Radiolab - Terrestrials: The Mastermind

Episode Date: September 23, 2022

Lulu Miller, intrepid host and fearless mother of two, went off on her own and put together a little something for kids. All kids: hers, yours, and the one still living inside us all.  Radiolab for Kids Presents: Terrestrials And it’s spellbinding. So much so, that we wanted to put this audio goodness in front of as many ears as possible.  Which is why we’re running the first episode of that series here for you today.  It’s called The Mastermind. In it, Sy Montgomery, an author and naturalist, shares the story of a color-changing creature many people assumed to be brainless who outsmarts his human captors. If you want a SPOILER of what the creature is, read on: It’s an octopus. We hear the story of one particularly devious octopus who lost a limb, was captured by humans, and then managed to make an escape from its aquarium tank—back into the ocean! The tale of “Inky” the octopus calls into question who we think of as intelligent (and kissable) in the animal kingdom. Learn about the storytellers, listen to music, and dig deeper into the stories you hear on Terrestrials with activities you can do at home or in the classroom on our website, Terrestrialspodcast.org  Find MORE original Terrestrials fun on Youtube.And badger us on Social Media: @radiolab and #TerrestrialsPodcast And if your little ones or you want to hear more of Team Terrestrials amazing work on this series, please search for Radiolab for Kids Presents: The Mastermind, wherever you get podcasts or subscribe here.  Terrestrials is a production of WNYC Studios, created by Lulu Miller. This episode is produced by Ana González, Alan Goffinski and Lulu Miller. Original Music by Alan Goffinski. Help from Suzie Lechtenberg, Sarah Sandbach, Natalia Ramirez, and Sarita Bhatt. Fact-checking by Diane Kelley. Sound design by Mira Burt-Wintonick with additional engineering by Joe Plourde. Our storyteller this week is Sy Montgomery. Transcription by Caleb Codding. Our advisors are Theanne Griffith, Aliyah Elijah, Dominique Shabazz, John Green, Liza Steinberg-Demby, Tara Welty, and Alice Wong. Our newsletter comes out every Wednesday. It includes short essays, recommendations, and details about other ways to interact with the show. Sign up (https://radiolab.org/newsletter)!Radiolab is supported by listeners like you. Support Radiolab by becoming a member of The Lab (https://members.radiolab.org/) today. Leadership support for Radiolab’s science programming is provided by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Science Sandbox, a Simons Foundation Initiative, and the John Templeton Foundation. Foundational support for Radiolab was provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.  

Um, okay. Okay, well I know what we're here to talk about, but because it's like a jubilant day, but let me, let me, let me fain. Let me pretend here. Lulu, what are, what are we doing here in the studio? What are we there to talk about? That was great theater.

Okay, well, yes, yeah, I am here to come out of the closet as a children's entertainer. For the, yeah, for the past year, I have been working with a small and wonderful team on a radio series for kids and it's called terrestrials and it is about the strangeness waiting right here on Earth. I've already heard it. I mean, it's great.

It's so great. It's like a... He's contractually out of the kitchen. She will, but delight. It's just, yeah, it's so fun. What was the, was there a kind of a, you know, a grain of sand around which you built this pearl of a series?

I mean, so it's partly a kind of boring story. I became a mom. Now I have two little boys and I became interested in how kids' minds worked. I hadn't, I'm the youngest of my whole extended family. I didn't really babysit growing up. So I didn't really know kids until I had them. And they always kind of intimidated me. But now that I spend a lot of time with them,

like their minds are so psychedelic, and they're just this space of openness and curiosity and humor. And so I think that's part of it that becoming a mom and being interested in kids journey. But I think in a way, I'm making this for my past self who was a little bit of a sad kid as I hit that 8, 9, 10 area where I was haunted by the sense that there is no magic on earth.

And honestly, this series is an attempt to use science and close looking to say, like, yeah, okay, maybe there's not magic dragons up there in the sky. But there are commoto dragons here. But there are commoto dragons here on earth exactly. Like it might not be up in the sky, but it might be right here on earth. And not only might we see beautiful things, but we might see things that even break some of the rules we thought applied to all life. And that's the spot that I'm passionate about.

