The Weirdest Thing I Learned This Week - Orca Fashion, Cookie Cannibalism, BEAR ATTACK!!

Episode Date: December 18, 2024

Alex Goldman of Hyperfixed and Reply All joins the show to talk about a historic bear attack incident in Japan. Plus, Amanda talks about why stuff tastes different at 30,000 feet, and Rachel explains the latest fashion trend among killer whales. Get tickets for our upcoming LIVE SHOW right here! https://caveat.nyc/events/the-weirdest-thing-i-learned-this-week-2-8-2025 The Weirdest Thing I Learned This Week is a podcast by Popular Science. Share your weirdest facts and stories with us in our Facebook group or tweet at us! Click here to learn more about all of our stories!  Links to Rachel's TikTok, Newsletter, Merch Store and More: https://linktr.ee/RachelFeltman  Rachel now has a Patreon, too! Follow her for exclusive bonus content: https://www.patreon.com/RachelFeltman Link to Jess' Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/jesscapricorn -- Follow our team on Twitter Rachel Feltman: www.twitter.com/RachelFeltman Produced by Jess Boddy: www.twitter.com/JessicaBoddy Popular Science: www.twitter.com/PopSci Theme music by Billy Cadden: https://open.spotify.com/artist/6LqT4DCuAXlBzX8XlNy4Wq?si=5VF2r2XiQoGepRsMTBsDAQ Thanks to our Sponsors! Get cozy in Quince's high-quality wardrobe essentials. Go to https://Quince.com/weirdest for free shipping on your order and 365-day returns. Try VIIA! https://bit.ly/viiaweirdest and use code WEIRDEST! This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Get 10% off your first month at: https://BetterHelp.com/WEIRDEST Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Just steps from the water. The Hilton sale is on now. Book on Hilton.com or The Hilton.com. Hilton app and save up to 20% to get the stay you expected. When you want savings, not surprises. It matters where you stay. Hilton for the stay. Ambition comes in all shapes and sizes. At First Citizens Bank, we roll with your goals because we're built for what you're building. Fit for your ambition for Citizens Bank. At Popular Science, we report and write dozens of science and tech stories every week. And while

most of the stuff we stumble across makes it into our articles, we also find plenty of weird facts that we just keep around the office. So we figured, why not share those with you? Welcome to the weirdest thing I learned this week from the editors of popular science. I'm Rachel Feltman. I'm Amanda Reed. And I'm Alex Goldman. Alex, welcome to the show. It's so great to have you. Thank you for having me. I'm excited to be here. Would you tell our listeners a little bit about what you do when we don't make you come on here and talk about weird facts. Okay, well, point of fact, you did not make me.

You asked me, and I enthusiastically said, yes, I just want to get that out of the way. I don't want people to think I'm under duress. I'm a podcast producer and host. I used to host a show called Reply All. I just started a new show called Hyperfixed. Kind of narrative podcasts along the lines of like This American Life or something like that, but I'm going to go ahead. I don't want to start a fight because I like everybody who wants.

works there, but I'm going to go ahead and say that my show aspires to be a little more fun. I feel like bad saying it already. This American Life, a show that famously prioritizes fun. I think that This American Life is in a fantastic show that in a lot of ways does prioritize fun, but I think that the mandate of the show has evolved over time in a way that is not bad and remains interesting, but it's like they're doing a lot more hard news these days. I'm doing a lot more soft news these days. So if that's what you're looking for.

These American lives have gotten increasingly complicated things. Yeah, I mean, part of it is that the world is just a more serious place than it was in 1996 or whatever when they started. But yeah, that's fair. Well, I am a long time Reply All fan and am very excited to dive into your new show. So we're really psyched to have you today. Thanks so much. So let's get right into it. On the weirdest thing I learned this week, we start by each offering up a little tease about a fact or story that we found in the course of reading, writing, reporting, et cetera.

