I feel
18:07
Speaker 1: like Chuck and I just opened a big old canned worms.
18:09
Speaker 1: So we'll see how this plays out in the emails, right,
18:13
Speaker 1: if you want to read more about dogs perceiving time
18:16
Speaker 1: to answer the question, according to Roberts, no, dogs don't
18:19
Speaker 1: perceive time times a human construct consisting of a past, present,
18:23
Speaker 1: in future and dogs pretty much living the present. Chuck
18:26
Speaker 1: and I don't necessarily agree with that one. Uh, you
18:29
Speaker 1: can go on and type in dogs perceived time in
18:32
Speaker 1: the handy search bar at how stuff works dot com.
18:36
Speaker 1: Since I just said that, it means it's time for
18:37
Speaker 1: a whole mess of listener mail. You're right, Josh, this
18:45
Speaker 1: is uh. We're just gonna call this Muppet mail, and
18:48
Speaker 1: we are gonna go on a little longer than usual
18:50
Speaker 1: with our mail because the Muppet podcast, I think we
18:54
Speaker 1: will all agree, um, was sort of a c change episode,
18:58
Speaker 1: and plus we just want to see how how long
19:01
Speaker 1: this background music actually goes for I know, I mean,
19:03
Speaker 1: we we literally got better response from the Muppet Show
19:06
Speaker 1: episode than anything we've ever done. I would say, wouldn't you. Yeah,
19:11
Speaker 1: the Henson company twittered about it. Yeah, Heather Henson, we
19:15
Speaker 1: should say our colleague and friend, Jonathan Strickland of tex
19:18
Speaker 1: Staff his uh sister sister friends with Heather Henson, and
19:24
Speaker 1: it went viral thanks to him. Yeah, that's awesome. So
19:27
Speaker 1: we got great response. It's clear that everyone loves the
19:30
Speaker 1: Muppets and uh so I wanted to go just through
19:33
Speaker 1: a few of these because I didn't want to just
19:34
Speaker 1: do one um quickly before we start, and we never
19:38
Speaker 1: do this, but a guy sent me an email and
19:41
Speaker 1: I kind of touched a chord with me. So I
19:44
Speaker 1: want to quickly give a shout out for for Joe
19:47
Speaker 1: to Beth in Ellwood, Indiana, and Joe just wants to
19:51
Speaker 1: say that he thinks that you are a pretty cool chick. Beth, Chuck,
19:55
Speaker 1: are you playing matchmaker? Is that why you're wearing nothing
19:58
Speaker 1: but a diaper and you have those wing I'm not saying,
20:01
Speaker 1: but Beth and Elwood, Joe, Joe thinks your cool chicken.
20:04
Speaker 1: So the week because she actually sent us a alien
20:06
Speaker 1: hand syndrome video which rocked cool. That's good. I'll show
20:09
Speaker 1: it to you quick. A couple of things that we
20:12
Speaker 1: didn't mention in corrections First of all, Um, I mistakenly
20:15
Speaker 1: referred to the Children's Television Workshop as the Children's Television Network,
20:20
Speaker 1: So I goove that one. You're thinking of home shopping
20:22
Speaker 1: that kids. We did not mention every Muppet movie. We
20:27
Speaker 1: did not mention every Muppet venture because no want, I
20:31
Speaker 1: want to late on this. We did that on purpose.
20:33
Speaker 1: First of all, we mentioned the three that were in
20:36
Speaker 1: theatrical Elite release directed by Jim Henson. Yes, and by
20:40
Speaker 1: first of all, I mean that's it right right. So
20:44
Speaker 1: a lot of people said, how could you not mention
20:46
Speaker 1: Muppets Christmas Carol? And we wanted to mention everything, but
20:49
Speaker 1: we we would have been sitting here reading things all
20:52
Speaker 1: day long about the Dark Crystal and other Muppet ventures,
20:56
Speaker 1: so we chose to only do the Henson ones. Would
20:58
Speaker 1: I have to say Dark Crystal keeps me out? And
21:01
Speaker 1: that was Hinton too, because I know people gonna write
21:03
Speaker 1: and say that was Hinson, but get over it. Uh.
