What happened to the Neanderthals?

AUDREY: You're listening to Brains On where we're serious about being curious.

Brains On is supported in part by a grant from the National Science Foundation.

NARRATOR: Hey, you. Yes, you. Tired of the same old, same old? Looking for something new under the sun? Have you seen humans and thought, is that all there is? Well, have I got a treat for you. Get ready for other humans. Why stick to one flavor of human when you can taste the tree? The family tree, that is.

Tired of boring, old Homo sapiens? Try Homo neanderthalensis. Neanderthals are like Homo sapiens' funky, fresh, super distant cousins. These hearty humans were stocky, muscular, roamed around parts of Europe. And they go great with a waffle cone. Or want something extra cold? Try Homo denisova. This variety of human lived in chilly places like Siberia, the Tibetan plateau, and across Asia.

Break me off a piece of that tasty treat. Humans now in more flavors. You might be saying, wait, are they actually talking about eating humans? Or do they mean eating fossils? What's going on here? To which we say, who knows? This is just a metaphor that we've stretched so thin, it's about to snap. But before it does, get yourself a super scoop of humans-- now in more flavors.

MOLLY BLOOM: You're listening to Brains On from APM Studios. I'm Molly Bloom. And joining me today is Audrey from Sammamish, Washington. Hi, Audrey.

AUDREY: Hey, Molly.

MOLLY BLOOM: So Audrey, you inspired this whole episode with a question you sent in to us. What was that question?

AUDREY: I wanted to know what happened to the Neanderthals.

MOLLY BLOOM: I love it-- such a good question. So for anyone who might not know, can you explain what a Neanderthal is?

AUDREY: The Neanderthals were a different species of humans.

MOLLY BLOOM: Oh, OK. So they were like-- are they still around today?

AUDREY: No.

MOLLY BLOOM: OK, so they're like an extinct kind of human relative? Is that how you would describe it?

AUDREY: Yeah.

MOLLY BLOOM: So humans, you and me, we are a type of human called Homo sapiens. And Neanderthals were a species called Homo neanderthalensis. And I just want to say one thing. So Neanderthals is written N-E-A-N-D-E-R-T-H-A-L-S so Neanderthals.

But we've learned in talking to our colleagues that it's actually pronounced Neandertals because it's named after a place in Germany. And they say "tal" there. So today, we will say both Neanderthal and Neandertal. And I think they're both correct. So you can pronounce Neanderthal or Neandertal however you want.

AUDREY: Scientists think Neanderthals look a lot like us, but they were a little shorter and more muscular.

MOLLY BLOOM: It's sort of wild to think about, but at one point, Neanderthals and Homo sapiens were both living at the same time. They even crossed paths. But for some reason, our species survived, and the Neanderthals went extinct about 40,000 years ago.

AUDREY: Yeah, and I want to know why.

MOLLY BLOOM: So Audrey, what got you interested in Neanderthals?

AUDREY: My dad was reading a book to me about early humans.

MOLLY BLOOM: So all the different kinds of humans?

AUDREY: Yeah.

MOLLY BLOOM: So do you ever imagine what it would be like to meet a Neanderthal?

AUDREY: Yeah, I would ask it how they would live their everyday life and how would they eat, how would they see their things the way we didn't.

MOLLY BLOOM: If you could go back in time and hang out with them, what would one of the activities you want to do with them be?

AUDREY: I would see if they had any games they could do or activities because they just can't eat and run and walk all the time.

MOLLY BLOOM: I think I would want to have a meal with the Neanderthals, see what they're cooking up, see if I found it delicious or gross or maybe I could introduce them to Cheetos. That will probably be a bad idea. Well, we're going to see if we can answer your question today. And you know who would be great at that? Our pal Anna Goldfield.

ANNA GOLDFIELD: I thought you'd never ask.

MOLLY BLOOM: Where did you come from, Anna?

ANNA GOLDFIELD: The fact that I've been camped out behind that plant for weeks waiting for this topic to come up isn't important. What is important is this, right here in my hands.

AUDREY: A giant stack of papers?

ANNA GOLDFIELD: Not just any stack of papers, it's my dissertation.

AUDREY: What's a dissertation?

ANNA GOLDFIELD: It's a very sciency and important research paper I spent years of my life writing.

MOLLY BLOOM: Yeah, it is a big deal. In addition to helping us here at Brains On, Anna Goldfield actually has a PhD in archaeology. She spent years studying ancient things. And her specialty is--

ANNA GOLDFIELD: Neanderthals! My dissertation here was all about Neanderthals. This is literally my area of expertise. It's my jam and my toast. My whole sandwich, actually. I love Neanderthals.