Decide which one we just absolutely have to hear more about first. Then once we've all had time to spin our little science yarns, we reconvene and decide what the weirdest thing we learned this week actually was, except there's not a winner anymore because I decided that just wasn't. Oh, there used to be a winner. ties. It's like, oh my God, everyone. The thing is that everyone's a winner. Yeah. I guess it all depends on like what the prize was because I would like you to reinstate it

if there was a prize. No, nothing. Just glory. We should make a prize. That's true. This is the final episode of season eight, by the way. Oh my gosh. That is such a good point.

And I'm so glad you said that because it reminds me that I wanted to say that we are having a weirdest thing live show. show on February 8th in New York City. Period. Peri-Boo. Of course. Let's go. Love you caveat.

Love caveat. So it's February 8th at 4 p.m. A Saturday, we've graduated to a not-on-a-school night showtime. Wow. And it's also the same day as my improv class graduation show. So I'm not advertising where or what that is. That would be insane. But if anyone listening is like, I would genuinely love to go to Rachel's Improb

graduation show. send me an email. You know, I'd love to have you there. It'll be a double feature. But anyway, we're really excited for Weirdest Thing Live, a caveat. Jess is coming to town for it. We're going to get some special guests. We're going to have prizes. I'm flying in. Yeah. And Rachel's bootleg merch will make an appearance. Period. I love bootleg merch. I will throw it into the audience with a t-shirt canon. So yeah, stay tuned. Tickets are actually already available. So we will have a link in the show notes. but don't worry. Like Jess said, we are taking a little break for the holiday season,

but we'll be back for season nine of weirdest thing at the end of January. So there will still be time to snag tickets when you next year from us. And we'll pop into the feed at least once to remind you that you got to get those ticks. And live stream will also be available. So wherever you are, we'll get weird together. I'll be live streaming from the comfort of my home here in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Yeah. And I'll be so annoying and lovely in the comments. Oh, please do. It's always nice when people are active in the comments. All right. So now we will actually get into our teases. Thank you, Jess, for reminding me of the news. Amanda, what's your tease? Yes. So my tease is soda tastes different in the sky. And don't we all know it, but I have no way.

idea why. So excited to hear more. Yeah. Alex, what's your tease? My tease is Bear attack. Nice. Yeah. Bear attack Say no more. What more is there to say? Yep. That's my fact. All right. It's been great being on the show.

I'll talk to you all another time. Lovely to have you. My tease is that an 80s fashion trend is making a comeback among whales. Nice. Yeah. Huge year for whales. Yeah, huge year for whales.

Jess's face of intrigue is really gratified. I was like, oh, lady's fashion trend. And then you said whales, and I was like, oh. Well, I can kick us off with whale fashion. So this story starts back in the summer of 1987. A female orca in the Puget Sound, I have not been able to find her name. I don't think she had one. Nameless.

Iconic, nameless. She made a very bold fashion choice. She surfaced with a dead. dead salmon on her nose. And she proceeded to carry it around for some time. Balanced on her head, some might say like a hat. And that actually, I mean, I guess if you see, if just like one whale had been seen with a fish on their head, they probably would have been like, that's an accident that happened to them. But she did keep doing it. And then that actually kicked off the now quite infamous dead fish hat trend. One expert recently told ABC News that it was the quote,

cool thing to do for that entire summer among a few local orca pods. So yeah, it took off. There were multiple orcas like habitually swimming around with dead salmon balanced on their heads. But then it fizzled out very quickly. I think like the next summer it was not a thing anymore. The girlies had moved on to something else. The girlies had moved on to something else. The whales were like, it's all about kelp on your head now.

Well, some whales do actually wear a cup on their head, which I'll talk about later. What? Amanda, like, you know, you should be doing those like fashion trend. Trend predictions, but for whales? Oh my goodness. Yeah, trend prediction for whales. I'd follow that channel. So, yeah, it fizzled out, but, you know, fashion is cyclical.