21:05
Speaker 1: We had a gun and Peter wrote in and he
21:07
Speaker 1: told us about the Muppet Whatnot Workshop? Yeah, and um
21:13
Speaker 1: and uh, and you can go to New York City
21:17
Speaker 1: and you could do it online. But I looked and
21:18
Speaker 1: it's down right now. But it's just around Christmas time
21:21
Speaker 1: or the holidays. No, they got bought out by Toys
21:23
Speaker 1: r Us. I think. So that's down right now. But
21:25
Speaker 1: you can still go to New York. You can go
21:26
Speaker 1: to the Muppet Workshop and you can build your own
21:28
Speaker 1: whatnot at Goldman says it costs about a hundred bucks.
21:33
Speaker 1: And he sent me a picture of he and his
21:35
Speaker 1: little cute daughter with her Muppet whatnot. So you want
21:37
Speaker 1: to thank Peter for that. And actually I'm going on
21:40
Speaker 1: and on, but Peter had one of the big food
21:43
Speaker 1: and choo mustaches like me, Yeah, I'll tell you about this.
21:46
Speaker 1: And I said, uh, very cool, Peter, thanks for sending this.
21:49
Speaker 1: I said, it looks like you picked up a mustache
21:51
Speaker 1: while you were there. And he wrote back and said, no,
21:53
Speaker 1: I got that at the Sam Elliott. Uh Sam Elliott
21:57
Speaker 1: Supply Center down the street or something like that. Peter's
22:00
Speaker 1: of pack a picnic supper. Um. So that is all
22:04
Speaker 1: for the corrections. Now we have a few emails. Um,
22:08
Speaker 1: Josh and Chuck it just listen to how Muppets worked.
22:10
Speaker 1: I was excited to hear you talk about it because
22:12
Speaker 1: you mentioned the costume designer from Miss Piggie who happens
22:14
Speaker 1: to be my aunt Callista. Oh wow she uh. If
22:18
Speaker 1: you look up the Muppet Movie you can see her
22:20
Speaker 1: in the costume and wardrobe department on IMDb. She worked
22:23
Speaker 1: closely with Henson, and I've actually seen a picture of
22:25
Speaker 1: her with Jim Henson setting up some Muppets and Emmett
22:29
Speaker 1: Honor's jug Bane Christmas. She left the Muppets, I think
22:32
Speaker 1: when Jim Henson died, but we still see her once
22:34
Speaker 1: a year. That's from Sam and Josh is in fact
22:38
Speaker 1: eating a Reese's cup. Uh onto the next one. Hi, guys,
22:42
Speaker 1: I love your recent podcast. I was listening and thought
22:45
Speaker 1: I would mention that Jim Henson studied muppetology at University
22:48
Speaker 1: of Maryland. I know this because I went to school
22:50
Speaker 1: there and there as a Jim Hinson studies program, and
22:55
Speaker 1: it is our claim to fame. UM. I didn't know
22:58
Speaker 1: he went to my school until I went there. And
23:00
Speaker 1: there's actually a little a bench statue. It's a bench
23:04
Speaker 1: with Henson sitting on it and Kerment sitting on the
23:06
Speaker 1: back of the bench and they're kind of holding hands.
23:09
Speaker 1: That is beyond cute. It is very cute. So and
23:11
Speaker 1: and she also says that UM, This is from Lesia
23:15
Speaker 1: that they have the rights to. It ain't easy being
23:17
Speaker 1: green and Rainbow connection, So their marching band actually plays that.
23:21
Speaker 1: The University of Maryland turps moving on. Man, listen to
23:29
Speaker 1: this background music. Chuck is, I know, I know, I know.