AUDREY: Whoa, that's awesome.

ANNA GOLDFIELD: I know. Here, I've printed copies of my dissertation for each of you. It's very heavy.

MOLLY BLOOM: Oh, thanks. It's long.

ANNA GOLDFIELD: Yeah, and the print is tiny. Enjoy! I've been preparing for this day for so long. I have my "I heart Neanderthals" shirt on. I've reviewed all the relevant literature. I have two backpacks full of footnotes. And I even brought my Neanderthal doll. His name is Paul. Say hi, Paul. Hi, friends.

My name is Paul, and I love cuddles and detailed analysis of the fossil record. Yay! Come on in for a Neander-hug.

MOLLY BLOOM: I wasn't expecting you to bring a doll, Anna, or do a squeaky voice for him to make it sound like he's talking.

ANNA GOLDFIELD: Oh, yeah. And when I move him around like this, it's like he's moving on his own.

I am moving, Anna. Respect my independence.

AUDREY: He's cute like an American Girl doll but with big muscles, messy hair, and a fur skin outfit. Where did you get him?

ANNA GOLDFIELD: In a Neanderthal stall at the Neander-mall last fall.

AUDREY: Wait, really?

ANNA GOLDFIELD: No, I got him online. Neander-mall just sounds cool. Anyway, you asked me to explain everything there is to know about Neanderthals all at once in one breath? I'm ready.

MOLLY BLOOM: We didn't ask that.

AUDREY: Yeah, why don't you start with the basics? Tell us about how they were discovered.

ANNA GOLDFIELD: OK, let me set the scene. It's Europe in the mid 1800s. The world was a pretty different place back then-- no cars, no phones, no electricity. People got around on foot, on horses, or maybe trains. The style for women at the time were these big poofy dresses with lots of lace. And men wore long coats and maybe a top hat.

AUDREY: Ooh, fancy.

ANNA GOLDFIELD: Yes, but also stinky. Plumbing wasn't great back then. Anyway, it was during this period that a couple of miners in Germany were digging for limestone. They were clearing out a cave when they discovered something strange.

MINER 1: Wow, bones. You think these are important?

MINER 2: They look super old, sort of human bones but also not. They're probably really rare and full of secrets of the past.

MINER 1: Yeah, that's what I thought too. Total junk, let's toss em.

MINER 2: Bye-bye, bones.

MOLLY BLOOM: Wait, they just tossed them?

ANNA GOLDFIELD: Yeah. But luckily, a local schoolteacher found them nearby and realized they were special.

It's like, I always say. One person's junk is another person's world-changing, paradigm-shifting archaeological find.

I couldn't have said it better myself, Neander-Paul.

AUDREY: But you're making his voice, so you did say it?

ANNA GOLDFIELD: Anyway, eventually, these bones made their way to some scientists who started studying them. They mostly agreed that the skull looked human with lots of space for a big brain like ours. But the skull shape was longer at the back. And the brows were much thicker. The hole where the nose would be was bigger and wider than it is for us. And the jawbone didn't have much of a chin.

AUDREY: So did they think it was a new human?

ANNA GOLDFIELD: Not right away. Remember, this was around the same time Charles Darwin was proposing a wild new idea called evolution. It was very cutting edge and new to think animals changed over time. The idea that we humans also changed over time would have been super out there.

AUDREY: So if scientists didn't think it was another species of human, how did they explain it?

ANNA GOLDFIELD: Oh, they had theories.

SCIENTIST 1: Clearly, this is just the skull of an ape.

SCIENTIST 2: Hogs wallop, it's a human skull like mine or yours. But this person was in pain because they had weak bones. So they furrowed their brow, and the bones got thicker.

SCIENTIST 1: No, no, no, those brows are just part of the normal range of human brows. I bet if we looked at more skulls, we'd see this isn't unusual at all. Here, let me look at your skull. I'll show you.

SCIENTIST 2: Get off me.

SCIENTIST 1: Stand still. I'm feeling your brow to prove a point.

SCIENTIST 2: Let go!

ANNA GOLDFIELD: But after more examination, some scientists did think these bones represented a whole new type of human. One of those people was a guy named William King. He was a professor of geology and mineralogy in Ireland at the time. And in 1863, he gave a talk claiming these bones belonged to--

WILLIAM KING: Homo Neanderthalensis I came up with the name based on the Neandertal Valley in Germany where these bones were discovered. And hear me out, sci pals. I think these bones are from a heretofore undiscovered type of human. Mind-blown, am I right?