Everything always comes back. And as of last month, it seems like the Dead Fish Hat trend is making a comeback. Wow. Yeah. A 32-year-old male orca. Oh, my goodness. Now the boys have picked it up. The boys have picked it up, and the boys are back in town.

And this guy does have a name because these days we track killer whales in a way that we didn't back then. So J-27 Blackberry. Whoa. I love him. That's not the name that I expected. J-27-Walker. When you have to name a bunch of whales, you don't want them to be named like Greg. Like you got to...

I don't understand why not, but I guess I'll take your word for it. It's true that if I was researching whales, they would all probably be named things like Greg and Jerry. But J-27 Blackberry. Somebody took a photograph of him in Point No Point, Washington. So same area as back in the day. And he had a salmon on his head. And researchers are like, we don't know why this happened in the first place. We don't know why it's happening again.

So much time has passed almost 4.4. 40 years. Now, like I said, this was a 32-year-old orca, so he was not alive during the heady days when the salmon fish hats were last popular. But orcas do live like 90 years in the wild. So it is totally possible that this orca got it from another orca who was alive the last time fish hats were around. So yeah, why are they doing this? I sure would love to think it was just that they were like, look at my, look at my trendy chappot. Like, I look so cool. They think that there probably is a practical reason.

They think that it might have to do with, I've seen some scientists say it could be like storing a snack for later when you go on a hike, like maybe when they're going to places they know there aren't as many fish. It's also totally possible that it actually is happening because there's too much fish. like it's a really plentiful year for salmon. Apparently that is the case in that area right now. It's like a real like bumper crop of salmon this year. And basically they're like if the orcas are kind of like gorging themselves and they're like, you know, Augustus Sweetheart saves them for later. They just store it on their heads so that they don't eat too much and make their tummies hurt, but they also don't have to give it up to another animal. And apparently we have seen them store other kinds of food for later.

Like ones that are eating like small mammals will sort of put chunks of food under their pectoral fins like tucked in next to their body. And they think that maybe the fish are like too small and slippery for that to work. So they put them on their heads instead. Wow. Yeah. How do they keep them on their heads? What is the situation here? Are they tying them on with twine?

What is happening? Is it just like, praying? Prayer. Yeah, I honestly, I think it's, it is prayer. But they're like balanced on like their nose. So I think it seems like a very delicate operation to me. Like I don't quite understand how they're able to stay on there, but apparently they make it happen.

One thing that's cool is that we will be able to test some of the hypotheses about why they might be doing this. because we weren't very good at following killer whales back in the 80s, but now scientists use, like, drones to keep up with the whales that they're tracking. So they're saying, you know, we may be able to watch enough of the whales that are doing this that we can say, like, oh, after like half an hour, they'll then eat the fish. So, like, that confirms that it's about food storage. But if they just sort of wear them for a long time and then get rid of them, then that suggests it's just sort of a thing they're doing for fun, and that might be all the

information we ever get about it. Either way, excited to find out more. And researchers have pointed out that, like, we do know that killer whales, which are highly intelligent and very social, that they do sort of share ideas and that behaviors can get passed around as trends. I mean, a very, a very famous example is that starting in 2020 in the Iberian Peninsula, we saw all of those boat attacks from orcas. And we'll never know exactly what prompted that. Some researchers say they're just curious about boats in general and others say, you know, maybe one orca was attacked by a boat or injured by a boat and that that sort of prompted

this retaliation behavior. So the research I've also seen researchers be like, if the orcas wanted us dead, we'd be dead. it's playful behavior, which is, you know, harrowing. But true from what I know about orcas. So, but we do know that this behavior spread, that it was like going from pod to pod. So, yeah, we know that orcas like pay attention to what other orcas are doing and sometimes are prone to being like, I want to do that too. So, yeah, they have trends, fashion, and otherwise.

And then one other related thing I have to this fact, Amanda, you mentioned where and kelp. And indeed, baleen whales, so, you know, very different kind of whale. Orcas are tooth whales or, you know, in the same family as dolphins. Beline whales have that those weird little bristles instead of teeth, they're chill guys. And they are known to do this thing called kelping, which great word kelping. And they roll around in seaweed, but they also, they seem to preferentially like to sort of dive their heads into it so it sits on their heads. heads and then keep it on like a hat. And similarly, like, researchers do think that there's probably some practical thing behind that. They think it probably feels good. They think it helps protect their

skin. But it's also like it has all of the markings of a playful behavior that they learned from watching each other. So not all that different from the fish hat phenomenon. And yeah, that's, that's what killer whales are up to. And I can't wait to see what, what trend they get into next. What a bunch of iconic fashionistas. I can't stop thinking about the granola bar that's just rotting away at the bottom of my purse, you know? Yeah, it's so, it's the same. It's the same.

It's the same, but like that fish is going to get eaten eventually, the granola bar. I don't know. It's probably too flat for human consumption. It is, it's so real what a granola bar is so flat. And you're like, I understand this is. is an extremely shelf-stable product. And I know the wrapping has not been broken, but God. I'm scared.

Sometimes you get low blood sugar and you need to eat the flat granola bar. Yeah. Sometimes it's... Okay. I've been there. Yeah, absolutely. It's like, no, I have gotten so hungry where I'm like, you know what? Just grin and bear it.

It's someone would pay a lot of money for this flat granola bar at a Michelin Star restaurant. I think I miss I think I if that's true that I've misunderstood how Michelin Star Restaurants work listen it's all about presentation all about presentation sometimes yeah the plate's tiny you get two bites it's all about the vibes I mean I think I don't want to go to your Michelin Star restaurant but I it's wish it all the best that's okay I'm intrigued what other things you're going to make a lot of slaps a lot of things that, you know, the health department has been by a bunch, and we have just been like, not today, folks.

Thankfully, we haven't been published in the papers yet. The Michelin Star Restaurant is completely functional in second life, however. It's just a digital restaurant. How your fantasy restaurant, the fantasy of running a restaurant is like an incredibly poorly run a restaurant that's having a lot of trouble. No, that's the point. The point is that it stinks. Incredible. It's like, have you ever wondered what the worst meal of your life would taste like?

Congratulations. For the low price of $1.99.99 for a three-hour tasting course, you can have the most miserable time of your life with your loved ones. It's the sequel to the menu. I didn't know we need it. Yeah. Okay, we're going to take a quick break and then we'll be back with some more. facts. Did you know that there's an online cannabis company that ships federally legal

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That's code weirdest for 20% off. Okay, we're back. And Amanda, talk to me about some soda in the air. Absolutely. So I don't know about you folks, but I, I love a free beverage on a plane. I look forward to my Skyett Coke as I call it. I love a portmanteau personally.

I don't know if you guys know. I figured out a hack for getting a beverage on the plane, which is rather than taking the little cup they give you saying, hey, can I just have the can? And they always say yes. And it's just like, I'm getting twice as much. Yeah, that is so smart. and I as having been on planes where they just give you the can to like save themselves

the trouble I'm always like I gotta make sure this happens next time because you know it's a waste of plastic and it's unfair to me a person who deserves a whole soda yeah is it I mean that's the real problem I don't need the ice I don't need like a cold cold drugs sometimes I'm in the mood for it and like I'll be like okay is the can cold what was that nothing not always Sometimes it's a little. I guess that's the risky run. Yeah.

Yeah. Volume versus temperature. But funny enough, getting the can and having to pour out the can is part of my fun fact. So anyway, I don't know but you guys, but I also love the even more luxurious combination of ginger ale and a Biscoff cookie on a plane. Oh, so good. Classic. If you're ever like, hmm, my soft drink isn't as sweet as it is on the ground. while you are in your economy seat drinking your free airline beverage, congratulations.

Science can't explain why. So the combination of the cabin pressure and the dryness caused by the lack of water vapor while you're just in the sky dulls your taste buds and alters how your mouth perceives different flavors. And airlines have actually literally studied this. So in 2011, an age of. institute called the Franhofer Institute for Building Physics IBP was commissioned by Lufthansa which is a German airline to research this and they found that the taste of sugary food

and drinks diminishes by 15 to 20% when you're flying and you experience a 20 to 30% decrease in taste perception with salty flavors. So if you have ever munched on chips, and you're like, mm, not a salty, congratulations. It's because your taste buds are just dry and parched,

and there's no way for them to get adequate moisture. But funny enough, ginger. Do you know how there's like, it's been, it's been studied that people tend to cry more at movies on planes?

Like, this is a studied phenomenon. I never knew that. You telling me this now, you telling me this now makes me feel like, we shouldn't be up there. We should not be up there. We should not be up there.

We've been up there and us. I was just watching a silo last night. There was this line like, humans weren't meant to live underground. And it was a very, that's very like pseudo-profound statement. And I'm like, yeah, humans weren't meant to do a lot of things. You know, we weren't meant to look at screens all day. We weren't like to sit at desks all day. We were not meant to go into the sky for sure.

You know what we were meant to do, though? We absolutely were meant to do. to be on a lovely little train for six hours, looking at the landscape, sitting in the dining car, playing cards with a loved one, or maybe even a stranger, and just, like,

drinking a little beverage from the concession card. That's what we were meant to do. That sounds right. Yeah. So ginger ale is actually better in the sky compared to soft drinks because of how your palate perceives it. So like on a plain ginger rail is a little sharper and more refreshing than as it is on the ground.

However, the taste of other carbonated soft drinks is negatively impacted. So it's also harder to pour out a carbonated soft drink in the sky. Like it fizzes up a bunch too, which is why you always see the stewardesses and the airline attendants just like carefully pouring it out so it doesn't foam over. And this phenomena also isn't limited to sodas. So spices like lemon grass and cardamom have a stronger taste in the sky, which I thought was interesting. Oh, wow. So in case you've ever wanted to just like bring that lemon grass baked good onto a plane.

Or like Thai food would be good on an airplane, I guess. Yeah. Yeah. So I'm about to be that bitch with a container a pad die on the place. That's true. Everyone probably wouldn't eat you, but it would taste delicious. Exactly. It's like, get on my level.

But if you want to combat the effects of this, you can either just drink your beverage. As soon as the flight departs, you nix the free drink for a pre-purchased, bottled beverage from a Hudson news. of or something of the like. Or you can just drink a bunch of water when your flight departs so that your taste buds are nice and moist so that they can fully appreciate your Sky at Coke. Wow. This is so interesting. And it's funny because I do, I am way more likely to drink ginger out on a plane than

I am elsewhere. Yeah. Because generally speaking, I think most, most like, can. And ginger ale is not sharp enough. It's too sweet. I'm like like polar ginger ale is good. But like, you know, seagrams and whatever. I'm like, no, those just taste too.

They're weak sauce. They don't taste gingery. Yeah. It makes sense that I've always thought it was just because like, I don't know. Maybe my, maybe I'm like nauseous when I fly or something. But I'm not really. It's because it tastes better. Exactly.

I feel extremely validated. And that's probably also. also why the Biskopf cookie is an elite little plane treat because it probably has, I mean, like, yeah, Abyskopf cookie I think has ginger in it too. So yeah, huge, huge day for ginger. I got to be honest. I used to work at WNYC and one of my colleagues was an intern at a show and was also, also was a Delta steward stewardess. What are they called? I feel like I'm Flight attendant. I think flight attendant.

Thank you. Oh, my God. But I can vouch for the fact that they taste as good on the ground as they do in the air. They really do. It's a delicious cookie. Yeah, they're sure good. The cookie butter spread, the Trader Joe's cookie butter spread. Imagine, ooh, it's like how Kit Katz are made out of crushed up Kit Kats.

You just put the cookie butter spread onto the Bisccoff cookie, and it's like, I'm so sorry that I'm eating the crushed up body parts of your brethren with the whole of the Biscop cookie. Yeah, this feels like cannibalism. Yeah, I can't really explain it, but it seems, it's unsettling. Yeah, I've also heard the research about being more likely to cry when you watch a movie on a plane, and I can't remember what the reasoning for it is. I would have to maybe for a future app, but I sure know it's a thing for me. But I cry at movies.

I'm like I, movies are, when I sort of feel like I need to get a good cry in, I'll like pull up a particular five minutes of a film and I'm just gone. For me, if I start, if I start crying, I know that I did not sleep well. Like the other day I was on TikTok and I saw a friend, a friend of mine made a video, like her albums of the year video. And in the beginning, she was dancing. And I sent her a message, which was like, I was like, Joe, I love you so much. I'm crying. I don't know what's going on. And then I was like, oh, I got like three hours of sleep last night. That's what's going on.

I'm the opposite. Only like a select, a select media. Like not everything makes me cry, but oh boy. The media that I have cried to most this year is Naruto Shippin. Oh, dude. I believe it. Oh, dude. When Naruto meets his dad.

I don't want to say anything for spoilers. Ah! When Naruto meets his dad. It's, it's heartbeking. There's so, yes. Yes. And did you watch the original Naruto as a kid? Yes.

Yes. So that's why it means so much more watching Shupon. Yes. Because you're like, oh my God, because you, you, the characters have grown up in front of your eyes. Yes. They've grown up with us. And then like you see like stuff, like stuff happens in Shepudan. And then you're like, oh my God, wait, if I go back and watch OG Naruto that I'm like, wait, that's actually like way more heartbreak.

now that I have more context to that character. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I know. And I'm like, damn, am I going to have to watch Boruto now? Right. I'm like, am I going to have to watch? Am I going to have to watch Naruto's child?

Yeah, I don't have to care about the kids. Like, come on, man. Yeah. They're probably going to have to make me care about the next thing. Anyway, it's good for a cry. I personally find a Final Fantasy games will always let me have a good cry. Think of a wrong. Yeah.

I would say the only thing I reliably cry at is eternal sunshine of the spotless mind. But that really dates me. That makes everybody out is now exactly how old I am because I said that. It is a real, a real cry, tear-jurker cry fest. That'll do it. All right. We're going to take one more break and then we'll be back with one more fact. Make every get-together chill.

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Okay, we're back. And Alex, Bear attack. Bear attack. Tell me more. So if you ever had one of those days? one of those things where it's like, oh, this is serendipity. Because I've thought about this for a long time, this bear attack, this particular bear attack. What I didn't realize, there's two things, two pieces of coincidence that are interesting about it.

So the first is that we are days away from the 90, from the 109th anniversary of this attack. Oh, wow. So this attack is called the Sanco Betu Brown Bear Incident. took place in 1915 in Hokkaido, Japan. I have never been to Japan. I didn't know there were bears in Japan. Oh, yeah. I know there are bears in Japan because one of my favorite dog breeds,

the Japanese Akita, was bred for bear hunting in Japan. Oh, wow. They're big dogs, not for everyone. Very beautiful. Very beautiful. Oh, my gosh. I generally wouldn't want to. pit a dog against a bear, but if I had to pick one, it would probably be a Nikita.

Yeah. So good job. They did a good job there. I also just love anything that gets referred to historically as an incident. Yes. I can't wait to hear more. I mean, the thing is, it was many incidents. So it took place over six days.

Wow. Oh, wow. Sankabetsu is a very small part of Hokkaido, which is the northern island of Japan, which is like way up. I mean, it's still pretty populous, but this particular part of it, It's like on the coast, kind of in the middle of nowhere, very rural. Okay. And it was like a snowy winter.

And then December 9th, a bear shows up at this family's house. And it was a husband and wife and a baby. And the bear attacked and killed the baby and dragged the mom into the woods. Oh, my gosh. Yeah. So this is that. And I'm looking at the Wikipedia page right. know. It says, according to contemporary descriptions, the scene resembled a slaughterhouse.