So does that mean it's just for kids and the sort of half begrudging parents that are sitting with them? Well, no, I mean, you might have the bar of getting over the fact that you have to go subscribe to the radio lab for kids' feed. But I think if you're just an adult, and like if you need, if there's a day

where you need 20 minutes of your life to hang out with your very nerdy friends who wanna take you outside and show you something and point at it and like sing a little kind of rib you and cheer you up a little. Yeah. We are waiting there. We would love if you join us.

And it is, it does, it sort of grabs you by the ears and it's like, look human. The way you live in the world is not the only way. And that's like, to me, that's kids are especially receptive to that because they're just getting used to these sensory inputs, I guess. But I think that's, to me, that's an important lesson for all of us. Yeah. It really is, it's a work of art. I'm really impressed, so impressed. I just can't wait for the world to hear it.

That is very good. Just go listen. Go listen if you are a kid or wherever a kid, or if you live on planet Earth, either of those things. Okay. I think now we just play it, right? We just let them listen to the pilot. Oh, yeah. And this is, and them listen to the pilot. Oh, yeah.

And this is, and this genuinely was the pilot. This is the first one you made a long time ago. Yeah. So here we go, the first episode of the series, terrestrials from Lulumiller and Radio Lab, the mastermind. Enjoy. Oh, wait, you're listening.

OK. Got it. Enjoy. Oh, wait, you're listening. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Door listening. Door listening. To radio lab.

Radio lab. From WNYC. To C. C. Yes. Three, two, one. Imagine you are a liquid creature. No bones and you are so pliable that you can literally pour your body through a tiny opening.

You can change colors. Blue and green and red and yellow and even metallic. You can taste with your skin. And you have blue blood and you have three hearts. And if you're threatened, if you feel scared, you can shoot ink. Into a silhouette in the shape of you. So the predator is fooled into believing you're still there.

Now, look down at your arms and watch them slowly sprouting into eight. You are an octopus now. Okay, now is where I make you sing the theme song with me. Okay. To restrials. To restrials. We are not the worst. We are the best real.

You got it. I don't know where. To restrials is a show where we uncover the strangeness, waiting right here on Earth and sometimes break out into song. There's so much to discover when you dive down deep. Terrestrials, terrestrials. So come on, it's plunging to the sea.

Terrestrials, terrestrials. Good voice is not required. I am your host Lulumiller joined as always by my songbud Alan. Hello everybody! Today we are joined by special guest Simeon Gumri who is gonna tell us a story about a devious little octopus who outsmarted his human captors. Hi Sime. Hi Lulu. Um, what are you two for a living? What is your job?

I'm an author, and I write about animals. And what are some of the animals you've written about? Oh, boy. Gorilla, tarantula, garter snake, wildebeest, hipped dolphins in the Amazon, aina, orangutans, man eating tigers. Of course, I'm a woman, so I knew I was safe. But don't... Alright, so let's head out on this octopus journey.

Where does it all start? It was likely in 2014, deep in the ocean off the coast of New Zealand. A little baby octopus is born. The size of a grain of rice. In a stretch of ocean called the Hawks Bay. He hatched out with hundreds of other octopus. And then he began floating away. Little grain of rice, with eight little arms. Not so great as swimming, very low chance of surviving. Only able to eat

whatever little scraps of tiny crustaceans and shrimp happen to come his way. Not to put actually gross faster than almost any other animal. They could double their size in a matter of days. So this little guy kept getting bigger and longer and heavier. And as he did, he started being able to eat bigger things like crabs and fish. How does it catch? How does an octopus catch a crab? There's something so confusing about something so soft. Being able to catch something so sharp, I always think the crab would win.

Of course you think that. I explained that like thousands of people who came before me, I was assuming that because an octopus was a kind of creature called a mollusk. Basically a lumpy bug in the same family as slugs and clams. It just couldn't be all that...brainy. We don't think of clams as very, um, brain-y, because they don't have any. But all along, under their slimy skin unnoticed by humans, Octopuses have had huge brains. Brains so big they spill down into each of their arms and allow them to catch all kinds of things. Oh, they'll eat fish.

They've been known to even eat sharks. No. Yes. Wow. They will eat birds. What? Let's take a break. You can sit on that octopus can eat a bird.

