115: LIVE - Eyevolution III & Fat Bear Week

First live show in London

0:00If you couldn't tell by the title, this is our very first live show ever in London. We had two sold-out shows. This is the first one. Next episode will be the second show. And I just first want to say thank you so, so, so much, everyone. Y'all were fucking amazing, and everyone we met after the show was so sweet, and our hearts are so unbelievably full right now. If you want to follow along with the images that we referenced in this episode, you can go to letslearneverything.com slash 115.

0:31And if you're a MaxFun member, if you go to the Boco page or the bonus channel of our Discord, you should be able to find a video version of this live show very shortly, as well as a vlog of our adventures in London in a few weeks. So, without further ado, here's the episode. Oh, but first, a fun little flashback from 2023. Karina asks, Do you have any hopes, dreams, or ambitions? For the podcast. And I will say off the top, a live show.

1:02A live show would be amazing. That's my, like, biggest one. Yeah, definitely. Well, let's just, and we can cut this if you don't want to spoil it, but let's just say the Heiress tour this year is going to be very interesting. I can't imagine. Imagine. Opening for Taylor Swift. It's just the three of us sat on her massive, massive stage. No lighting. And welcome to Let's Learn Everything. Let's Turn Fuckin'. You only beat me on your man's way. OK.

1:33Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo!

1:38Woo!

1:41Yeah! Yay!

1:51Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo!

Welcome to the Bedford Pub

1:56Hello and welcome to Let's Learn Everything, the show where we learn anything and everything interesting.

2:10For a second I thought no one was going to shoot.

2:14My name is Ella. No, wrong way around. Today we're going to learn about two science topics because it's a very special episode. My name is Ella and I'm not doing any topic today because I'm the student of the episode. In fact, I'm not the only student of the episode because today we come from you live from the Bedford Pub in London and we have lots of students here. Give us a cheer, students!

2:47Wow. Wow. And now, time to meet our teachers. Oh, my name is Tom and today's science topic... Oh, oh my god, he's got props. No!

3:00Wait, has that bag been there the whole time?

3:14Don't applaud this. You can't win, Anakin! I have the eye ground!

3:33This is a validation you've always been waiting for, isn't it? Do you want to say out loud what the topic is? This is a podcast. Yeah, yeah, we're doing I-Volution 3, Revenge of the Sith, as promised, as foretold. This is interesting because I believe that I wasn't there for the second I-Volution and you weren't there for one of them, for the first one. So we really have a completely incomplete story to be getting at here. Very exciting. Thank you, Tom. Of course.

4:04My name's Caroline, and this episode's second... I'm assuming you wanted dramatic music, sorry. Excuse me! It's you!

4:13Yeah, go on then. It's Fat Bear Week! That is genuinely so exciting. We're going to look at so many photos of really Fat Bears today. I'm so excited. When you said, Caroline said, oh, I have some pictures showing this, but they're all the same picture, basically. I was like, yes. It makes sense now. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It makes a lot of sense now.

Tar pit corrections corner

4:40Fantastic. So, before we start, we do have a corrections corner. Which I, of course, did on purpose so that we could do it here.

4:54Wait, where's the physical corrections corner? Where is the corrections corner? Because, obviously, we've got the review corner here, but where's the other corner of our house? Would you like to present this?

5:05I've been crafting. I love this so much.

5:11This is a corrections corner. This is a corrections corner. Definitely did this on purpose so I could share this with you all. This is probably the most emails we've had about one single corrections as well. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Last episode, I said, regarding the tar pits, we were all amazed that there were camel bones there. I said we were amazed because camels migrated across the land bridge to America. We should have been amazed because camels have actually been there the whole time. Elephants did come across the land bridge from Africa, but camels actually came from America to the Eastern Hemisphere.

5:46And someone emailed us and said that the camels actually, like, or the proto-camels went down to South America and became llamas or alpacas. That might be completely wrong. Does anyone know? It's true! It's true!

6:00Source, that guy! And if that's wrong, you have to do the corrections corner next time, okay? Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's on you. So that's actually pretty cool, to be fair. Pretty cool. Yeah, really cool. Uh, doo, doo, doo, doo, doo, doo, doo, doo, doo. This is actually also what Tom does in recording. One last thing before we get to topics, it's housekeeping cupboards. And you guys should have, there's information around the room, hopefully you've all seen it. There's a review corner, we'll come to that later. Um, just make sure you give it a read and let, we'll be taking pictures.