The bear didn't, the thing to be clear is they didn't just, like, see the bear outside the house and they attacked. The bear went into their house and attacked. That's like crazy. Yeah. So they did that. The next day, they like had a big search party. A bunch of people shot at the bear. Only one of them hit it. The bear was just like, I'm out of here.

the next day the everybody hung out at the family's house with guns waiting for the bear to come back and the bear came back so this is on December so this is on December 10th and there were all these people hanging out

waiting for the bear and they still didn't manage to kill it and a bunch of people decided to like stay together in a house with guards patrolling outside. And the bear came back and killed more people. What? How? Oh, my God.

This is? Super bear. Yeah, I can completely understand how a bear kills people caught unawares or unarmed. But yeah, I wouldn't think that a bear against a like self-formed anti-bear militia would get some hits in. I know. It's crazy. So there's this family called the Miyuki family. They took a bunch of people in to hide from the bear attack. And they had people standing outside fighting, trying to stop it.

One of the guards was attacked by the bear. He ran away. The bear came into a house again and killed two more people. Oh, my goodness. This is cocaine bear. This is cocaine bear. His ancestor. And then killed another, and killed a woman during this attack as well.

Um, sexist. Why does the bear keep killing women? One, two, three, four. Yeah, what gives? What gives? Okay. Well, it also killed, it also killed a couple, couple boys. So two of the people were two of the people in that attack were boys.

The bear actually doesn't discriminate. Thank God. I thought we were talking about a sexist bear. Yeah, this bear, I think it does not have opinions about that kind of thing. and then so it had killed five people at this point or six people and it went on to kill one more and they spent the next four days chasing it through the woods finding body parts until they finally tracked it down and killed it and it's like the craziest worst single bear attack ever and no one really knows why it happened the belief is that

So this was the dead of winter. Bears usually hibernate. Yeah. They think that the bear awoke from hibernation early and was super hungry. Mm. And so it was like ferocious and desperate. So it went after families and attacked them and killed them and stuff, which is crazy. Yeah. That's so wild.

I know we, like a few years ago, we had a weirdest thing special about like the most man-eatingest tiger ever. And it was like a similar situation where it was just like, this tiger simply will not stop killing people. But again, for some reason, more surprising to be with a bear. I think obviously like a bear will absolutely fuck you up. But as somebody who grew up in the woods, like most of the messaging is like don't accidentally encounter a bear. Like don't don't accidentally encroach on bear's space. It's not keep your doors locked to that. Bears will come in.

Well, so the other serendipitous thing, which I teased at the beginning, is I was, you know, preparing to come on here. And I was like, okay, I got to Google Japan bear attack. And two days ago, three days ago, excuse me, on December 3rd, Reuters put out a feature article, thousands of words about how bear attacks are increasing in Japan. Oh, wow. Specifically in the region where this took place. Oh my God, what? That's crazy. And the reason this is happening is, culturally, Japan is moving away from hunting.

Yeah. People don't want to hunt anymore. I believe. And so most of the hunters are too old to be killing bears. So the bear population is exploding. Wow. And in 2023, there were six deaths and two. 213 bear attacks.

What? Japan. Japan is not a huge, huge place, you know? Right, yeah. It's a pretty modest-sized place. So the fact that that happened is really crazy. As of November of this year, there have been 72 injuries and three deaths.

Oh my gosh. That's a lot. Yeah. And where were the Akitas in all of this? Bring in the dogs. So there's all, this article is like, it's like full of maps and charts, diagrams. It's so detailed. But like they have all these crazy facts in it.

Like last year, there were 227 bear sightings in Sapporo City, which is a big city in Hokkaido or on the island of Hokkaido. Yeah. So it's like the bears are both exploding in size. The population is exploding in size. there's no one, they are the apex predator because humans have decided to stop attacking them. Yeah. They're very comfy, it sounds like. Sapporo is a city of two million.

Can you imagine seeing 213 bear sightings in a city of two million? I cannot. It seems bad. It's like when you like see a stray coyote like in your, in your like city, like in Chicago, or in L.A. There's like, you know, coyotes around. Imagine if that was just a bear. Yeah. I'm all said on that.

I don't want to imagine that. That's too scary for you. Yeah, I take back what I said with the dogs. Let's keep your dogs inside, especially if they are, let the Akita's chew on a bear toy. Don't let them near the real bears. I can't overemphasize how cool this article is. They talk about all the ways they're trying to deal with it. And one of them is that they've made these, they call them monster wolves.

Oh. And they are solar-powered, basically like wolf scare-cure. crows that when bears come by they like make noise and they move they shake around to scare the bears away that's I definitely thought they were just breeding wolves to attack bears and I was like

this is a that's I think that's going to create another problem the wolves they've gotten too strong it's a twilight situation it's like vampires fighting werewolves except in this case it's like it's like breeding wolves to fight bears it's the same thing as the alien franchise

where they're trying to breed aliens to as a weapon, you know? Yeah, no, bad idea. That will never have ruined. Yeah, but no, the solar-powered wolf scarecrow sounds great. I'd love one. Propped on four rods, the monster wolf robot sold by Sapporo-based wolf kamoi

amidst growls, barks, and threats from a loudspeaker triggered by a sensor. They're $2,500 and powered by solar energy. Oh. The gleaming-eyed beast. Losing money not buying ones. Exactly. Has demonstrated some success at warding off beasts,

though its trigger can be censored by other animals. Well, obviously. Fair. Yeah, I went to college in the middle of the woods, and one time a bear decided it wanted to hang out at the student union. It didn't enter the building, but it was like, you know, by the entrance. And, you know, the emails from our head of security, Ken, were like, it's the bear union now.

No one, we're not using the student union until further notice. It belongs to the bear. don't be stupid don't fuck with the bear don't fuck with the bear and then like you know like a day later he got bored and he left

and we got to go back to the student union again but yeah that sounds terrifying to me you know I was talking to a friend of mine who lives in Australia the other day and I was talking I was like yeah you know I really want to like visit because I think I would be really cool

but also I know how big spiders are there and I kind of can't mess with that like that's a little too scary for me I've had that thought many times and I love I like desperately want to visit Japan, but I don't know. I'd like... Maybe now's not the time.

Maybe I have to stay in a bigger, bigger city than Sapporo. Can you bring bear maize in a checked bag? I don't think so. Darn. Well, maybe in a checked bag, but... Definitely not in a carriac. No, no. Can you bring a wolf monster with you, though?

This is my emotional support. Wulf monster. Imagine bringing a wolf monster back through customs. Yeah. Don't leave home without it. Well, Alex, thanks so much for joining us. That was great, terrifying, horrible, and fascinating, which we love on weirdest thing. Yeah, thank you for having me. It was great. I had so much fun. Would you remind folks what your new show is called so they can find you?

Yeah, it's called Hyperfixed. You can find it on all social media and on its website at Hyperfixed Pod. So it's Hyperfixpod.com and then on all social media, it's Hyperfixed Pod. And yeah, we've got four episodes out. We're cranking away on the fifth. And that doesn't sound like very impressive. So let's say we've got 104 episodes out. Perfect.

And listeners, don't forget to get your tickets to join us either in person or via stream on February 8th at Caviott in New York City. And yeah, that is a wrap on Weirdest Thing, Season 8. We'll be back in a few weeks. So see ya on the other side. The weirdest thing I learned this week is produced by all of our hosts, including me, Rachel Fultman, along with Jess Bodie, who also serves as our audio engineer and editor extraordinaire. Our theme music is by Billy Cadden. Our logo is by Katie Belloff. If you have questions, suggestions, or weird stories to share, tweet us at Weirdest underscore Thing. Thanks for listening, Weirdos.