ANNA GOLDFIELD: He wasn't the first to suggest this, but he was the first to propose a name. And it stuck.

MOLLY BLOOM: Wow.

ANNA GOLDFIELD: Wow indeed, Molly. The scientific community at the time was shook.

That's right, Neander-Paul. Some people rejected the idea that the bones were from a new kind of human because it conflicted with their religion. Others said there just wasn't enough evidence. But soon, scientists identified more Neanderthal remains. And it started to seem like a pretty solid explanation. At this point, all they really had were bones. But that didn't stop people from making huge assumptions about Neanderthals.

AUDREY: Like what?

ANNA GOLDFIELD: Well, basically, people assumed Neanderthals were strong but dim-witted oafs. Even William King thought this.

WILLIAM KING: Quite so. I mean, just look at this skull. Is that not the skull of a brute or what? I'm no brain scientist, but I can tell that the brain inside this skull was not top shelf if you get my drift.

ANNA GOLDFIELD: To be clear, you can't tell how smart someone was just by looking at their skull. But this idea started to spread. And some scientists decided that Neanderthals went extinct because they just weren't as smart and capable as us Homo sapiens.

Which is a really unfair thing to say about us, Neanderthals. They didn't even know us.

AUDREY: It wasn't fair, Paul.

ANNA GOLDFIELD: Yeah. But luckily, scientists did what scientists do best. They gathered more evidence. And over the next 100 years, pretty much everything we knew about Neanderthals was turned upside down. We even found out there were other humans besides them too. I'll tell you about that after the break.

Oh, a cliffhanger. Nice one, Anna.

Thanks, Paul. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go prepare something for the next leg of our journey through history. See you in a bit.

MEN: (SHOUTING) Brains on!

MOLLY BLOOM: One question scientists are still pondering, did Neanderthals have good hearing like we do? If so, they'd probably love the--

AUDREY: Shh, mystery sound.

MOLLY BLOOM: Audrey, are you ready for the mystery sound?

AUDREY: Yeah.

MOLLY BLOOM: Here it is.

[MYSTERY SOUND]

Well, I have no idea what this one is either. What is your guess, Audrey?

AUDREY: It sounds like a low mowing.

MOLLY BLOOM: Yes, I can see that.

AUDREY: Or like one of those phone calls that-- well, I've never had a phone, so--

MOLLY BLOOM: But like a vibration like when your phone rings?

AUDREY: Yeah the vibration.

MOLLY BLOOM: That's a great guess.

AUDREY: But the old-fashioned one makes that low noise.

MOLLY BLOOM: Yes, an old-fashioned phone that makes that low noise. Do you want to hear it again?

AUDREY: Yes.

[MYSTERY SOUND]

MOLLY BLOOM: All right, what else did we hear this time?

AUDREY: I hear like a table scratching.

MOLLY BLOOM: Ooh, yes. It almost sounded like there was a switch being turned off and on. I don't know. This is tough one. All right, we're going to listen again at the end of the show, get another chance to guess, and hear the answer. So stick around.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

We are working on an episode about cavities-- those tiny holes we sometimes get in our teeth. Nobody likes getting cavities. But luckily, brushing your teeth helps keep them from forming. So listeners, we want to hear from you.

If you could design the toothbrush of the future, what would it look like? Would it have lasers to zap plaque off your teeth or tiny little speakers so you could listen to music while you brush? Audrey, what would your toothbrush of the future be able to do?

AUDREY: I would like it to look see-through, so it would look fun. And I would also like it to be flying, so I don't have to hold it. And I also want to use the speed, so you can just do it in a second.

MOLLY BLOOM: Oh, yes. OK, so it's see-through, super fast, flying toothbrush.

AUDREY: Yes.

MOLLY BLOOM: I am into it. Inventors, please get going, so we can have the Audrey Brush 5,000 is what I'm going to name it. I love it. Well, listeners, record yourself describing your toothbrush of the future and send it to us at brainson.org/contact. And while you're there, you can send us a mystery sounds, drawings, and questions.

AUDREY: Like this one.

LISTENER: Why is the Earth so flat, but in outer space, it's a circle?

MOLLY BLOOM: Again, that's brainson.org/contact.

AUDREY: And keep listening.

You're listening to Brains On. I'm Audrey.