6:31If you don't want a picture taken of you, let the bold guy with the beard at the back there know. Yay!

6:38Y'all, this is so, uh, this is fucking nuts. This is so amazing. Thank you all for being here. This is ridiculous. This is so, when Ella was saying the start, I was pointing because I was like, she's doing the thing! Um, okay, I need to get my notes. Oh, shit, you actually have that.

Eyevolution three and eyelids

6:54Wow.

Eyevolution three and eyelids

6:55Today's science topic is, uh, I, Volution 3, Rev. Ainj of the Sith. And much like any third film in a series, all the budget went into VFX and not the writing. Nice. Believe it or not, Ella is completely CGI. Uh, you can tell because she's going to do the Jar Jar voice the whole episode. Oh, and, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh. All right, fuck off.

7:22Don't step me up and then knock me down immediately. Oh, no, that's the, that's, that's how we play. Bump, set, boom! Uh, and much like the third movie in a series, we are relying almost entirely on cameos and callbacks. Speaking of which, it wouldn't be iVolution without a person who has been on every single iVolution that we flew all the way here. No, you didn't. Sabrina Cruz!

7:50Wait, is this a Wikipedia page? Yeah, yeah. Cruz in 2020. Imagine having that under your name. I know.

8:00Hey, Sabrina, who's definitely here, say hi to everyone. Hello! Is that you? That was actually Sabrina, I know. It sounds like you doing a Sabrina voice. And now, due to contract negotiations, she can only answer very specific questions. Of course, of course. For example, hey, Sabrina, what do you think about the two top hats that I'm wearing right now? A single hat could have been fine.

8:30Hey, Sabrina, could you tell us what the parietal lobe is? Wow, I don't know what parietal means.

8:40Should I let you go on? No, that's enough. That's all the bits. Now we're getting into it. Tom gave us this morning beforehand, being like, look, there's going to be a lot of bits, and we only have an hour here, and it's going to seem like I'm wasting time. So far in eye-volution, previously, we've talked about things like eye design, placement, rotating eyes. We've talked about having hundreds of eyes and no eyes at all, but I've saved the most exciting part of the eye for this, our fifth anniversary and very first live show, a topic years in the making.

9:14It's time for eyelids!

9:20Hell yeah! Is there, I guess, I was going to ask, is there enough about eyelids for a full topic? Hey, let's find out! But we are limited today! Look, I know that different species have different numbers of eyelids, so that's what I'm saying. Oh, we're not going to talk about that. That would have been a good idea. Oh, okay. Ooh, you know what they say about scraping the bottom of the barrel, that's where all the good flavour lives. Okay, got lots of eyelid facts for you all, there's so much I had to cut, definitely. Let's start, wait, we'll start the way we start all topics. I'm going to ask you a question, if anyone knows what this is, we'll all say at the time.

9:54What's y'all's familiarity with eyelids? We have been doing this podcast for too long. Wow! I don't know, I've never heard of them. Great, because we don't have time. Webster's Dictionary! And of course, you know, I did a lot of great research and writing. Webster's Dictionary defines our eyelids as the movable fold of skin and muscle that can be closed over the eyeball. According to Wikipedia, the eyelids protect the eye from foreign bodies and keep the surface of the cornea moist. So that's, um, fun.

10:25Do, do, do, do, do! Uh, I also have to link it to evolution, that's fine. Um, uh, I found this paper. This is, uh, uh, the origin of, um, blinking in mudskippers and tetrapods. No, wait, that's a sick paper. Wait till you see this. What is linked to life on land? That's right! I mean, look, the, even without the linked to life on land, which obviously is a bombshell, is like, that's so, I love the nicheness.

10:56Oh, this is, yeah. It's kind of like, there is someone out there in a lab who's, like, looking at mudskipper's eyelids. You're gonna, it's actually much more applicable than you think. It's gonna be, oh my god, okay. When we are, like, looking for a topic and we can't quite figure out what we want to do, and then look around and in their lab is a mudskipper. And they're like, you know what? That, that will do. I thought you were saying, I was looking around for a topic, and then I blinked and I went, that's it! Fuck you! Uh, all right.

Tear films and cornea breathing

11:24So, I lied. Eyelids are fucking interesting. Sure, eyelids do a lot to, like, clean and protect our eyes, but what they don't get a lot of credit for is helping our eyes function. Uh, as the Southwest Eye Institute put it, not to be confused with the Southeast Eye Institute, I guess they're everywhere, your eyelids bring, quote, a fresh layer of tears across the surface of the eye. And that is important because our eyes only work when they're wet. Yes! Mmm.

11:54I believe you, I'd just like to question you. Yeah. There's somebody on TikTok who has a condition, I know, who can't produce tears. Oh, wait, people do have to, like, people who don't produce tears have to, like, manually add them. Yes, and believe it or not, we've known the importance of this intuitively for a while. We have records of dry eyes plaguing people since the dawn of recorded history. According to an ancient Babylonian remedy, if a man's eyes are affected with dryness, he shall rub an onion, drink it in beer, apply it to all, apply oil to his eyes, thou shalt disembowel a yellow frog, mix its gall and curd, apply to his eyes.

12:32Wait, sorry, all of that at once? Or just one of those things? I truly don't know. Hey, here's the spoiler, none of it works. You don't know that. I do, and that's why this topic took so long to research. And that's why I can only see out on one of these bad boys. What I didn't know, though, is that the wetness of our eyes is so fascinating. So tears don't just happen when you watch the first five minutes of Up or when you watch your closest friends achieve their goals in life. Your eyes are constantly coated in a tear film.

13:04That's my secret, Cap. I'm always crying.

13:08This tear... This is actually going to be endless, isn't it? It's never going to stop. This tear coating is completely transparent, but it's actually made up of three layers. There's a mucin layer, an aqueous layer, and then a lipid layer. So basically mucus, water, and oil over your eyes all the time. As you would expect, it protects your eyes, but it also helps them function and do other things.

13:39As a review from the Journal of Ophthalmology put it, the addition of high volumes of water from the gland helps to keep the ocular surface moist, maintains an important component of light refraction in the air-water corneal interfaces. Oh, whoa. So it keeps your eyeball a smooth, like, as close to spherical surface as it can. But not only that, the invisible tear layer also... This blows my mind. According to a textbook, one of the functions is, quote, providing oxygen and electrolytes to the cornea.

14:10Ah.

14:12So the cornea is an avascular surface, so it doesn't get blood flow to it normally. Do you know why it might be like that? I know that eyes are immunoprivileged. Oh, interesting. Which means that there's no immune cells in the eye. Oh, fascinating. Because things can go in and out. You know, you don't want, like, your immune reactions always happening in the eye. So I'm guessing that... Much simpler answer. Oh. Oh, is it? Okay, well, fuck me then. Is it because it's meant to be see-through and putting vessels out?

14:44Yeah. The cornea is, like, the clear coat over the surface of the eye, over the hole of the eye. Yeah, so we can see through it. That's why we can't have blood vessels there. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The textbook continues, as an avascular surface, the primary source of oxygen for the cornea comes from the atmosphere. In the open eye, oxygen diffuses into the cornea through tears from the atmosphere and from the palpable conjunctival blood vessels in the closed eye.

15:14Tears help our eyes breathe. Ooh. That's cool. That's very cool. I'm just, like, I'm quite taken by the idea of, like, us being, you know, frogs and... Frogs, you know about frogs. Oh, yeah. And, like, you know... We know frogs. They get oxygen through their skin, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And stuff some of them do. And so I like this idea that we do that. Like, that's cool to me. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I am slightly more like a frog than I first thought I was. Oh, my God. Caroline's sitting here like, they're not 25 frogs in a trench.

15:47All right. All the CGI is to make Caroline look like a person, yeah. And, again, evolutionarily, these changes of eyelids and tears happened not just when we moved on to land, but because we moved on to land, right? Right, yeah. So, obviously, eyelids are a little hard to find in the fossil record, because the soft gets fleshy. As one paper noted, it has been difficult to tackle this question from the fossil record alone, which is...

16:19It's amazing that, like, not a single dinosaur, while it was being engulfed in lava, was like, ah, fuck, I blinked! Ah, goddammit! Let's do another one! After this, let's do a silly fossil.

