Short Wave - Happy Holidays!

Episode Date: December 25, 2019

Maddie and Emily wish you Happy Holidays and share some science facts you can show off at your next holiday party. Plus, a little reminder of how you can show your support for the show. Find and donate to your local public radio station at donate.npr.org/short. Follow Maddie and Emily on Twitter, @maddie_sofia and @emilykwong1234. Email the show at [e-mail]. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

You're listening to Shortwave from NPR. Maddie Safaya here with shortwave reporter Emily Kwong. Hey, Emily. Hi, Maddie. So we're off today on Christmas Day. Yeah. But we didn't want to miss a chance to wish you happy holidays. And to say whatever you're celebrating, if you're celebrating, or hope you're having a good day.

Fact check. True. Speaking of facts. Maddie and I each have one fun holiday fact that we're going to share with each other. And you can share it too with friends and family if you need a little, I don't know, sciencey cocktail chatter this week? Okay, I'm going to go first. All right. So you know up on the house top that Christmas song about the reindeer up on the house top click click click every year. I hear it. Right. Here's the thing. Some reindeer do make a clicking sound when they walk,

but it's not from their hooves hitting the ground. What? From their butts? Yes, from their butts. So here's the thing. They actually, as their tendons snap over the bones in their feet, it makes a clicking sound. It's apparently a very efficient way to to get around and some people think it might play a role in helping members of the herd stay in contact during snowstorms or bad weather as they're traveling together. That is genuinely astonishing. Pretty good, right? It's like your tap dancers.

Just a little tendon. All right, my fact is a little depressing. Hope you're ready. Honestly, that's perfect for the holidays. Here we go. All right. Well, did you know that mistletoe is actually a parasite? I just had to get it out in one sentence.

You have to. It's kind of alarming because it's this plant. we all make out under, kiss our loved ones under, right? It's cheerful and beautiful, but it's not so good for trees. Mistletoe actually uses its roots to tunnel into the trees bark and suck out nutrients and water and energy. This has been known to kill trees, or at least we can and disfigure them. Those are two very different facts.

We're in two very different moods. All right. All right, that's enough out of us. Before we go, we want to say thank you to all the listeners who have answered our call to donate to your local public radio station this month. It means so much to us that you've stepped up and shown support. And if you haven't donated, there's still time to help us crush our podcast enemies. I mean, friends, in the competition here at NPR for who can drive the most donations. Eat our dust, Detrow. That's right. The link to give us donate.npr.org slash short. Again,

donate.com.nipr.org slash short. We're back tomorrow with a new episode when we'll tell you about a study that identified one of the germiest places in the airport. Hint, it is not the bathroom. Until then, I'm Maddie Safaya. I'm Emily Kwong. And thanks for listening to Shortwave from NPR. It's slave bells and winter snow tonight.