Let's take a break. You can sit on that octopus can eat a bird. How does an octopus catch a bird? Well, you've got certain birds that float on the ocean. And when they're doing that, their little feet are below the water. Oh, no. And that would be an opportunity for an octopus to reach up and grab them. And then what can you just take me over home plate there? So they grab them and pull them into the water. They grab them in their arms and hug them till they drown. All right. Moving on. So our little octopus is now a few weeks old and he's getting better and better at hunting,

but he also has to quickly master how to hide from the things that want to eat him. Things like sharks, whales and humans and other octopuses. They will eat each other. So they're cannibuses. They will eat each other. So they're cannibals, they'll eat each other? Yeah. And... The most dangerous predator to an octopus is a moray eel. Big long green fish, they have two rows of teeth, another row in their throat.

Ugh! So to hide in that giant, clear ocean, our little red octopus can turn a deep purple, or white, or yellow, so that it looks like a piece of coral, or a bunch of algae, or rock, or the sea floor. And it can also turn into spots all of a sudden, or stripes, or they can stripe just one part of their body. Some octopuses even make themselves look like poisonous sea snakes or poisonous flounders. They can grow horns.

Which sometimes can be two inches tall. They can even do a display called passing cloud, which, you know, how when a cloud passes over something, it looks like, you know, a darkness sweeping across the land. It can make a darkness sweep across their bodies. And this confuses fish into believing a bigger fish is above them. Maybe. That is so clever. It's really great.

So our little octopus, his days are busy as he's practicing throwing punches with his arms, changing colors and flexing each of his hundreds of suckers, which have grown so strong they can crack open clam shells. And every now and then he calms out to take a nap. They also appear to dream because when they're sleeping, sometimes they change color. The same way, a puppy or kitten might run in sleep, or bark, or meow and it's sleep. And then one day, as he's moving through the world,

transforming into eels and clouds and sand, something attacks him. It snaps off one of his arms and though he fights back with all seven of the other ones, whatever predator it is manages to not pieces out of a bunch of the others. So this octopus was pretty beat up. But eventually he is able to wriggle away and find a spot to lay down and rest inside a mysterious metal box. The owner of that box will appear after this short break. We're back. Picture a lobster man in his boat bobbing along on the water. One morning he is pulling up his lobster

traps and what does he find inside but are little octopus and while he could have sold him for like 30 bucks to a fish market someone who wanted to eat him instead he thought he'd bring the octopus to the aquarium. The National Aquarium of New Zealand, they gladly take him in, plunk him in a tank, they give him the name Inky because like Ink, Inky, and by all accounts, he was a huge hit. He was a total sweetie. He was a super friendly octopus. Everybody knew him. He delighted everybody.

Hello! Step right up and see our seven-hour swarming little friend. The dance for seven-legged can-can. Can-can-can-can. An amazing little creature. A marvel in our midst. Watch him dance his little hearts out with a kick-a-kick-a-kick-a-kick-a-kick-a-kick-a-kick-a-kick-a-kick-a-kick-a-kick-a-kick-a-kick-a-kick-a-kick-a-kick-a-kick-a-kick-a-kick-a-kick-a-kick-a-kick-a-kick-a-kick-a-kick-a-kick-a-kick-a-kick-a-kick-a-kick-a-kick-a-kick-a-kick-a-kick-a-kick-a-kick-a-kick-a-kick-a-kick-a-kick-a-kick-a-kick-a-kick-a-kick-a-kick-a-kick-a-kick-a-kick-a-kick-a-kick-a-kick-a-kick-a-kick-a-kick-a-kick-a-kick-a-kick-a-kick-a-kick-a-kick-a-kick-a-kick-a-kick-a-kick-a-kick-a-kick-a-kick-a-kick-a-kick-a-kick-a-kick-a-kick-a-kick-a-kick-a-kick-a-kick-a-kick-a-kick-a-kick-a-kick-a-kick-a-kick-a-kick-a-kick-a- Huzzles and locks to unlock and you were saying an octopus can even take thread and tie a knot. It can also do what's harder and that is untie a knot. Wow, even though they don't have a hand and they don't have fingers.

But perhaps the most amazing feat for this seven armed octopus or septipus was that eventually he was able to grow a new one. Month after month, Inky lived out his life inside that tank, changing colors and charming the aquarium keepers by playing with their toy slowly growing healthier those suckers regenerating and growing stronger and stronger until about two years into his captivity. One morning the keepers came in and Iki was there. he was there. And they saw a slime track going from his tank eight feet across the floor which led to a drain pipe. And this drain pipe was 164 feet long and it dropped directly into Hawks' Bay, which is where he came from. So it looks like Inky went home. Wow. And no human has ever seen him again. It is time now for the mix.

This octopus, Anki, actually made a break for it. The world freaked out when they heard about Anki's story. Anki the octopus making a break for it, slipping out of a New Zealand Aquarius, the shoold tank redemption. Inquis is having a party right now. But Sigh says the most incredible thing about Inquis' escape is that it's not incredible. There are many, many instances of octopus

that have gotten out of their tanks. More that sigh, research doctor poses. The more she came across tales of amazing escapes, there was the octopus that escaped out of a cigar box that was nailed shut, the octopus that leapt out of an ice tray at a fish market and crawled back into the ocean. And in aquariums... There are so many accounts of octopuses that get out of their tank at night, eat the fish

in the neighboring tank, and then return to their own tank. So they're really like, this is an... This inky is not fluky. Like octopuses are sort of known for being escape artists when forced into captivity. Is that like... Yes. And octopuses will climb out of the ocean. Really? And do what? Oh, they just kind of walk around on land for a little while and then they go back in.

Are you serious? Are you serious? And there's tons of videos of this. You should see it. And do they just walk on their legs? legs like do they walk on all eight or? Well, they kind of line around. I mean, it's not particularly easy and they don't go far, but they will spend time out of the water looking for new things to eat or escaping predators. Or, as was recently observed, grabbing two halves of a coconut and bringing them together to hide inside as a kind of coconut for it.

And as more and more videos of behavior like this have been captured around the world, octopus is making tools or unlocking locks or catching eagles. Videos sometimes filmed by kids just looking out at the water. Scientists have come together and scratched their fancy scientists' chins and largely agreed that they can't deny it anymore. Octopuses are intelligent. It turns out that their intelligence is quite like ours in a way that their bodies are not.

And that is surprising and delightful that somebody who looks so unlike you and has senses so unlike yours can solve such similar problems. That is mind blowing. And while some people certainly noticed how amazing the octopus was long ago, people in Morea, which is part of Polynesia, were so impressed with octopuses that they built a church with eight sides just to remind them of how special octopuses were.

So I think that scientists largely missed their intelligence. Because of their intelligence, octopuses were always darting out of our eyesight, flashing into whatever color hid them from us and escaping our tanks when we were able to catch them, which made it hard to ever fully see them. Oh yeah. Oh, and one other reason. I think that most people who are looking for intelligence like ours was looking for it in animals that were more like us. So we didn't look in the right place. an octopus. She had read an account by a famous scientist that described the feel of the

octopus's slimy arms as one of the grossest things on earth, like plunging your hand into a pit of snakes. But she wanted to find out for herself. So one morning, she showed up to the New England Aquarium and was led to the tank which housed a giant Pacific octopus. She was bright red. Five feet long. And she was hiding in her lair. An aquarium worker named Scott popped to the lid. I saw her eye swiveling its socket and locked on the mine.

And then she came jetting out of there. And she reached a few of her arms up over the edge of the tank. And I asked, got, can I touch her? And he said, sure. And so I plunged my hands and arms into the freezing cold water to meet the octopus. And instantly my flesh was covered with dozens of these suckers.

Okay, and then I began to stroke her head. And I noticed that she was beginning to turn white beneath my touch, right where my fingers were. And I later learned that that color of a relaxed octopus. And that she was enjoying that. And what she was, as you were stroking her and like she was turning white, what were her arms like? I'm picturing them just like coiled around your wrists

and was it disgusting? I mean, were they slithering and wrestling all around? Well, they were all wrestling around, but it was like thousands of, well, not thousands, I guess, under 2000, but 1800 little kisses 1800 octopus kisses 1800 octopus octopus shark kisses I'm thinking about all the octopus kissing we've been missing 1800 little smooches 1800 push-up and smooches This is it all in! 1800 even y'all can push-off for smooches

Why did it take so long to learn about this cutest? This friendly little octopus is smarter than we thought And now we know the proper luck when they kiss us with their suction cups It's hard to understand a thing if we don't give it a chance If we didn't search we'd never learn about this funny, mollusk romance. 1800 lit-up kisses. Everybody! 1800 hot-pots kissers. 1800 hot-pots soccer kissers.