16:35This is so funny. I just want you all to imagine, normally, what this is like is nothing from here, and then when these two groan, it's just that.

16:45But while we don't have eyelid fossils, this is 100% true, the two fish really famous for, like, being the link to land animals, Eusthenopteron and Osteolepis, their two fish, both have in their fossils, tear ducts, because they were poking their heads above water to be able to, like, look, and they're, like, eyeing it, they're like, that sounds pretty good! Okay, I know that you explained this, because eyes need to be wet, and if you're under the

17:15water, it's already wet! You're always, yeah, I know, yeah! I know that's really obvious, but... You know, it's one of those things where, like, I don't want to, like, put, put, yeah, yeah. There's, like, the evolutionary, like, that tear ducts are, like, something we needed to move, because that is so, it's actually incredible.

Seals and vestigial tear ducts

17:29Oh, it gets even better, because another thing we can look at is, of course, animals that moved from the ocean to land to back to the ocean. So your, your, wait, dolphins, your dolphins and your whales? Yes, I like, these are the takesy-baksies of evolution. They came up and they were, like, they looked around and they were, like, I think this place is going to have Twitter, I'll go back. Um, and because they evolved to go back into the water, they do produce tears, but, uh,

18:01oh, this is, so, sorry, this is a specific animal, this is with seals, they do produce tears, they do have eyelids, but they have non-functioning vestigial tear ducts. So the tear ducts don't function, which means, on land, they have nowhere for the tears to go, which makes them look like this. Oh! No! Wait, we need to, we need, oh, this is a fun thing we're doing. This is a first audience interaction moment. Um, would someone like to describe this photo for the podcast? On the podcast, we describe this photo, yes.

18:32Don't over here, don't over here, don't over here, don't over here, don't over here. Me when my sock touches water.

18:41God, now you've got the audience doing this.

18:46This is your fault, could you please describe it with your actual words for the podcast?

18:53It's a seal, and it's got eyes and little tears coming out the bottom of it. It's got eyes, it's such a good laugh. It's crying. Yeah, it's crying. It's very sweet. Thank you so much for your day. Olaya. Thank you, Olaya. Thank you so much, Olaya. Ella criticizing me, like, I'm the teacher that walked in and like, let's watch Space Jam today. I'm the student, I shouldn't be controlling the classroom. I know. You're like, teacher, I'm not learning, we're supposed to stick to the syllabus. Ella's gonna ask for homework. I just find this absolutely fascinating, that like, the evolution of animals from sea to land

19:27to sea results in seals that look like they're always crying. It's just like, uh, what am I trying to say? It's like, um... That sounds like something evolution would do. Sabrina, you're right! Oh, thank you! Because we record over Zoom normally, Tom's audio drops out slightly and he's about to cue a clip, so we can always tell that there was a bit... You know, like, in old cartoons with, like, Tom and Jerry, when, like, the background is a slightly different color and you know they're gonna grab that object, it's like that. So now I feel very unprepared and it's, like, pissing me off more.

20:03Ella, did you not feel prepared for that? I feel like I was pulling a look. I must have met. Well, good for you. Um, so, one of the takeaways from this. One, instead of saying cry me a river, it's more accurate to say cry me an ocean. Uh, two, never doubt how interesting even the smallest things are with iVolution. Um, and three, we should always appreciate a good cry. Um, and I thought I made you guys cry on a previous birthday episode. No, don't you dare. I thought maybe I could try again today. No, don't you dare. I have mascara on.

20:33Don't do this to me. What's in the prop bag, Tom? In many ways, we're the eyes and our wonderful listeners are the eyelids and their listening is the tears, the microphones. That's our corny, okay.

20:54Uh. I brought an onion. I brought an onion. We should be good. Hold on one second. All right, let's go. No. No.

21:01Oh my God. Now, now, listeners to this episode, you might think that sounded more funny than sentimental, but I promise you, technically, there's not a dry eye in the house, and that's my topic. And also for listeners, Tom just started to cut an onion on stage, and I think that's the more important point.

21:23That's very you. Thanks. That's the topic. I mean, first off.

21:33Did you want to keep this? Yeah. You want to keep it? Oh, I was going to leave it as a... To someone? Yeah. An onion? Sure. Does someone want an onion on a... Well, sure. We'll do that. Can you scrapbook it like a flower? We'll do it after. