Your belly button tells the story of where you came from!
Andrey Sayfutdinov/Getty Images/iStockphoto
Today’s episode is all about your belly button aka navel aka umbilicus. And not just your belly button -- every single person you can think of has one. This means our listeners have LOTS of questions about them. We're going to tackle several of these fascinating navel-gazing questions like: is your belly button connected to your insides? Where does belly button fuzz come from? Why do some belly buttons stick out? And do cats and dogs have belly buttons? Plus, we have a tricky mystery sound for you to guess and a Moment of Um that answers the question: How do carrots grow if they don't have seeds?
Audio Transcript
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B: You're listening to Brains On where we're serious about being curious.
CHILD: Brains On is supported in part by a grant from the National Science Foundation.
MARC SANCHEZ: You know the best thing about my belly button, Sanden?
SANDEN TOTTEN: What's that, Marc?
MARC SANCHEZ: It's the perfect size to fit a single grape.
[POP]
It's a mini snack sack.
[CRUNCH]
SANDEN TOTTEN: You should be careful putting stuff in there, Marc. Your belly button could choke.
MARC SANCHEZ: Oh, wait, wait, wait. Your belly button could choke?
SANDEN TOTTEN: Oh, yeah. Belly buttons are actually teeny, tiny mouths, and they eat all the time. Where do you think those missing socks go? That's just belly button food. They eat them as they're folding laundry and spit out belly button lint.
[SCREECHING]
B: Hey, Marc and Sanden? What's this about belly buttons eating?
MARC SANCHEZ: Hey, B. Hey Molly.
MOLLY BLOOM: Sanden, are you telling more belly button lies?
SANDEN TOTTEN: They're not lies. OK, that one was a lie. But belly buttons are so weird. I can't help myself.
B: I know. They are weird and cool. That's why we're doing a whole episode on them.
SANDEN TOTTEN: Oh. Are you going to mention how they're the shoelaces of the skin?
MARC SANCHEZ: Wait, the what?
SANDEN TOTTEN: Oh, yeah. If they come untied, all your skin falls off, like an untied shoe.
MARC SANCHEZ: No. No. Nah, I think mine's loose.
MOLLY BLOOM: Sanden.
SANDEN TOTTEN: OK. OK. I did make that one up. Belly buttons aren't actually skin laces.
MARC SANCHEZ: Ha. Whew. I mean, I totally knew that.
SANDEN TOTTEN: They're reverse nipples!
MOLLY BLOOM: No.
SANDEN TOTTEN: JK! But if you press them and hold for 30 seconds, your personality resets.
B: Oh, geez.
SANDEN TOTTEN: OK. OK. Fine. But did you know? Your own belly button will always taste like caramel to yourself. If you stretch your tongue far enough, you can try it.
MOLLY BLOOM: I think we should go to the episode before this gets even more out of hand.
SANDEN TOTTEN: Ah, like this?
B: Sounds good.
[THEME MUSIC]
SANDEN TOTTEN: Oh! Oh! Wait. Wait. Wait. What if belly buttons are actually the other end of black holes? Yeah. Like if you jump in a black hole, you shoot out someone else's belly button. Or maybe they're pencil sharpeners?
[THEME MUSIC]
But wait--
[THEME MUSIC]
MOLLY BLOOM: You're listening to Brains On From APM Studios. I'm Molly Bloom, and my co-host today is B from Granger, Indiana. Hello, B!
B: Hey, Molly. I'm thrilled to be on the show. Longtime listener, first-time co-host.
MOLLY BLOOM: [LAUGHS] We're so thrilled to have you here today. Today's episode is all about belly buttons.
B: Also known as navels.
MOLLY BLOOM: Or if you're a medical professional, you might call it an umbilicus.
B: Some people have innies that are like little pockets.
MOLLY BLOOM: And some people have outies that stick out a bit. And get this, every single person you can think of has one.
B: Which means a lot of Brains On listeners are curious about them.
MOLLY BLOOM: We'll answer a bunch of your navel-gazing questions today, starting with this one.
EMILY: My name is Emily from New York. And my question is, does your belly button connect to your insides?
SARAH CROSS: It used to be attached to your insides, but it's not anymore.
B: That's Dr. Sarah Cross. She's a doctor who takes care of pregnant people and the babies growing inside of them.
MOLLY BLOOM: So if the belly button is no longer attached to your insides--
B: And it's not a grape holder or a tiny mouth--
MOLLY BLOOM: What is it?
SARAH CROSS: It's a fancy scar. Every belly button tells the story of where you came from.
MOLLY BLOOM: So let's tell that story. B, would you do the honors?
[SPARKLY SOUND]
B: Once upon a time, long, long ago, before you were born, you were a fetus.
MOLLY BLOOM: That's what we call a baby that hasn't been born yet.
B: And you were living inside a cozy little room inside someone's belly. That cozy little room is called the uterus.
MOLLY BLOOM: The uterus is the super strong organ inside a pregnant person's belly that can grow and stretch as the fetus inside gets bigger and bigger.
B: When you were living, all snug like a bug in that uterus, you needed nutrients and oxygen to help you grow. Just like you do now.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
But when you were a fetus, you didn't have working lungs yet. So you couldn't breathe, and you couldn't get pizza deliveries in there. So what did you do?
MOLLY BLOOM: Luckily, pregnant bellies are prepared for this. They have a genius way to handle your oxygen and food needs. You see, all your food and oxygen came to you through a special cable that was hooked right up to your belly.
B: Think of it as a human body power cable, kind of like the ones that power your lamp or TV.
MOLLY BLOOM: And that super nifty, fetus power cable is called the umbilical cord. That cord was attached to you right where your belly button currently lives.
B: And that umbilical cord was attached to your roommate in the uterus, a very cool and very helpful organ called the placenta.
SARAH CROSS: A placenta is the most amazing thing. A placenta is an organ like the heart or the liver or the lungs. But it's temporary.
MOLLY BLOOM: Most people don't have a placenta but pregnant people do. It starts to grow when they become pregnant.
B: Here's the extra cool part. Your placenta was made by you, the fetus. You may have been tiny, but you did mighty things.
[BUBBLING]
MOLLY BLOOM: You started off as a clump of cells. And as you started to grow, so did your placenta. Your placenta attached to the wall of your cushy home, a.k.a. the uterus, and basically said, hey, I'm taking over here. Got to make sure this fetus has everything it needs.
B: So while your placenta made sure you had all the oxygen and food you needed to grow, you were free to concentrate on all the important stuff like growing and practicing baby moves, like swallowing, kicking, and sucking your thumb.
MOLLY BLOOM: So this temporary, squishy, frisbee-shaped organ is pretty much the best roommate ever. More like pal-centa, am I right?
B: And here's how the placenta gets you all those important nutrients and oxygen.
SARAH CROSS: When someone's pregnant, they need a huge amount of oxygen to help supply the placenta, which is a brand new organ that never existed before, and the baby or the fetus. There are special arteries that go into the placenta. And kind of along in the placenta are these areas where the baby's blood can come into very close contact with the pregnant person's blood.
B: So your blood picks up what it needs from a pregnant person's butt and then flows back into you through your umbilical cord.
MOLLY BLOOM: And the umbilical cord is a two-way street.
SARAH CROSS: So products that usually you and I would either breathe off or pee out or poop out, that all gets carried from the blood back into the pregnant person. And that person eliminates all those waste products.
B: So you just grow in the belly. And the placenta and the pregnant person keep you fed and get rid of your waste. Pretty sweet deal.
MOLLY BLOOM: So when it was time for you to be born, both you and your old pal, the placenta, left the uterus together.
[WIND BLOWING]
SARAH CROSS: So when the baby's born, the baby says, oh my goodness--
[BABY CRYING]
--it's very cold in here. And the baby starts to cry and scream.
[BABY CRYING]
And that fills the baby's lungs with oxygen. And then the baby starts to use its lungs and its heart the same way we do, where it breathes oxygen like we do.
[HEART BEATING]
And the heart pumps that oxygenated blood around the body. And the umbilical cord essentially becomes useless.
B: So long, placenta. You are a true friend.
MOLLY BLOOM: So with a clamp on the cord between you and the placenta, the umbilical cord was cut with scissors. Then the nurses put a little clip at the end of the little piece of cord that is still attached to your belly.
SARAH CROSS: And it's like a little stump. We call it the umbilical stump. And eventually, that scars up and will fall off in the first week to two of the baby's life, leaving behind the belly button.
B: And you or your belly button lived happily ever after. The end.
[PIANO NOTES]
MOLLY BLOOM: So back to that question. Is your belly button connected to your insides? It's not anymore. But it is often a spot that doctors use to get to your insides.
SARAH CROSS: It is an area that's a little bit thinner than the rest of your abdominal wall because there's not really muscle behind it or things like that. So if you have a surgery where someone puts a camera inside you to take a little look around, we often go right through the belly button.
MOLLY BLOOM: And the blood vessels that used to be inside the umbilical cord turn into a kind of fibrous tissue called a ligament.
SARAH CROSS: If you look inside, you can see the remnants of the two arteries running up and down along your front wall and the remnant of the vein running up toward your liver. So they don't really serve any purpose that I'm aware of. But they just are there again to be reminders of your past.
[ROBOTIC SOUND]
ROBOT: Brains, Brains, Brains On!
MOLLY BLOOM: Looking inside your belly button might lead you to something else listeners have wondered about.
LULU: Hello. My name's Lulu from Minneapolis. And I'm wondering, where does belly button fuzz come from.
MOLLY BLOOM: Good question. Where does that soft fuzz come from? And why do some people have a lot of it and some people have almost none?
B: It turns out scientists have actually studied this.
MOLLY BLOOM: They've measured how much belly button lint people produce. And they've also thought about how and why that lint ends up in belly buttons in the first place. By the way, the term some scientists use for belly button lint is BBL.
B: BBL. Catchy.
MOLLY BLOOM: Totally.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
ANNOUNCER: This ad was paid for by the BBL Federation of America.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Does your belly button feel cold and smooth? Do you wish it was fuzzier inside of there or more colorful?
WOMAN: [SIGHS] My belly button never has anything inside of it besides skin.
ANNOUNCER: Then three letters could change your life, BBL. That's belly button lint!
[MUSIC PLAYING]
BBL is a special mixture. It's made of dead skin cells, oils, and most importantly, little tiny fibers. Those fibers get together and make a little ball of linty fluff. But you might be wondering, where do those little fluffs come from? And how do the fluffs get into a belly button? Can anyone get BBL? What should you use it for?
WOMAN: I'm hoping to make enough BBL to build a snowman one day.
ANNOUNCER: We have answers.
[DING]
BBL is most common among innie belly buttons, especially those who use clothing or towels because clothes and towels shed teeny, tiny fibers. And BBL builds up and changes over time as different fibers collect together, meaning your BBL is a mix of fibers from yesterday, today, and hopefully, tomorrow.
WOMAN: Oh. So that's why my shirt is red but my BBL is purple.
ANNOUNCER: But wait, there's more. Here are some tips to maximize your BBL, movement plus fabric equals lint. Drying off with a towel after a bath is a great way to get BBL going. But so is breathing while wearing a shirt because breathing makes your belly rub against your shirt just a tiny bit. That doesn't seem like it would make much lint, but you breathe so many times each day, it can make a difference.
WOMAN: [DEEP INHALE] Holy wow!
ANNOUNCER: If there's a bit of hair around your belly button, that's even better. Hair actually has teeny, tiny, little scales around it. When those scales scratch against clothing, it creates even more lint. And that's not all.
Because of those little scales, hair is smoother in one direction than the other. So hair doesn't just help make lint, it can actually also help move lint toward the belly button. It almost acts like a little slide, carrying the L, the lint, into the BB, the belly button.
WOMAN: Whee!
ANNOUNCER: BBL is also sometimes called navel fluff. It's the good stuff. And if you'd like to learn more, we have operators standing by. Please give us a call at 1-555-BBL-Y-E-A-H. That's 1-555-BBL-YEAH!
ALL: (SINGING) Ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, Brains On!
[WHOOSH]
MOLLY BLOOM: All right, B. I have some good stuff for your ears. It's the--
WOMAN: Shh.
[MYSTERIOUS MUSIC]
CHILD: (WHISPERING) Mystery Sound.
[CLINKING]
MOLLY BLOOM: It's very short, so let's hear it one more time.
[CLINKING]
B: Wow. It kind of sounds like an ice cube almost, like on a spoon or something being dropped.
MOLLY BLOOM: Hm. I like that.
B: It sounds like, maybe-- it really sounds like an ice cube being dropped on a plate or something. I don't know.
MOLLY BLOOM: OK. Well, it's a good thought. We're going to hear it again and give you another chance to guess in just a bit.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
We're working on an episode all about the multiverse.
B: It's the idea that there are multiple different universes existing all at once.
MOLLY BLOOM: And we want to hear from you. What do you think clothes are like in a parallel universe? Is everything made of terry cloth, maybe little individual gloves for every fingertip, plaid everywhere? What do you think, B?
B: Well, I think if there are thousands of parallel universes, then there must be at least one that has, like, you wear swimsuits in the winter and then snow pants before you swim.
MOLLY BLOOM: [LAUGHING] I like it. I like it. Is the weather different or people just have different tolerance for cold.
B: Well, I'm not sure. Maybe they just have a different tolerance for cold.
MOLLY BLOOM: [LAUGHING]
B: I think that's true fun.
MOLLY BLOOM: I like it. Well, send your answers to us at brainson.org/contact. And while you're there, you can also send us mystery sounds, drawings, or questions.
B: Like this one.
EMMETT: My name is Emmett. And my question is, how do carrots grow if they don't have seeds?
MOLLY BLOOM: We'll answer that during our Moment of Um right after the credits. And then we'll read the most recent listeners to be added to the Brains honor roll.
B: So keep listening.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
You're listening to Brains On from APM Studios. I'm B.
MOLLY BLOOM: And I'm Molly. Let's answer another listener question.
SARAH: Hello. My name is Sarah from Virginia. My question is, why do some people have an innie belly button and other people have an outie belly button.
MOLLY BLOOM: Here with the answer is--
SANDEN TOTTEN: Me, Sanden. I'll take this one, Molly. Innie belly buttons happen because you were breathing in when they clamped your umbilical cord. And outies happen if you were breathing out.
B: Did you just make that up, Sanden?
SANDEN TOTTEN: Absolutely. Yes, I did.
MOLLY BLOOM: [CLEARS THROAT] Here with the actual answer is Dr. Sarah Cross again.
SARAH CROSS: Some belly buttons are innies and some belly buttons are outies because everybody's body is different. And so depending on how the rest of your body is shaped, sometimes, it points in, and sometimes, it points out.
MOLLY BLOOM: So it turns out, there's no real reason other than bodies are just different.
SANDEN TOTTEN: Yeah. I was way off. Oh, well. I'm going to think more about how weird belly buttons are. Bye!
[RECORD SCRATCHING]
KIDS: (In unison) Brains On!
MOLLY BLOOM: So B, you wrote to us with a great question about belly buttons. You wanted to know if all mammals have belly buttons. So what made you curious about that?
B: So I have a dog named Louie and a cat named Charlie. And I've never seen either of them with belly buttons. And I know all humans have belly buttons. So do they have belly buttons?
MOLLY BLOOM: Hm.
B: I've never seen it on them.
MOLLY BLOOM: Yeah. I've never seen a dog or a cat's belly button either. It's a really, really good question. So we asked our pal, Kathryn Sundquist, to look into that for us. Hi, Kathryn.
KATHRYN SUNDQUIST: Hi, Molly. Hi, B. I did so much research for this. I looked at pictures of cute dog bellies and cat bellies. It was the best.
MOLLY BLOOM: That sounds delightful. So what did you learn?
KATHRYN SUNDQUIST: Well, B, your question about animal belly buttons is a great one because you might have realized that when you go to pet your dog or cat, you can't really see a belly button like you would on a human.
MOLLY BLOOM: Yeah. I've pet my dog like a million times and never noticed a belly button.
KATHRYN SUNDQUIST: Exactly. One big reason why we don't notice animal belly buttons is because most of the time, they're covered up with fur. When monkeys are first born, it's very easy to see their belly buttons because they have very little fur. They actually look pretty similar to human belly buttons. As they get older and grow more hair, their belly button gets covered up.
MOLLY BLOOM: Hm. With all that fur, I bet they'd make a lot of BBL. If only they wore clothes.
KATHRYN SUNDQUIST: [CHUCKLES] I bet they would. Now, if you can sift through all that animal hair and find the belly button, you'll probably notice that the belly button on, say, your pet is much smaller and less obvious than it is on humans. That's because after most animals give birth, the mother will use her mouth to chew off the umbilical cord from the baby. This leaves them with a very little scar.
Humans use a different technique of detaching the umbilical cord by cutting it down to a stump and waiting for it to fall off. This leaves a much bigger and more noticeable scar.
B: So animals have secret belly buttons. Very cool.
MOLLY BLOOM: So that means, even if we don't see them, all mammals have belly buttons, right?
KATHRYN SUNDQUIST: Just about. Most mammals like cats, dogs, and monkeys have belly buttons because they give birth to live young. The baby animals grow inside the mother using a placenta and umbilical cord.
B: That's just like humans.
KATHRYN SUNDQUIST: Exactly. However, some mammals give birth differently.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
One type of mammal actually lays eggs, mammals like a platypus or spiny anteater. These mammals are called monotremes.
B: Monotreme? Am I saying that right?
KATHRYN SUNDQUIST: Yeah. You nailed it! Monotremes do not have belly buttons because their babies develop in the egg separately from the mother. No placenta and no umbilical cord. They don't need a placenta or umbilical cord because all of their nutrients are right there with them in the egg.
MOLLY BLOOM: Eggs, a perfect place for a baby monotreme.
KATHRYN SUNDQUIST: That's right! Another exception is mammals like kangaroos and koalas. They give birth to very small and underdeveloped babies that continue to grow in the mother's pouch.
B: Oh, yeah. I've seen pictures of baby kangaroos in their mama's pouch pocket. It's super cute.
KATHRYN SUNDQUIST: Scientifically speaking, yeah, it is. These types of mammals are called marsupials. They use an umbilical cord for such a short time that a belly button never forms. And instead, the babies get their nutrients from their mother's milk in the pouch.
MOLLY BLOOM: It's almost like if humans had a baby extra early, and then they kept them in a special baby sling where they ate, slept, and continued to grow.
B: And what about animals that aren't mammals like birds, fish, or reptiles? Buttons or no buttons?
KATHRYN SUNDQUIST: Well, most other animals lay eggs. Inside these eggs, the baby animals are attached to a yolk sac that has all of the nutrients they need to develop. Sometimes, right after birth, there will be a small spot showing where the animal was attached to the yolk sac.
But this usually goes away after a few days. You can't see it in the adult animals like you can with humans and other mammals. So we don't consider them to have belly buttons.
B: So mammals are part of a very special group, the belly button club!
MOLLY BLOOM: How interesting! Thanks, Kathryn!
KATHRYN SUNDQUIST: Thanks, Molly. Later, B. Now, I think I need to do some more research on cute animal bellies. See you later.
ALL: (SINGING) Ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, Brains On!
[WHOOSH]
MOLLY BLOOM: B, Are you ready to go back to that mystery sound?
B: Yep.
MOLLY BLOOM: All right. Here it is again.
[CLINKING]
B: Is it-- yeah, I think it's the same thing. And I think it's maybe a cup, or a plate, or something like that. [CHUCKLES]
MOLLY BLOOM: Yeah. So tell me what about that sound is making you think that.
B: I don't know. Just the small, tiny noise. It's like rattling a little bit against the glass or something. It really reminds me of that.
MOLLY BLOOM: The clinkiness of it all.
B: Yeah.
MOLLY BLOOM: All right. Here is the answer.
ELLA: Hi. My name is Ella, and I'm from Washington, DC. I'm nine years old. That was the sound of M&M candies dropping into a glass bowl. I think the sound is cool because there are lots of things that can make that sound too. Thank you.
B: Ah. [CHUCKLING]
MOLLY BLOOM: You're not that far off. So there was a bowl, a plate kind of thing.
B: Yeah.
MOLLY BLOOM: And some small, little M&Ms making a nice, pleasant, clinky sound.
B: Wow.
MOLLY BLOOM: [CHUCKLING]
[CLINKING]
ROBOTIC VOICE: Brains On! (ECHOING) On! On!
[THUD]
[DRAGGING NOISE]
SANDEN TOTTEN: Oh, Marc, how about this? Belly buttons are actually where your body stores the gum you swallow. Yeah. It has nowhere to go. So your body just pushes it to your belly where it makes a little button.
MARC SANCHEZ: OK. Now you're just being silly. Everyone knows that swallowed gum doesn't go to your belly button. It goes into your ear lobes.
SANDEN TOTTEN: Wait. Wait, really?
MARC SANCHEZ: Why do you think your ear lobes feel so rubbery and gummy?
[RECORD SCRATCHING]
SANDEN TOTTEN: Oh, they do feel rubbery and gummy. [GASPS] Wait. If I swallow more gum, will I get bigger ear lobes?
[BOING]
Quick! Give me all the gum. Oh, man. I'm going to have elephant-sized ears.
[CHOMPING]
I'll just have to--
[CHOMPING]
--chew this and then swallow.
MARC SANCHEZ: Oh. Oh. Oh, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. I forgot to tell you. I made that up.
SANDEN TOTTEN: You did?
[SPITTING]
Ha-ha! That's awesome, Marc. You totally got me. Ugh! I believed that. That was a good one.
MARC SANCHEZ: You chewed so much gum.
SANDEN TOTTEN: I know!
MARC SANCHEZ: I cannot believe this. I thought you were going to blow--
SANDEN TOTTEN: That's bananas!
MARC SANCHEZ: Just swallow--
[THEME MUSIC]
B: Your belly button was created by your umbilical cord. That cord helped you get the stuff you need to grow before you were born.
MOLLY BLOOM: But after you were born, you didn't need that cord. So it fell off and left you with a cool scar which is your belly button.
B: Belly buttons make lint by collecting tiny fibers from our clothes.
MOLLY BLOOM: And most mammals, like cats and dogs, have belly buttons.
B: But a lot of the time, they're small or hidden by fur.
MOLLY BLOOM: That's it for this episode of Brains On We're going to answer the question, how do carrots grow if they don't have seeds in just a minute. But first, some quick credits.
B: Brains On is produced by Molly Bloom, Ruby Guthrie, Marc Sanchez, Sanden Totten, and Menaka Wilhelm.
MOLLY BLOOM: We had engineering help from Alex Simpson, Johnny Vince Evans, and Tony [? Krehbiel. ?] We had production help from Anna Canny and Trisha [? Bovita, ?] and our intern is Kathryn Sundquist. Our executive producer is Beth Perlman.
And the executives in charge of APM Studios are Lily Kim, Alex Schaffert, and Joanne Griffith. Special thanks to Neil Arner, Susan Arner, and Rick Karr.
B: Brains On is a nonprofit, public radio program.
MOLLY BLOOM: You can support the show and help us keep making new episodes by heading to brainson.org/fans. While you're there, you can donate, join our free fan club, or check out our merch.
B: There are face masks, t-shirts, and hats.
MOLLY BLOOM: And you can buy the Brains On book there too. It's brainson.org/fans.
B: Now before we go, it's time for a Moment of Um.
ALL: (In succession) Um. Um. Um. Um. Um. Um. Um. Um. Um.
EMMETT: How do carrots grow if they don't have seeds?
[MUSIC PLAYING]
CRYSTAL STEWART-COURTENS: A carrot transforms its parts, but it does it over two whole years. My name is Crystal Stewart-Courtens, and I work for Cornell University Cooperative Extension as a regional vegetable specialist.
Carrots are cool because they're what are called a biennial. The term biennial means that a plant takes two years to complete its life cycle.
What usually happens is we plant a seed, and then we grow a carrot plant. The plant makes a big fat root. And then at that point, we harvest the carrot, and we eat it. And everything stops. No more seeds.
But if you didn't harvest that carrot, if you left it in the ground, then what would happen is it would go through the winter in the ground. And the next year, the carrot would transform from growing a root to growing a flower. And that flower would then make seeds. But usually, we don't see that because we ate the part that was going to turn into the flower the next year.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Carrots are able to regrow but only from certain parts. So if you wanted to grow a carrot from home, cut everything except the bottom 2 inches of the root off. And probably cut most of the top off.
And then let it sit on the counter for a day so that the bottom of it dries out. You'd plant it. So the orange part's underground, and the green part's sticking up above ground. And you should be in pretty good shape to grow a carrot.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
I don't know if I should talk about this because this can really upset people. But baby carrots aren't even really baby carrots. Most baby carrots are actually little chunks of big carrots because you can grow really, really big carrots.
So you can grow carrots that are as big around as a soup can. They're huge. And they cut them into little chunks. And then they put them on these little sand papers that roll them until they're round.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
They're delicious. But those would definitely not grow into a new carrot. They would just turn into compost.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
CHILD: Um.
WOMAN: Um. Um.