I'm thinking about all the other first kisses. We've been missing. Alan Guffinsky, everybody. Tarestrioles was created by me, Louis Miller, with WNYC Studios. It is produced by the Inc. Radible, Inc. Radible, Ana Gonzales, and Alan Gavitz-Keech. With, you know me, with help from Suzy Leckdenberg, Sarah Sandback, Natalia Ramirez, Diane Kelly, Joe Plort, and Serita Bott. Sound design and additional editorial guidance by Mira

Bertwin-Channick. Nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-uh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-n Montgomery in addition to all her adulty books, she has a beautiful picture book about Inquis' amazing escape called, uh, Inquis' amazing escape. And that'll do for the credits, because who keeps listening to the credits, there's never gonna be any- What's that? Excuse me, I have a question. Me too. Me too.

The Badgers! Listeners. With badgering questions for the expert. Are you ready? Ready. Hi, my name is Ruby and my question is, how many species of octopus are there? Over 200. Hello, my name is Vangelin and I was wondering what is the biggest octopus ever found on

Earth. 600 pounds. Wow. Allelu, my name is Nail. This is the first Moldezu. For say, can you say does? Does. Does an octopus eat eggs?

This is a Moldezu egg. I think it would. My name is Kaira. What is one of the biggest mistakes you have ever made? Well, just last week, I was working at the Turtle Rescue League and I was moving an old turtle. I lifted up and my finger was too close to her mouth and she bit me. Ow. Hi, my name is Elliot.

Why do you want to put a quartet there, Hank? Is it smelly? And can you write with it? You can write with it actually. I bet it is smelly to the predators that it bothers. It is chemically very complex. And some people even think that the ink actually drugs the predator into believing that they've already had enough to eat.

So cool. Hi, my name is Spittle. Do their arms move and unison, or can they move independently? Yes, they can move independently of each other, and in fact, if a predator bites off one of your arms, for a while that arm can still go off and do stuff. Whoa! It's almost as if the animal has nine brains. And sometimes it appears that the octopus has some shy arms and some bold arms. It's like got different personalities. Yeah, imagine that.

What's that like? What is the self-like if you've nine brains? Fabulous questions, badgers. Thank you. I'm gonna leave it there to let you ponder that little mind-bender. And I'm definitely not gonna tell you about the claims that octopuses, when eaten alive, have been said to crawl out of the throats of the whales, dolphins, and occasionally

humans that tried to consume them. I'm not gonna tell you that because I'm nice. If you would like to badger our next expert or suggest a topic for the show, visit our website at terrestrialspodcast.org. There are also all kinds of other goodies there like drawing prompts and fun activities to engage more deeply with these stories. Thank you for listening. Catch you in a couple spins. With this lumpy, old planet of ours. Oh, bye. Bye. Beautiful sign off Lulu.

Tell people where they can find more of this. Okay, if you want to hear more, just go subscribe to the Radio Lab for Kids Feed, wherever you get podcasts every Thursday for six weeks. Go ride the ride and see. Huh? Enjoy. Tell your friends and your kids, and your kids, friends, and your friends, kids.

Radio Lab was created by Jad Abhamrad and is edited by Sora Neweller. Lulu Miller and Latif Nasser are our co-host. Susie Lechtenember is our executive producer. Dylan Keath is our director of sound design. Our staff includes Simon Adler, Jeremy Bloom, Becca Bressler, Richard Q. Sik, a Kedi Foster Keys, W. Harry Ford-Dunah, David Gable, Maria Pasco-Tierres, Sindu Nyanasambandam, Matt Kielty, Annie McEwen, Alex Niesin, Sarah Carrey, Anna Ruskouette Paz, Sarah Sandbach, Ariana Rack, Pat Walters, and Molly Webster, with help from Andrew Vignales.

Our fact checkers are Diane Kelly, Emily Krieger, and Natalie Middleton. This is Joel Mossbacher, calling from New York City. Leadership support for Radio Labs Science Programming is provided by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Science Sandbox Assignments Foundation Initiative, and the John Templeton Foundation. Foundational Support for Radio Lab is provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. Peace Loan Foundation.