Shownotes Transcript
Terrestrials is supported by the John Templeton Foundation, funding research and catalyzing conversations that inspire people with awe and wonder. Learn about the latest discoveries in the science of well-being, complexity, forgiveness, and free will at templeton.org.
Radiolab for Kids is supported by IXL. IXL is an online learning program that helps to enrich homeschool curriculums, offering practice in math, science, social studies, and more. Their programs are designed to meet kids where they're at, helping them develop curiosity and determination all the way through 12th grade, no matter your child's learning style or knowledge level.
Ixl has built-in tools like video tutorials, detailed explanations, and learning games to guide your child in the way they learn best while meeting them at their level. Make an impact on your child's learning. Get Ixl now. Radiolab for Kids listeners can get an exclusive 20% off Ixl membership when they sign up today at ixl.com slash rlkids. Visit ixl.com slash rlkids to get the most effective learning program out there at the best price. ♪
Radio Lab for Kids is supported by the New York Hall of Science, a hands-on science center and STEM learning lab in New York City. Every day is a new hands-on adventure in their innovative design lab. Build ice caves, pinball machines, and shadow puppets. Figure out how to bake pizza on the moon with just cardboard and plastic. Watch chemistry explosions.
that are as safe as they are attention-getting. Don't try it at home. Try it at the Hall of Science, where there is a constant stream of rotating activities that allow you to collaborate and innovate, like you're on a group mission to change the world. Visit nysci.org for tickets. Listener supported. WNYC Studios. Wait, you're listening? Okay. All right. You're listening to Radiolab.
For kids! From WNYC.
Three, two, one. Imagine you are a shadow creature. You sprout dark, greasy hairs all over your body. Your nose stretches out in front of you into a snout with whiskers. And you can smell everything around you. Food, your friends. Danger. As you crawl through trash in the dark of night. People scream at the sight of you.
But in truth, you're an undercover hero. You have become a rat. All right. Now is the part where I make you sing the theme song with me. All right, I'll try. Terrestrials, terrestrials. We are not the worst. We are the worst.
Uh, best drills? Best drills. You got it. Terrestrials is a show where we uncover the strangeness waiting right here on Earth. I am your host, Lulu Miller, joined as always by my song bud. Check this out, Lulu.
Alan! Those are live rats. And they are crawling all over your shoulders. I'm trying to go down my shirt a little bit. They kind of tickle. And then there's one in your hand. Yes, in total, there are nine rats in this studio right now. Do you feel afraid right now? Um, yeah. I mean, look at this tail.
It's wrapping around your wrist. It's so wormy. Why do they have to be naked? Why can't they just have a dignified furry tail like a dog? Oh, that one's going in my mouth. No. Okay, that, the rat in the mouth, really makes me think about what germs they have. That's fair. Honestly, your reaction is pretty similar to most people here in New York City.
The most vile thing I've ever experienced in my life. I set up a rat hotline recently. Are you serious? Put a few flyers around town on telephone poles with an invitation for people to call in and tell us about your rat stories.
And they pretty much just say what people have said throughout history. Rats have been called evil, terrible, wicked, terrifying. And in medieval Europe...
They were simply known as the lowliest and most abominable of all creatures. Gnarly. Gnarly stuff. I don't entirely disagree with these descriptions. And I'm going to be honest, people do have good reason to be a little fearful of this little guy. I mean, they've chewed through walls and stolen and contaminated our food. They're responsible for tons of outbreaks of disease and countless deaths throughout history. See? Sad. Bad. Oh!
I just got pooped on. Oh, see, you're proving my point. Well, Lulu, I too was grossed out by rats until I heard the story of one rat named Magawa. Magawa? Yeah. And this one rat is responsible for saving whole communities of people from lives of total terror. Really? Yeah. And if you're willing to sit with these rats just a little bit longer, you'll learn how.
All right. That's pretty wild. I will take the bait. The rat bait. You get it? Okay. So our story begins across the world from here in the African country of Tanzania. Good morning to you. Good morning, Pendo. This is Pendo Nsegu. On any given morning, you might find Pendo doing something that she loves. Reaching her hand into a little cage and gently picking up...
A rat. I am a rodent trainer. That's right. Not a dog trainer, not a horse trainer, but a trainer of rodents.
How long have you been doing this? Oh, wow. Yes. That's when Pando met the star of today's show, Magawa, a little critter from a species of rat called the southern giant pouched rat, known for their oversized cheeks. He
He came into the world about 11 years ago on a warm November day. He was tiny with little pink paws and eyes so new he couldn't even open them yet.