23:32
Speaker 1: We compared him up. It showed to thirty Rock, and
23:34
Speaker 1: Phil of Lyndon, Washington has this to say, Um, I
23:38
Speaker 1: was trying to imagine Sesame Street would look like in
23:40
Speaker 1: real life. Two little boys getting there, an apartment, a
23:42
Speaker 1: giant bird that sleeps behind garbage cans, a few scattered,
23:46
Speaker 1: seemingly sensible adults who really have no jobs and nothing
23:49
Speaker 1: else to do. No Mr Hooper at a store that
23:53
Speaker 1: finally it hit me while working my job as a
23:55
Speaker 1: special led classroom assistant. It is one big, government operated
23:58
Speaker 1: group home facility special needs children and adults. Think about it.
24:03
Speaker 1: Bert displays classic Asperger syndrome. They share a bedroom, uh
24:06
Speaker 1: and obviously have some adult taking care of the rest
24:08
Speaker 1: of their house. Oscar is schizophrenic with his mood swings
24:12
Speaker 1: and a warm is the best friend as his big
24:14
Speaker 1: bird with his imaginary friend. Uh. Was it sniffle lupus
24:19
Speaker 1: and h tell me Grover's not dealing with severe a
24:21
Speaker 1: d h D and Cookie Monster from manic bipolar tendencies.
24:25
Speaker 1: And the jobless adults Gordon, Susan and Bob. So that's
24:29
Speaker 1: from Phil are the jobless adults are the caregivers. He
24:34
Speaker 1: says her jobless adults, I've got two more. Uh. Jerry's
24:39
Speaker 1: laughing at how long this is going, but I warned her.
24:41
Speaker 1: I was listening to your fantastic podcast and I had
24:43
Speaker 1: to write in I am getting married at the Hinton
24:46
Speaker 1: sound stage next year. That's so cool. Uh. He and
24:50
Speaker 1: his wife to be towards the sound stage. It was
24:52
Speaker 1: like being behind the scenes at the Muppet Show. We're
24:54
Speaker 1: honored as the first wedding ever to be hosted there.
24:57
Speaker 1: And I asked him a runa backs, like, dude, what's
24:59
Speaker 1: the hook up? And he had none. He just asked, Huh.
25:02
Speaker 1: They rented out to people, apparently for things, and no
25:04
Speaker 1: one's ever thought to have a wedding front. And that
25:06
Speaker 1: is from he gave us some facts. But when I've
25:08
Speaker 1: time for that, that is from Dan and of t
25:13
Speaker 1: D f Illustration dot Com because he's a cool artist.
25:17
Speaker 1: I wanted to plug that from Dan and finally Josh
25:21
Speaker 1: from Jake in Newport Richie, Florida, says, I was an
25:25
Speaker 1: accident of the eighties and I missed him Uppet hey Day.
25:28
Speaker 1: But I was lucky enough to have three older sisters
25:30
Speaker 1: and parents who had the foresight to ensure that they
25:32
Speaker 1: taped several seasons of the Muppet Show. So Jake is
25:36
Speaker 1: a big fan of the Muppets now and he told
25:38
Speaker 1: us this fact, which I did not know. Since Jim
25:41
Speaker 1: Henson's death, Ralph the Dog has not spoken and is
25:44
Speaker 1: seldom used. And it's my understanding that they do this
25:46
Speaker 1: out of reverence to Mr Henson because Ralph was his
25:49
Speaker 1: favorite Muppet. Oh yeah, yeah, I checked his wiped away
25:54
Speaker 1: you sweet old. So that's Muppet mail. We got hundreds
25:58
Speaker 1: of pieces of mail and good blow response and thanks
26:01
Speaker 1: for sending them. And it was a good show. Yeah,
26:03
Speaker 1: and we'll try to keep you supplied with more good
26:06
Speaker 1: shows in the future. If you want to send an
26:09
Speaker 1: email and try to make Chuck cry, it's not that hard.
26:12
Speaker 1: You can send it to stuff podcast at how stuff
26:16
Speaker 1: works dot com. Stuff you Should Know is a production
26:21
Speaker 1: of iHeart Radios. How stuff Works for more podcasts for
26:24
Speaker 1: my heart Radio because at the iHeart Radio app, Apple podcasts,
26:27
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.