MOLLY BLOOM: And I'm Molly. We've been talking about our ancient relatives, the Neanderthals. Tens of thousands of years ago, there were other types of humans living at the same time in different places all over the world.

AUDREY: When Neanderthal bones were first discovered, people had a hard time believing that there could be another type of human.

MOLLY BLOOM: Right. Eventually, they came around to the idea. But they figured, there's no way these Neanderthals could be anything like us. They must have been total bozos.

AUDREY: Yeah, so what changed and how?

ANNA GOLDFIELD: Did somebody say paper maché?

MOLLY BLOOM: No, not even close.

AUDREY: Hey, Anna, welcome back.

ANNA GOLDFIELD: Oh, beans. I had a whole transition thing based on saying paper maché. Can we try it again?

MOLLY BLOOM: Why don't you just tell us what you wanted to tell us?

ANNA GOLDFIELD: OK, OK, OK, cool. I'm so excited. Aren't you excited, Neander-Paul, my NeanderDOLL?

I'm just a doll, Anna. I don't feel feelings.

Oh, right. Well, archaeology has come a really long way in the 150-ish years since the first Neanderthal bones were discovered. Archaeologists in Europe kept digging. And they found more and more things that gave us a glimpse into the lives of the Neanderthals.

AUDREY: Cool. Like what?

ANNA GOLDFIELD: Well, I could tell you or I could show you with paper maché. See? There was a reason I wanted to get to that. Come on, follow me.

MOLLY BLOOM: Where are we going? There are so many hallways in Brains On headquarters, even I get lost sometimes.

ANNA GOLDFIELD: Here we go.

AUDREY: Whoa, how did you get such a big stone door into the building?

ANNA GOLDFIELD: Oh, she's not that strong. It's just paper maché, Audrey.

Yeah, I used a bunch of copies of my dissertation. It turns out people don't really want to have their own copy like I thought. I tried using them as stocking stuffers, but they somehow all mysteriously ended up back at my house. But hey, they make great paper maché. Anyway, welcome, my friends, to the Neander-hall, home of the Neanderthal.

MOLLY BLOOM: Whoa.

AUDREY: Whoa.

MOLLY BLOOM: Incredible.

ANNA GOLDFIELD: I've created exact papier maché replicas of some of the most amazing things archaeologists have found that gave us clues about how Neanderthals lived.

AUDREY: It's like a Neanderthal museum in here.

MOLLY BLOOM: Wow, there's a lot of papier maché in here. How many copies of your dissertation did you print?

ANNA GOLDFIELD: The 1,000 copies I printed aren't important. What is important is what they've become like this replica of a stone hand ax.

SANDEN TOTTEN: Hands off the axe, Anna. No touching.

ANNA GOLDFIELD: Wait, Sanden? Have you been here the whole time?

SANDEN TOTTEN: Oh, I'm the Neanderthal museum docent. Every museum needs a docent to lead tours and give directions. And I love telling people what to do, so it's a perfect job for me. I get to say, hey, you, stand back. Stop breathing on the displays. Hey, chew your gum quieter. It's great. Plus, I'm obsessed with ancient humans. They're my second favorite kind of human.

AUDREY: What's your favorite kind of human?

SANDEN TOTTEN: The me kind, of course. Now, let's admire this hand axe from a safe distance. When archaeologists discovered this, they were amazed.

ANNA GOLDFIELD: Yeah, it meant that Neanderthals probably used tools. Oh, and check out this chunk of bison bone. See the marks on it? They show that Neanderthals used their stone tools to cut meat off the animals they hunted.

We're not so brutish now, huh?

SANDEN TOTTEN: Oh, hey, Neander-Paul. I didn't see you there, buddy.

ANNA GOLDFIELD: What's up, my dude? Good to see you. Hey, let's do our special handshake.

SANDEN TOTTEN: Of course, little buddy. Up top.

ANNA GOLDFIELD: Down low.

SANDEN TOTTEN: Bump heads. Go, humans! Nice.

ANNA GOLDFIELD: Awesome.

SANDEN TOTTEN: We're so cool. Anyway, evidence like this taught scientists that Neanderthals were actually quite crafty. And if you follow me to our next display, we'll see that Neanderthals had rich diets too. Check out these chompers.

AUDREY: Are those somebody's teeth?

SANDEN TOTTEN: Nope, still just paper maché, but they're a replica of actual Neanderthal teeth researchers found.

ANNA GOLDFIELD: Yeah. And boy, did those teeth teach us a lot. So you know how when you go to the dentist, sometimes they use that pointy little scraper to get some of the gunk off your teeth?

AUDREY: Yeah. And the gunk is called plaque, right?

ANNA GOLDFIELD: It is. And if you never ever go to the dentist or brush your teeth because it's 80,000 years ago, that plaque stays on your teeth and builds up over time. As it builds up, it hardens. And it can trap tiny bits of things that go into your mouth. Archaeologists found this hardened tooth gunk on tooth fossils. When they looked at it under a microscope, they got a glimpse at what Neanderthals were eating.

AUDREY: Gross but cool.

ANNA GOLDFIELD: Who knew our poor dental hygiene would be so helpful to science?

SANDEN TOTTEN: You said it, Neander-Paul. Thanks to Neanderthal plaque, scientists learned that Neanderthals not only ate meat but starchy plants too. And we think they even cooked some of their meals.

MOLLY BLOOM: Neanderthals could cook?

ANNA GOLDFIELD: Molly, We were the mayors of Flavortown.

SANDEN TOTTEN: Oh, yeah, Paul? Then, how come last time you made nachos, they were blander than cotton balls in lukewarm water?

ANNA GOLDFIELD: What can I say? I like my nachos mild and my paper maché wild.

Wait, when did you two have nachos together? Never mind. But yes, we can't be sure that all Neanderthals cooked their food all the time. But there are tons of Neanderthal archaeological sites that have preserved ashes, burned bones, and other remains of fires. If they had fire, they were probably cooking stuff with it.

Whoa, yeah, it's just more evidence that Neanderthals weren't all that different from us. We think they often lived in small groups. We have evidence that they helped care for the young and disabled and elderly. They used tools to make things like clothes. Some made art. Some buried their dead. Overall, it seems like different Neanderthal groups had small but fairly developed societies.

AUDREY: That's so cool. So they actually were a lot like early humans. But then, why did we stick around, and they disappear?

SANDEN TOTTEN: That's a great question. The answer is it's because-- Anna can answer this one.

ANNA GOLDFIELD: Honestly, we don't know the answer yet. Archaeologists think it was a combination of things. First, there weren't that many Neanderthals to begin with. They were spread out over a large area of Europe and Western Asia. When there were changes in the climate or a couple bad years with food shortages, it might have hurt their numbers. But scientists also think we Homo sapiens might have had something to do with it.

MOLLY BLOOM: Wait, Homo sapiens might have caused the Neanderthals to go extinct? Did we fight or something?

ANNA GOLDFIELD: Maybe, but it doesn't seem like that was a big factor. No, what scientists think probably happened was that about 50,000 years ago, Homo sapiens moved into the same areas as Neanderthals. So there were more mouths eating the same food. Neanderthals' bodies were more muscly than ours. More muscles means they needed more food to stay alive.

Yeah, it takes a ton of calories to look this pumped up all the time.

With Homo sapiens around hunting the same animals and eating the same plants, some groups of Neanderthals just couldn't survive. But they've kind of lived on in us.

AUDREY: Wait, in us? How?

ANNA GOLDFIELD: Well, back when both groups were together in the same place, some Homo sapiens and Neanderthals had babies. And those babies grew up and had more babies. Over time, those Neanderthal relatives just became part of the Homo sapiens population. So even today, when we look at the genetic instructions that make us who we are-- DNA-- we sometimes see bits of Neanderthal DNA in there.

SANDEN TOTTEN: Wait, so I could be a teensy smidge Neanderthal just like my pal, Paul the Neanderthal? Whoa.

ANNA GOLDFIELD: Well, technically, he's a doll, so no.

SANDEN TOTTEN: So cool.

ANNA GOLDFIELD: Neanderthals are cool. And they were misunderstood for a long time, so I'm so glad I got to share my love of them with you all. And get this, in the past 20 years, we've found there were other groups of humans too called Denisovans. They lived way up North in Western Asia. So ancient humans were much more diverse than we once believed. How cool is it to imagine a world with different species of humans living in different places?

AUDREY: Super cool. And it's also wild to imagine those different groups meeting each other.

MOLLY BLOOM: Yeah, thanks for sharing all this with us, Anna, Sanden, and Paul the Neanderthal.

ANNA GOLDFIELD: It was my pleasure, Molly.

SANDEN TOTTEN: Oh, by the way, Paul, you still want to meet up for nacho night on Tuesday?

ANNA GOLDFIELD: You know it.

