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cover of episode The Windbreaker: Why Farts Make the World Go Round

The Windbreaker: Why Farts Make the World Go Round

2025/4/24
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A
Alan Gofinski
A
Ana Gonzalez
D
Dr. Juan Pablo Zenlio
L
Lulu Miller
Topics
Lulu Miller: 我起初认为讨论放屁是不合适的，因为它通常被认为是不雅的，令人反感的。但是，通过节目的讨论，我开始重新审视放屁这一现象，并认识到它在科学、艺术和文化中的重要性。 Ana Gonzalez: 我认为放屁是一种被误解的现象。它不仅存在于日常生活中，而且在音乐、艺术和文化中也扮演着重要的角色。许多乐器的声音都与放屁的声音相似，许多作曲家也曾在作品中加入了放屁的元素。 Alan Gofinski: 通过与专家和听众的交流，我了解到放屁在动物世界中的重要性，以及它对生态系统的影响。如果人类停止放屁，将会对生态系统和人类社会产生灾难性的影响。 Dr. Juan Pablo Zenlio: 从医学的角度来看，放屁是人体消化系统正常运作的标志，对健康至关重要。如果人体无法正常放屁，可能会导致肠道压力过大，甚至器官破裂。 Dani Rabioti & Nick Caruso: 我们研究发现，放屁在动物世界中扮演着各种各样的角色，从帮助动物导航到吓退捕食者，甚至在动物的交流中发挥作用。 Sequoia: 我对打嗝和放屁的区别很感兴趣，并了解到它们产生的部位和气味不同。 JJ: 我想知道为什么睡眠时会放屁，并了解到这是因为睡眠时对肌肉的控制能力较弱。 Steven: 我对胃部咕噜声是否与放屁有关感到好奇，并了解到这是食物在肠道中消化和移动的声音，可能包含放屁。

Deep Dive

Chapters
The episode explores the surprising presence of farts in classical music, revealing how fart-like sounds are produced by various instruments and how they have been incorporated into musical compositions. It transitions into discussing the importance of farts in the natural world.
  • Fart-like sounds are produced by various instruments in classical music.
  • Composer Joseph Haydn included a fart joke in his 93rd symphony.
  • Many instruments naturally lend themselves to fart-like sounds.
  • Farts play a crucial role in various aspects of the animal world, from underwater navigation to interspecies communication.

Shownotes Transcript

Farts. Trouser trumpets. Sulfur squeaks. Or toots, as Lulu insists on calling them. Smelly bubbles of air we don’t like to talk about. But Songbud Alan and Producerbud Ana are not ones to shy away from the stinky sidelines of science. 

First, they take us to a concert hall to meet a FARTchestra and hear how behind some of the world’s greatest works of art lies the power of farts. Next Dr. Juan Pablo Zhenlio takes us through the ecosystem of human digestion, meeting trillions of microscopic organisms to learn why we fart. Then we jump into the world of animal farts. What do snake farts sound like? Manatees? Cows? Chimpanzees? Birds? 

Finally we ask the most important question of all: What would happen to the planet if we stopped farting? 

For more on toots, read Dani Rabiotti and Nick Caruso’s book Does it Fart? The Definitive Field Guide to Animal Flatulence).

Special thanks to the Brown University Orchestra), Dr. Juan Pablo Zhenlio), Dani Rabaiotti and Nick Caruso. 

Terrestrials was created by Lulu Miller with WNYC Studios. This episode was produced by Ana González, Mira Burt-Wintonick, Alan Goffinski, Joe Plourde, Lulu Miller, and Sarah Sandbach, with help from Tanya Chawla. Fact checking was by Natalie Middleton. 

Our advisors this season are Ana Luz Porzecanski, Anil Lewis, Dominique Shabazz, and Liza Demby.

Support for Terrestrials also comes from the Simons Foundation, the Arthur Vining Davis Foundations, and the John Templeton Foundation.

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