But once he did, one of the first things he saw was Pendo. I met Magawa when he was a baby. From those very early days, she was picking him up, petting him. I was visiting, trying to do nursing. Making sure that Magawa got enough milk. He was like my son. And like any mother-son duo, they would give each other kisses. And when the rat is licking, it's showing a sign of kissing. He'd come and lick your face? Yes!
And the reason she was doing all this was to form a bond so that Magawa would trust her enough that she could one day train him to do one very special trick.
And as he grew up from a tiny ball with pink paws to a furry gray rat the size of a loaf of bread, Pendo saw that Magawa... He was very smart and hardworking. They would spend hours playing a version of hide-and-go-seek that's actually a little more like hide-and-go-sniff. Magawa would never give up. You can see, uh-huh, this rat can be super. Dun-da-da-da!
But how do you turn a normal rat into a super rat? We need to pull up the socks to train the rats. Pull up your socks and train the rats. Yes. Pendo's idea for Magawa was truly wild. She wanted to train him, this lowly rat, to go out on a battlefield of sorts and... Save people's lives.
To explain how, we're going to have to take a brief detour away from Pendo and Magawa down into one of the greatest rat kingdoms there is. The leaky, drippy, dark underworld of tunnels and pipes beneath New York City. I mean, as big as I am, I will jump back if I do see a rat.
I'm here in a secret elevator riding 20 stories below the city with a guy named Cedric who fights rats for a living. Literally, his job is to eliminate them, if you know what I mean. And he explains that in fighting rats, he's actually come to admire their wild superpowers. He's taking me way down into this eerie place to try to catch a glimpse of their secrets up close. ♪
Cedric flings open the heavy elevator door. And with our gloves and our safety helmets, we step out into the still darkness. I'm not scared of the dark. I lied. I was a little nervous. Some narrow steps. Cedric waves his flashlight over the darkness like a wand. You'll see gnaw marks.
He points out tiny holes chewed through concrete. That's how incredible those teeth are. Although that's not the only way they sneak into homes. The rats, they can swim right through a water pipe, right up into someone's toilet in their home. So they're very smart. It's terrifying. It's very terrifying. Suddenly, Cedric glimpses a dark flash, a shadowy figure darting across the concrete wall. You say you think you saw one? I thought I saw one.
I missed it. But Cedric said that that's kind of common. They can be so quiet when they crawl, in part thanks to those naked little tails that Lulu hates so much, which help them silently balance as they climb around above our heads. You'll see them run through here. Yeah.
But Cedric says their real superpower is hidden inside their pointy little nose. That schnoz is stuffed full of more genetic material dedicated to smell than almost any other mammal. And this allows them to sniff out our food from far away and smell all kinds of things that we could never smell. These little stinkers even use scent to communicate, leaving each other stinky little chemical secret notes.
Like little odorous arrows that say, here's danger, here's the safe path. As they run along the edging of walls, you'll see discoloration. Grimy trails, a substance called sebum. Dirt and oils off the body. That truly work like a map to help rats navigate the city, avoiding our traps on their way to plundering our snacks. Bon appétit, mon ami.
And it appears they leave each other these clues because they care about each other. Scientists have observed that rats have empathy centers in their brain that help them understand what other rats are feeling. They cuddle and play with one another, and they'll even risk their own lives to save their family members. And this sociability, plus their ability to smell things undetectable to humans...
It's allowed rats to become one of the most successful mammals on planet Earth, often by, well, getting all up in our business, breaking into our homes, stealing our food, being little troublemakers. Wherever we go, we can be sure that rodents will follow along. It's that same combo of powers that Pendo hoped could allow a rat like Magawa...
to save us. That is correct. And when we return, we're traveling back to Tanzania to see how. Alan, you've had rats on you this whole time. You still are holding rats. Still covered in rats. Rescued pet rats, by the way, not sewer rats. But still, the rat tail just went over Alan's lip so it looked like a mustache. Holding back the nausea. Petunia, do you want to take us to break? All right, we'll be back soon.
Ever feel like those fables and fairy tales from back in the day are just a little bit dusty? Wondry and Tinkercast are bringing you a podcast for the whole family, Once Upon a Beat, that remixes folktales as old as time, giving them a fresh spin so they have rhythm and rhyme. It's hosted by me, DJ Fuge, and my trusty turntable, Baby Scratch. Where hip-hop and fables meet, it's Once Upon a Beat.
Oh, I got peed on again. Oh, and it, yeah. Oh, it's dripping right down my hand. Well, this is Terrestrials. We are back with Alan and a rat that literally just peed on him. I'm just slowly becoming a rat litter box over here. So...