MOLLY BLOOM: Now, let's get to the root of what makes this show so special. It's the Brains honor roll. These are the incredible listeners who send us their questions, ideas, mystery sounds, drawings, and high fives.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
[LISTING HONOR ROLL]
[MUSIC PLAYING]
We'll be back soon with more answers to your questions.
B: Thanks for listening.
CHILD: Brains On is supported in part by a grant from the National Science Foundation.
MARC SANCHEZ: You know the best thing about my belly button, Sanden?
SANDEN TOTTEN: What's that, Marc?
MARC SANCHEZ: It's the perfect size to fit a single grape.
[POP]
It's a mini snack sack.
[CRUNCH]
SANDEN TOTTEN: You should be careful putting stuff in there, Marc. Your belly button could choke.
MARC SANCHEZ: Oh, wait, wait, wait. Your belly button could choke?
SANDEN TOTTEN: Oh, yeah. Belly buttons are actually teeny, tiny mouths, and they eat all the time. Where do you think those missing socks go? That's just belly button food. They eat them as they're folding laundry and spit out belly button lint.
[SCREECHING]
B: Hey, Marc and Sanden? What's this about belly buttons eating?
MARC SANCHEZ: Hey, B. Hey Molly.
MOLLY BLOOM: Sanden, are you telling more belly button lies?
SANDEN TOTTEN: They're not lies. OK, that one was a lie. But belly buttons are so weird. I can't help myself.
B: I know. They are weird and cool. That's why we're doing a whole episode on them.
SANDEN TOTTEN: Oh. Are you going to mention how they're the shoelaces of the skin?
MARC SANCHEZ: Wait, the what?
SANDEN TOTTEN: Oh, yeah. If they come untied, all your skin falls off, like an untied shoe.
MARC SANCHEZ: No. No. Nah, I think mine's loose.
MOLLY BLOOM: Sanden.
SANDEN TOTTEN: OK. OK. I did make that one up. Belly buttons aren't actually skin laces.
MARC SANCHEZ: Ha. Whew. I mean, I totally knew that.
SANDEN TOTTEN: They're reverse nipples!
MOLLY BLOOM: No.
SANDEN TOTTEN: JK! But if you press them and hold for 30 seconds, your personality resets.
B: Oh, geez.
SANDEN TOTTEN: OK. OK. Fine. But did you know? Your own belly button will always taste like caramel to yourself. If you stretch your tongue far enough, you can try it.
MOLLY BLOOM: I think we should go to the episode before this gets even more out of hand.
SANDEN TOTTEN: Ah, like this?
B: Sounds good.
[THEME MUSIC]
SANDEN TOTTEN: Oh! Oh! Wait. Wait. Wait. What if belly buttons are actually the other end of black holes? Yeah. Like if you jump in a black hole, you shoot out someone else's belly button. Or maybe they're pencil sharpeners?
[THEME MUSIC]
But wait--
[THEME MUSIC]
MOLLY BLOOM: You're listening to Brains On From APM Studios. I'm Molly Bloom, and my co-host today is B from Granger, Indiana. Hello, B!
B: Hey, Molly. I'm thrilled to be on the show. Longtime listener, first-time co-host.
MOLLY BLOOM: [LAUGHS] We're so thrilled to have you here today. Today's episode is all about belly buttons.
B: Also known as navels.
MOLLY BLOOM: Or if you're a medical professional, you might call it an umbilicus.
B: Some people have innies that are like little pockets.
MOLLY BLOOM: And some people have outies that stick out a bit. And get this, every single person you can think of has one.
B: Which means a lot of Brains On listeners are curious about them.
MOLLY BLOOM: We'll answer a bunch of your navel-gazing questions today, starting with this one.
EMILY: My name is Emily from New York. And my question is, does your belly button connect to your insides?
SARAH CROSS: It used to be attached to your insides, but it's not anymore.
B: That's Dr. Sarah Cross. She's a doctor who takes care of pregnant people and the babies growing inside of them.
MOLLY BLOOM: So if the belly button is no longer attached to your insides--
B: And it's not a grape holder or a tiny mouth--
MOLLY BLOOM: What is it?
SARAH CROSS: It's a fancy scar. Every belly button tells the story of where you came from.
MOLLY BLOOM: So let's tell that story. B, would you do the honors?
[SPARKLY SOUND]
B: Once upon a time, long, long ago, before you were born, you were a fetus.
MOLLY BLOOM: That's what we call a baby that hasn't been born yet.
B: And you were living inside a cozy little room inside someone's belly. That cozy little room is called the uterus.
MOLLY BLOOM: The uterus is the super strong organ inside a pregnant person's belly that can grow and stretch as the fetus inside gets bigger and bigger.
B: When you were living, all snug like a bug in that uterus, you needed nutrients and oxygen to help you grow. Just like you do now.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
But when you were a fetus, you didn't have working lungs yet. So you couldn't breathe, and you couldn't get pizza deliveries in there. So what did you do?
MOLLY BLOOM: Luckily, pregnant bellies are prepared for this. They have a genius way to handle your oxygen and food needs. You see, all your food and oxygen came to you through a special cable that was hooked right up to your belly.
B: Think of it as a human body power cable, kind of like the ones that power your lamp or TV.
MOLLY BLOOM: And that super nifty, fetus power cable is called the umbilical cord. That cord was attached to you right where your belly button currently lives.
B: And that umbilical cord was attached to your roommate in the uterus, a very cool and very helpful organ called the placenta.
SARAH CROSS: A placenta is the most amazing thing. A placenta is an organ like the heart or the liver or the lungs. But it's temporary.
MOLLY BLOOM: Most people don't have a placenta but pregnant people do. It starts to grow when they become pregnant.
B: Here's the extra cool part. Your placenta was made by you, the fetus. You may have been tiny, but you did mighty things.
[BUBBLING]
MOLLY BLOOM: You started off as a clump of cells. And as you started to grow, so did your placenta. Your placenta attached to the wall of your cushy home, a.k.a. the uterus, and basically said, hey, I'm taking over here. Got to make sure this fetus has everything it needs.
B: So while your placenta made sure you had all the oxygen and food you needed to grow, you were free to concentrate on all the important stuff like growing and practicing baby moves, like swallowing, kicking, and sucking your thumb.
MOLLY BLOOM: So this temporary, squishy, frisbee-shaped organ is pretty much the best roommate ever. More like pal-centa, am I right?
B: And here's how the placenta gets you all those important nutrients and oxygen.
SARAH CROSS: When someone's pregnant, they need a huge amount of oxygen to help supply the placenta, which is a brand new organ that never existed before, and the baby or the fetus. There are special arteries that go into the placenta. And kind of along in the placenta are these areas where the baby's blood can come into very close contact with the pregnant person's blood.
B: So your blood picks up what it needs from a pregnant person's butt and then flows back into you through your umbilical cord.
MOLLY BLOOM: And the umbilical cord is a two-way street.
SARAH CROSS: So products that usually you and I would either breathe off or pee out or poop out, that all gets carried from the blood back into the pregnant person. And that person eliminates all those waste products.
B: So you just grow in the belly. And the placenta and the pregnant person keep you fed and get rid of your waste. Pretty sweet deal.
MOLLY BLOOM: So when it was time for you to be born, both you and your old pal, the placenta, left the uterus together.
[WIND BLOWING]
SARAH CROSS: So when the baby's born, the baby says, oh my goodness--
[BABY CRYING]
--it's very cold in here. And the baby starts to cry and scream.
[BABY CRYING]
And that fills the baby's lungs with oxygen. And then the baby starts to use its lungs and its heart the same way we do, where it breathes oxygen like we do.
[HEART BEATING]
And the heart pumps that oxygenated blood around the body. And the umbilical cord essentially becomes useless.
B: So long, placenta. You are a true friend.
MOLLY BLOOM: So with a clamp on the cord between you and the placenta, the umbilical cord was cut with scissors. Then the nurses put a little clip at the end of the little piece of cord that is still attached to your belly.
SARAH CROSS: And it's like a little stump. We call it the umbilical stump. And eventually, that scars up and will fall off in the first week to two of the baby's life, leaving behind the belly button.
B: And you or your belly button lived happily ever after. The end.
[PIANO NOTES]
MOLLY BLOOM: So back to that question. Is your belly button connected to your insides? It's not anymore. But it is often a spot that doctors use to get to your insides.
SARAH CROSS: It is an area that's a little bit thinner than the rest of your abdominal wall because there's not really muscle behind it or things like that. So if you have a surgery where someone puts a camera inside you to take a little look around, we often go right through the belly button.
MOLLY BLOOM: And the blood vessels that used to be inside the umbilical cord turn into a kind of fibrous tissue called a ligament.
SARAH CROSS: If you look inside, you can see the remnants of the two arteries running up and down along your front wall and the remnant of the vein running up toward your liver. So they don't really serve any purpose that I'm aware of. But they just are there again to be reminders of your past.
[ROBOTIC SOUND]
ROBOT: Brains, Brains, Brains On!
MOLLY BLOOM: Looking inside your belly button might lead you to something else listeners have wondered about.
LULU: Hello. My name's Lulu from Minneapolis. And I'm wondering, where does belly button fuzz come from.
MOLLY BLOOM: Good question. Where does that soft fuzz come from? And why do some people have a lot of it and some people have almost none?
B: It turns out scientists have actually studied this.
MOLLY BLOOM: They've measured how much belly button lint people produce. And they've also thought about how and why that lint ends up in belly buttons in the first place. By the way, the term some scientists use for belly button lint is BBL.
B: BBL. Catchy.
MOLLY BLOOM: Totally.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
ANNOUNCER: This ad was paid for by the BBL Federation of America.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Does your belly button feel cold and smooth? Do you wish it was fuzzier inside of there or more colorful?
WOMAN: [SIGHS] My belly button never has anything inside of it besides skin.
ANNOUNCER: Then three letters could change your life, BBL. That's belly button lint!
[MUSIC PLAYING]
BBL is a special mixture. It's made of dead skin cells, oils, and most importantly, little tiny fibers. Those fibers get together and make a little ball of linty fluff. But you might be wondering, where do those little fluffs come from? And how do the fluffs get into a belly button? Can anyone get BBL? What should you use it for?
WOMAN: I'm hoping to make enough BBL to build a snowman one day.
ANNOUNCER: We have answers.
[DING]
BBL is most common among innie belly buttons, especially those who use clothing or towels because clothes and towels shed teeny, tiny fibers. And BBL builds up and changes over time as different fibers collect together, meaning your BBL is a mix of fibers from yesterday, today, and hopefully, tomorrow.
WOMAN: Oh. So that's why my shirt is red but my BBL is purple.
ANNOUNCER: But wait, there's more. Here are some tips to maximize your BBL, movement plus fabric equals lint. Drying off with a towel after a bath is a great way to get BBL going. But so is breathing while wearing a shirt because breathing makes your belly rub against your shirt just a tiny bit. That doesn't seem like it would make much lint, but you breathe so many times each day, it can make a difference.
WOMAN: [DEEP INHALE] Holy wow!
ANNOUNCER: If there's a bit of hair around your belly button, that's even better. Hair actually has teeny, tiny, little scales around it. When those scales scratch against clothing, it creates even more lint. And that's not all.
Because of those little scales, hair is smoother in one direction than the other. So hair doesn't just help make lint, it can actually also help move lint toward the belly button. It almost acts like a little slide, carrying the L, the lint, into the BB, the belly button.
WOMAN: Whee!
ANNOUNCER: BBL is also sometimes called navel fluff. It's the good stuff. And if you'd like to learn more, we have operators standing by. Please give us a call at 1-555-BBL-Y-E-A-H. That's 1-555-BBL-YEAH!
ALL: (SINGING) Ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, Brains On!
[WHOOSH]
MOLLY BLOOM: All right, B. I have some good stuff for your ears. It's the--
WOMAN: Shh.
[MYSTERIOUS MUSIC]
CHILD: (WHISPERING) Mystery Sound.
[CLINKING]
MOLLY BLOOM: It's very short, so let's hear it one more time.
[CLINKING]
B: Wow. It kind of sounds like an ice cube almost, like on a spoon or something being dropped.
MOLLY BLOOM: Hm. I like that.
B: It sounds like, maybe-- it really sounds like an ice cube being dropped on a plate or something. I don't know.
MOLLY BLOOM: OK. Well, it's a good thought. We're going to hear it again and give you another chance to guess in just a bit.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
We're working on an episode all about the multiverse.
B: It's the idea that there are multiple different universes existing all at once.
MOLLY BLOOM: And we want to hear from you. What do you think clothes are like in a parallel universe? Is everything made of terry cloth, maybe little individual gloves for every fingertip, plaid everywhere? What do you think, B?
B: Well, I think if there are thousands of parallel universes, then there must be at least one that has, like, you wear swimsuits in the winter and then snow pants before you swim.
MOLLY BLOOM: [LAUGHING] I like it. I like it. Is the weather different or people just have different tolerance for cold.
B: Well, I'm not sure. Maybe they just have a different tolerance for cold.
MOLLY BLOOM: [LAUGHING]
B: I think that's true fun.
MOLLY BLOOM: I like it. Well, send your answers to us at brainson.org/contact. And while you're there, you can also send us mystery sounds, drawings, or questions.
B: Like this one.
EMMETT: My name is Emmett. And my question is, how do carrots grow if they don't have seeds?
MOLLY BLOOM: We'll answer that during our Moment of Um right after the credits. And then we'll read the most recent listeners to be added to the Brains honor roll.
B: So keep listening.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
You're listening to Brains On from APM Studios. I'm B.
MOLLY BLOOM: And I'm Molly. Let's answer another listener question.
SARAH: Hello. My name is Sarah from Virginia. My question is, why do some people have an innie belly button and other people have an outie belly button.
MOLLY BLOOM: Here with the answer is--
SANDEN TOTTEN: Me, Sanden. I'll take this one, Molly. Innie belly buttons happen because you were breathing in when they clamped your umbilical cord. And outies happen if you were breathing out.
B: Did you just make that up, Sanden?
SANDEN TOTTEN: Absolutely. Yes, I did.
MOLLY BLOOM: [CLEARS THROAT] Here with the actual answer is Dr. Sarah Cross again.
SARAH CROSS: Some belly buttons are innies and some belly buttons are outies because everybody's body is different. And so depending on how the rest of your body is shaped, sometimes, it points in, and sometimes, it points out.
MOLLY BLOOM: So it turns out, there's no real reason other than bodies are just different.
SANDEN TOTTEN: Yeah. I was way off. Oh, well. I'm going to think more about how weird belly buttons are. Bye!
[RECORD SCRATCHING]
KIDS: (In unison) Brains On!
MOLLY BLOOM: So B, you wrote to us with a great question about belly buttons. You wanted to know if all mammals have belly buttons. So what made you curious about that?
B: So I have a dog named Louie and a cat named Charlie. And I've never seen either of them with belly buttons. And I know all humans have belly buttons. So do they have belly buttons?
MOLLY BLOOM: Hm.
B: I've never seen it on them.
MOLLY BLOOM: Yeah. I've never seen a dog or a cat's belly button either. It's a really, really good question. So we asked our pal, Kathryn Sundquist, to look into that for us. Hi, Kathryn.
KATHRYN SUNDQUIST: Hi, Molly. Hi, B. I did so much research for this. I looked at pictures of cute dog bellies and cat bellies. It was the best.
MOLLY BLOOM: That sounds delightful. So what did you learn?
KATHRYN SUNDQUIST: Well, B, your question about animal belly buttons is a great one because you might have realized that when you go to pet your dog or cat, you can't really see a belly button like you would on a human.
MOLLY BLOOM: Yeah. I've pet my dog like a million times and never noticed a belly button.
KATHRYN SUNDQUIST: Exactly. One big reason why we don't notice animal belly buttons is because most of the time, they're covered up with fur. When monkeys are first born, it's very easy to see their belly buttons because they have very little fur. They actually look pretty similar to human belly buttons. As they get older and grow more hair, their belly button gets covered up.
MOLLY BLOOM: Hm. With all that fur, I bet they'd make a lot of BBL. If only they wore clothes.
KATHRYN SUNDQUIST: [CHUCKLES] I bet they would. Now, if you can sift through all that animal hair and find the belly button, you'll probably notice that the belly button on, say, your pet is much smaller and less obvious than it is on humans. That's because after most animals give birth, the mother will use her mouth to chew off the umbilical cord from the baby. This leaves them with a very little scar.
Humans use a different technique of detaching the umbilical cord by cutting it down to a stump and waiting for it to fall off. This leaves a much bigger and more noticeable scar.
B: So animals have secret belly buttons. Very cool.
MOLLY BLOOM: So that means, even if we don't see them, all mammals have belly buttons, right?
KATHRYN SUNDQUIST: Just about. Most mammals like cats, dogs, and monkeys have belly buttons because they give birth to live young. The baby animals grow inside the mother using a placenta and umbilical cord.
B: That's just like humans.
KATHRYN SUNDQUIST: Exactly. However, some mammals give birth differently.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
One type of mammal actually lays eggs, mammals like a platypus or spiny anteater. These mammals are called monotremes.
B: Monotreme? Am I saying that right?
KATHRYN SUNDQUIST: Yeah. You nailed it! Monotremes do not have belly buttons because their babies develop in the egg separately from the mother. No placenta and no umbilical cord. They don't need a placenta or umbilical cord because all of their nutrients are right there with them in the egg.
MOLLY BLOOM: Eggs, a perfect place for a baby monotreme.
KATHRYN SUNDQUIST: That's right! Another exception is mammals like kangaroos and koalas. They give birth to very small and underdeveloped babies that continue to grow in the mother's pouch.
B: Oh, yeah. I've seen pictures of baby kangaroos in their mama's pouch pocket. It's super cute.
KATHRYN SUNDQUIST: Scientifically speaking, yeah, it is. These types of mammals are called marsupials. They use an umbilical cord for such a short time that a belly button never forms. And instead, the babies get their nutrients from their mother's milk in the pouch.
MOLLY BLOOM: It's almost like if humans had a baby extra early, and then they kept them in a special baby sling where they ate, slept, and continued to grow.
B: And what about animals that aren't mammals like birds, fish, or reptiles? Buttons or no buttons?
KATHRYN SUNDQUIST: Well, most other animals lay eggs. Inside these eggs, the baby animals are attached to a yolk sac that has all of the nutrients they need to develop. Sometimes, right after birth, there will be a small spot showing where the animal was attached to the yolk sac.
But this usually goes away after a few days. You can't see it in the adult animals like you can with humans and other mammals. So we don't consider them to have belly buttons.
B: So mammals are part of a very special group, the belly button club!
MOLLY BLOOM: How interesting! Thanks, Kathryn!
KATHRYN SUNDQUIST: Thanks, Molly. Later, B. Now, I think I need to do some more research on cute animal bellies. See you later.
ALL: (SINGING) Ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, Brains On!
[WHOOSH]
MOLLY BLOOM: B, Are you ready to go back to that mystery sound?
B: Yep.
MOLLY BLOOM: All right. Here it is again.
[CLINKING]
B: Is it-- yeah, I think it's the same thing. And I think it's maybe a cup, or a plate, or something like that. [CHUCKLES]
MOLLY BLOOM: Yeah. So tell me what about that sound is making you think that.
B: I don't know. Just the small, tiny noise. It's like rattling a little bit against the glass or something. It really reminds me of that.
MOLLY BLOOM: The clinkiness of it all.
B: Yeah.
MOLLY BLOOM: All right. Here is the answer.
ELLA: Hi. My name is Ella, and I'm from Washington, DC. I'm nine years old. That was the sound of M&M candies dropping into a glass bowl. I think the sound is cool because there are lots of things that can make that sound too. Thank you.
B: Ah. [CHUCKLING]
MOLLY BLOOM: You're not that far off. So there was a bowl, a plate kind of thing.
B: Yeah.
MOLLY BLOOM: And some small, little M&Ms making a nice, pleasant, clinky sound.
B: Wow.
MOLLY BLOOM: [CHUCKLING]
[CLINKING]
ROBOTIC VOICE: Brains On! (ECHOING) On! On!
[THUD]
[DRAGGING NOISE]
SANDEN TOTTEN: Oh, Marc, how about this? Belly buttons are actually where your body stores the gum you swallow. Yeah. It has nowhere to go. So your body just pushes it to your belly where it makes a little button.
MARC SANCHEZ: OK. Now you're just being silly. Everyone knows that swallowed gum doesn't go to your belly button. It goes into your ear lobes.
SANDEN TOTTEN: Wait. Wait, really?
MARC SANCHEZ: Why do you think your ear lobes feel so rubbery and gummy?
[RECORD SCRATCHING]
SANDEN TOTTEN: Oh, they do feel rubbery and gummy. [GASPS] Wait. If I swallow more gum, will I get bigger ear lobes?
[BOING]
Quick! Give me all the gum. Oh, man. I'm going to have elephant-sized ears.
[CHOMPING]
I'll just have to--
[CHOMPING]
--chew this and then swallow.
MARC SANCHEZ: Oh. Oh. Oh, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. I forgot to tell you. I made that up.
SANDEN TOTTEN: You did?
[SPITTING]
Ha-ha! That's awesome, Marc. You totally got me. Ugh! I believed that. That was a good one.
MARC SANCHEZ: You chewed so much gum.
SANDEN TOTTEN: I know!
MARC SANCHEZ: I cannot believe this. I thought you were going to blow--
SANDEN TOTTEN: That's bananas!
MARC SANCHEZ: Just swallow--
[THEME MUSIC]
B: Your belly button was created by your umbilical cord. That cord helped you get the stuff you need to grow before you were born.
MOLLY BLOOM: But after you were born, you didn't need that cord. So it fell off and left you with a cool scar which is your belly button.
B: Belly buttons make lint by collecting tiny fibers from our clothes.
MOLLY BLOOM: And most mammals, like cats and dogs, have belly buttons.
B: But a lot of the time, they're small or hidden by fur.
MOLLY BLOOM: That's it for this episode of Brains On We're going to answer the question, how do carrots grow if they don't have seeds in just a minute. But first, some quick credits.
B: Brains On is produced by Molly Bloom, Ruby Guthrie, Marc Sanchez, Sanden Totten, and Menaka Wilhelm.
MOLLY BLOOM: We had engineering help from Alex Simpson, Johnny Vince Evans, and Tony [? Krehbiel. ?] We had production help from Anna Canny and Trisha [? Bovita, ?] and our intern is Kathryn Sundquist. Our executive producer is Beth Perlman.
And the executives in charge of APM Studios are Lily Kim, Alex Schaffert, and Joanne Griffith. Special thanks to Neil Arner, Susan Arner, and Rick Karr.
B: Brains On is a nonprofit, public radio program.
MOLLY BLOOM: You can support the show and help us keep making new episodes by heading to brainson.org/fans. While you're there, you can donate, join our free fan club, or check out our merch.
B: There are face masks, t-shirts, and hats.
MOLLY BLOOM: And you can buy the Brains On book there too. It's brainson.org/fans.
B: Now before we go, it's time for a Moment of Um.
ALL: (In succession) Um. Um. Um. Um. Um. Um. Um. Um. Um.
EMMETT: How do carrots grow if they don't have seeds?
[MUSIC PLAYING]
CRYSTAL STEWART-COURTENS: A carrot transforms its parts, but it does it over two whole years. My name is Crystal Stewart-Courtens, and I work for Cornell University Cooperative Extension as a regional vegetable specialist.
Carrots are cool because they're what are called a biennial. The term biennial means that a plant takes two years to complete its life cycle.
What usually happens is we plant a seed, and then we grow a carrot plant. The plant makes a big fat root. And then at that point, we harvest the carrot, and we eat it. And everything stops. No more seeds.
But if you didn't harvest that carrot, if you left it in the ground, then what would happen is it would go through the winter in the ground. And the next year, the carrot would transform from growing a root to growing a flower. And that flower would then make seeds. But usually, we don't see that because we ate the part that was going to turn into the flower the next year.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Carrots are able to regrow but only from certain parts. So if you wanted to grow a carrot from home, cut everything except the bottom 2 inches of the root off. And probably cut most of the top off.
And then let it sit on the counter for a day so that the bottom of it dries out. You'd plant it. So the orange part's underground, and the green part's sticking up above ground. And you should be in pretty good shape to grow a carrot.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
I don't know if I should talk about this because this can really upset people. But baby carrots aren't even really baby carrots. Most baby carrots are actually little chunks of big carrots because you can grow really, really big carrots.
So you can grow carrots that are as big around as a soup can. They're huge. And they cut them into little chunks. And then they put them on these little sand papers that roll them until they're round.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
They're delicious. But those would definitely not grow into a new carrot. They would just turn into compost.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
CHILD: Um.
WOMAN: Um. Um.
MOLLY BLOOM: Now, let's get to the root of what makes this show so special. It's the Brains honor roll. These are the incredible listeners who send us their questions, ideas, mystery sounds, drawings, and high fives.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
[LISTING HONOR ROLL]
[MUSIC PLAYING]
We'll be back soon with more answers to your questions.
B: Thanks for listening.
Transcription services provided by 3Play Media.