Wait, Paul, you go to nacho nights without me? How is that even possible? I'm the one making your voice and moving you around to pretend you're talking. If I'm not there, who does the voice?

SANDEN TOTTEN: Wait, I thought Paul was doing your voice, Anna. If it's not Paul, who's doing your voice right now?

ANNA GOLDFIELD: I do my voice. Can't you see my lips move when he talks? I am literally holding Paul and shaking him around.

SANDEN TOTTEN: That's your arm holding him? I thought that was Paul's tail.

AUDREY: OK, I'm getting very confused.

MOLLY BLOOM: Yeah, this is weird. Maybe it's a good time for us to duck out of here before this gets any weirder.

SANDEN TOTTEN: Look, you can come to the next nacho tonight, Anna G. You're definitely a better cook than Neander-Paul.

ANNA GOLDFIELD: Hey, now, Neanderthals didn't have nachos.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

AUDREY: Neanderthals were a type of human that once lived in Europe.

MOLLY BLOOM: When they were first discovered, lots of people had trouble believing that another type of human could have existed. So they assumed that Neanderthals couldn't have been as smart or skillful as Homo sapiens.

AUDREY: It's taken decades, but archaeologists have learned a lot from excavating Neanderthal sites.

MOLLY BLOOM: Like what they ate, the tools they used, and how their families cared for each other.

AUDREY: Tens of thousands of years ago, some Homo sapiens and Neanderthals had babies together.

MOLLY BLOOM: Neanderthals went extinct. And archaeologists aren't sure exactly why. There were probably lots of reasons.

AUDREY: But a part of our Neanderthal relatives is still with us in some of our DNA.

MOLLY BLOOM: That's it for this episode of Brains On.

AUDREY: This episode was written by Sanden Totten and Anna Goldfield. It was produced by Molly Bloom, Rosie duPont, Anna Goldfield, Aron Woldeslassie, Anna Weggel, Ruby Guthrie, and Marc Sanchez.

MOLLY BLOOM: Our editors are Sanden Totten and Shahla Farzan. Sound design by Rachel Brees. And we had engineering help from Josh Savageau and Robert Springer. Beth Pearlman is our executive producer. The executives in charge of APM Studios are Chandra Kavati, Alex Schaffert and Joanne Griffith. Special thanks to Khurshid Alam, Brent Miller, Nick Ryan, and Alex Simpson.

AUDREY: Brains On is a nonprofit public radio program.

MOLLY BLOOM: There are lots of ways to support the show. Subscribe to Brains On Universe on YouTube where you can watch animated versions of some of your favorite episodes or head to brainson.org.

AUDREY: While you're there, you can send us mystery sounds, drawings, and questions.

MOLLY BLOOM: And you can subscribe to our Smarty Pass. It gives you a special ticket to Brains On Universe bonus content plus ad-free episodes. All right, Audrey, are you ready to hear that very tricky mystery sound again?

AUDREY: Yes.

MOLLY BLOOM: Me too. Let's hear it.

[MYSTERY SOUND]

OK, any new thoughts?

AUDREY: It still reminds me of a phone call.

MOLLY BLOOM: OK, so you're-- because it's rhythmic. Is that why?

AUDREY: Yeah.

MOLLY BLOOM: OK. So you're thinking phone call. I'm going to guess-- I'm going to go way out there. I'm going to guess it is a hamster mowing the lawn with a teeny-tiny lawn mower. It makes sense, right?

AUDREY: I guess.

MOLLY BLOOM: Your guess is probably more reasonable. Let's-- are you ready to hear the answer?

AUDREY: Yes.

MOLLY BLOOM: OK, let's hear it.

OWEN: Hello, I'm Owen from [INAUDIBLE]. That was the sound of a glitchy radio transmission.

MOLLY BLOOM: Oh, a glitchy radio transmission.

AUDREY: I know it sounds like some of those old fashioned things.

MOLLY BLOOM: Yes, you were totally right. When you said old-fashioned phone, you were very close.

AUDREY: It was an old-fashioned radio.

MOLLY BLOOM: Old-fashioned radio, so you were very close. I was not close at all. That makes sense. Excellent guess. Thanks for that sound, Owen. Very nicely done.

[TRANSMISSION RADIO]

Now, it's time for the Brains Honor Roll. These are the incredible kids who keep the show going with their questions, ideas, mystery sounds, drawings, and high fives.

[LISTING HONOR ROLL]

We'll be back next week with an episode all about cavities and how to keep our chompers strong.

AUDREY: Thanks for listening.