They're still cute, though. I still like them. Okay. I bet you smell great. I am just getting a closer look at their little feet. And, like, they're really cool, actually. They spread out like a human high-five kind of. Really? Yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, it is. Gosh. I will say, the more we're looking close, they're getting sweeter by the minute here. Look at that little face. Oh, gosh. They're so, like, sweet little things.
Did you hear that? That was really sweet. That's a sweet noise. I'm glad you're warming up to these little buddies because this is where things get incredible. We're heading back to Tanzania to pick up with the story of a rat named Magawa and his human friend Pendo who wanted to train him to save human lives. So first of all, let me paint a picture of the dangerous problem that Pendo and Magawa were trying to solve. Explosive landmines.
Some countries, like Cambodia and Angola and Afghanistan, have dangerous things called landmines scattered throughout parts of their countryside. A landmine is an underground bomb that explodes when stepped on. Soldiers sometimes use them in wars to harm their enemies. And they're awful and tragic. Think about it. What happens when the war's over? A landmine has no way of knowing the war has ended. Once that bomb is set,
It just sits there, silently, under the surface of the soil, waiting to be triggered. And this might be years after the war is over. Even 10 years. This might just be a farmer or somebody out on a walk. And in areas where landmines have been buried and hidden, people never know whether the next step could set one off. So they live in fear.
They don't wander off the paths. They don't farm new land. They don't build new homes or let their kids run around and play soccer. It's almost like they're in a prison without walls. They scared.
And Pendo, who works for an organization called Apopo, their wild hope was that they could train rats to use their powerful sense of smell to find the landmines. Because if they could sniff them out, the humans could come in and deactivate the bombs, dig them up, and make those areas safe for everyone. This is correct. And so it began.
The hard work of becoming a landmine-hunting, life-saving hero rat. There we have three different stages. And kind of like school, Magawa had to complete each of the three stages, or classes, to graduate to the next. ♪
All right now, quiet down, quiet down. Class is in session. It's time to begin. Please turn your fuzzy ears toward your instructor, Pendo, for your first lesson. Being socialized with the environment. We'll be learning socialization. Pendo took Magawa out into the world on a teensy little leash, introducing him to new smells like flowers and fruits.
The sound of cars and trucks and people and puppies. The feeling of grass and dirt beneath his scratchy little claws. And Magawa would get rewarded for trying new things. Congratulations, Magawa. You've really clawed your way to the top of your class. Now you're ready for step two.
Click training. We have a clicker. You have to press for the sound.
When we click, we provide food. So, Magawa, every time you hear the click sound, it's time to run back for a bit of banana. And also the avocado and peanut. Very tasty. Click food is not talking, but we can communicate and he can understand. It's a cool little trick, but you might be thinking, so what? I thought we were talking about saving lives here. What about the landmines?
How do they find them buried underground? Well, that gets us back to Magawa's greatest ratty little superpower. Sense of smell. Pendo first teaches Magawa and his classmates what the explosive, called TNT, inside the landmines smells like.
It's such a faint smell that humans can't pick it up. Only super smeller animals like dogs and elephants can smell it. But all those other animals, especially the elephants, they're too heavy and they could accidentally set off the landmines that they're searching for. Oops. So what Pendo does is she hides five little objects that smell just like the TNT in the dirt on this huge tabletop. The rats crawl around sniffing for that familiar smell.
And they learn that when they smell it... They have to scratch. To let Pendo know they found it. And as soon as the rat begins to vigorously scratch at the dirt... I can click and the rat can come, have food. They understand, they are doing very good. And Magawa, well, he was an A-plus student, able to find all five hidden objects. When my rat is doing great, I have a song I can sing. Happy.
In part because Pendo was so great at caring for Magawa and teaching him, he actually graduated to stage three early. This was the scariest part of the test.
He would go out into a field with real landmines buried below. Deactivated ones, but still. Magawa would have to find every single one. We need them to score perfect in training. Because anything less than a perfect score in a real-life search means a landmine might still be out there.
and someone could step on it. This is very bad, very stressful. It was the final test for Magawa. His persistence, concentration, speed, his sniffing ability. So the pressure's on. Pendo and her whole team wondered, does Magawa have what it takes to become a certified hero rat? A super smeller, landmine detector. Time to find out.
clip him onto his little leash, he began swerving back and forth in his zigzagging S pattern, his little whiskers wiggling, his little nose twitching, searching for that familiar smell of the TNT explosive.
And after just moments, Magawa starts scratching. Digging. Making Pando know he found one. Yes. And another. And another. He was doing a very great job detecting landmines. Magawa was on a roll. Yeah. Was very fast and accurate. With incredible speed and certainty, Magawa cleared every single landmine from that field. He made it. He made it.
Magawa proved to everyone that he had what it takes. He could do the job. Quicker and better than any person, dog, or metal detector. Congratulations, Magawa! You are now a proud graduate, or should I say graduate, of this fine academy!
For Pendo, this moment was bittersweet. She was so hopeful that he would go on to save lives, but she also knew that this meant it would be time to say goodbye, so Magawa could go away and help the people who need him. And when we decided to send him to Cambodia, it was very hard, and all of us were sad to leave.
Cambodia is a country in Asia where so many landmines were buried 50 years ago. A whole new generation of Cambodians live in fear of these landmines, planted during a war that happened before they were even born. This is where Magawa would get to work, doing what he does so well.
And sure enough, we heard a good news of Magawa doing a very great job in Cambodia. He was a star. In five years' time, Magawa worked his tail off, finding over 100 landmines and explosives, more than any other rat ever. And each time Magawa found one, it meant people were able to go safely dig it up, take it somewhere far away from people, and safely blow it up. Kaboom.
so it's not a threat anymore. Magawa did such a good job that people around the world started to take notice. A veterinary charity, who normally gives awards to like search and rescue dogs or heroic pets, awarded Magawa a gold medal.
meet the latest recipient of a gold medal award for life-saving bravery, Magawa. Magawa's medal has been specially designed to fit onto his work harness so he can wear it anytime. Definitely the first rat to ever win the award. For a critter who many consider gross, dirty and dangerous, this was a big deal. I cried. I was very happy.
But like a true hero, Magawa played it cool. Humble. He definitely seemed a little more interested in the snacks than the actual gold medal. Now, rats like Magawa live much shorter lives than people. Which means by the time Magawa turned seven, he was an old man, ready for retirement. And sadly, a few years after that, he passed away.
We are missing him, but we feel proud that we trained a hero rat who did a very great job. Never forget you. Our hero rat, Magawa. Pendo wrote this song to celebrate Magawa's life and his good work helping people. A song about how he showed the world a different side of rats. Somehow.
Because he was such a superstar, the people of Cambodia are now safer. Magawa is no longer with us, but other hero rats are being trained to smell when people are sick with a deadly but treatable disease called tuberculosis. They can detect it faster than doctors.
The rats are even learning to do search and rescue missions in buildings that collapse from earthquakes because their small little bodies can crawl into cracks in the rubble and reach places that human rescuers can't. So Magawa's legacy lives on. He's shown us that whether a rat is a friend or enemy, a heroic thinker or sewer stinker, really depends on us. City streets lined with trash and overflowing garbage can...
Subways and sidewalk cracks, but what do you expect? We're just rats, we're just, we're way too smart. We just stay alive, we belong together even thrives. If you change your attitude, we're just rats, we're just, we're gonna prove it to the world. We're just rats, we're just, we're, you'll never be.
We're just rats, we're just rats. We're just rats, but we got junk bags. Show a little respect, we can save your neck. Listen for the rat sound coming from the underground. You can't hear us coming. We're so hush-hush. Sneaking out of the shadows to shake things up. When you say that we're trashy, we say so what? It's just a tasty lunch. Face to furry face with thought that we're more than just low.
We're just rats, we're just rats We're just rats, but we got chug bags Show a little respect, we can save your neck Fakers, even though we're little stinkers And we're gonna prove it to the world We're just rats, we're just rats You'll never bring us down We're just rats, we're just rats We're just rats, but we got chug bags Show a little respect, we can save your neck Listen, fat sound, coming from the underground
Psych! There's nothing to hear because the rats are too stealthy! Alan Gofinski, everybody! High five!
Hey,
Hey, Kathy. Pleasure to be here. First question from me, 42. Why are their tails naked? They use their tail to help control their body temperature. In the winter, you might see its tail tucked up around its body to keep it close, keep that heat in. Where in the summer, it might put out that tail that's mostly hairless to dissipate more heat out and cool the rat off. Still kind of gross now, but I respect it.
Hi, my name's Oliver. I'm five and I want to know what rats' teeth look like. Ooh, yeah, tell us about their teeth. They're very sharp and rats need to chew to make sure their teeth stay filed down. So their teeth just keep growing their whole lives? Yes. Actually, rodent, dent means teeth. Oh, like dentist. Mm-hmm. It's kind of one of their superpowers. This whole family of animals is known for their gnawing behavior. Gnaw-ty by nature? Yeah.
Rats live in their burrows underground, and they typically have like a main door and some then escape doors. And one really clever thing they'll do is disguise those openings of their burrows. I've seen leaf litter, potato chips bags covering those openings, so they're camouflaging the doors to their home so nothing goes after them. That's so smart. Yeah, they're incredibly intelligent.
Hi, my name is Taylor and I'm eight years old. Are rats playful? Yeah, there's studies that have come out that have recordings of rats laughing when being tickled. And without further ado, the recordings. This is the sound they make when you tickle them.
Hi, I'm Malka and I am seven. Do rats get along with neighborhood squirrels at the park? Yeah, they're kind of occupying different spaces, different ecological niches. I will say I have seen rats catch and eat pigeons. No way. Absolutely. Why can't a pigeon just fly away? Rats have lightning quick speed and reflexes. So if there's an opportunity, they'll take it. Ratticle. Ratticle.
They'll also climb up a tree and take an egg. They are hardwired to survive. Is there anything else in the urban environment that they hunt? Cockroaches are a food source they like. It's a nice little kind of packet of protein. A little crunchy treat. Exactly. Man, now I am picturing a omelet made of that egg with chunks of pigeon meat and cockroach legs. Yes. If they need food, they will figure out a way to get it. They'll happily eat dog waste. Oh.
Oh, my gosh. Dog poop that is not cleaned up. There's still a lot of nutrients in that. So rats will eat it. I hate knowing that. Yeah. Yeah.
So we are going to leave it there. Terrestrials was created by me, Lulu Miller, with WNYC Studios. This episode was reported and produced by Alan Gofinski. Our executive producer is Sarah Sambach. Our team includes Alan, Mira Birtwintonik, Ana Gonzalez, Tanya Chawla, and Joe Plord, with fact-checking by Ana Pujol-Mazzini. Big thanks to our sponsors,
thanks to everyone at Apopo, especially Pendo Msegu, Saeed Mshana, and Lily Shalom. Thanks also to the Rat Czar, Kathleen Karate, Cedric Simmons of ALA Environmental Services, Olivia Ben-Simon, and Jake Offenhartz of the Street Leather Zine for inspiring the Rat Story Hotline. And biggest special thanks to our two wonderful rat, what do we call you, rat ladies? Handlers? I
I accept, rat lady. Who have been in the studio with us this whole episode, who are kind enough to bring nine rats into the radio studio. I'm Alana, and I'm here with Jen. We are both board members of Helping All Little Things, which is a foster-based rescue. Aw. And you can find us at our website, helpingalllittlethings.org. Thank you, Jen. Thank you, Alana. Thank you, all the rats. Wait, can you say all nine names? We have Posey, Poppy, Petunia, Rose, Hyacinth, Ophelia, Draco,
Geranium. And who's this other one? That is yet to be named. She's one of my newer ladies. We can name her Lulu. No. We couldn't. Lulu. We couldn't. I would be honored. Really? So that's a little Lulu. Oh, maybe. She's about four months old, so she's a baby. I'm really honored. The ears are adorable. Guys, I don't...
I might want a pet rat. Support for Terrestrials is provided by the Simons Foundation, the Arthur Vining Davis Foundations, and the John Templeton Foundation. Thank you.
Please, if you like what we are doing, follow and review us on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Reviews and likes and shares with your friends make a huge difference. You can also sign up for our newsletter at terrestrialspodcast.org. And finally, if you want to support Terrestrials and keep our strange little show going, you can do so by joining The Lab. That is Terrestrials and Radiolab's membership program. And this season, we have our first ever Terrestrials gift, which
which is a piece of art, so to speak, from Alan's adventures with the rats in the studio because he, well, he put them on a photocopier and the gift is the result of what came out. It's a photocopy of a rat and you can hang it on your wall and the first 100 people to become a member will get a signed photocopy from me and Alan. So check it out.
Supporting Terrestrials is super easy. You can do it with just a few bucks a month. To check out if it's for you, go to terrestrialspodcast.org slash join. That's terrestrialspodcast.org slash join. And that link is also in the episode description on whatever platform you are listening to these words right now. Just scroll down and there should be a little link. All right, that'll do it for today. Thank you so much for listening. See you in a couple spins of this dirty old planet of ours. Woof, woof, woof, woof, woof.
Terrestrials is supported by the John Templeton Foundation, funding research and catalyzing conversations that inspire people with awe and wonder. Learn about the latest discoveries in the science of well-being, complexity, forgiveness, and free will at templeton.org.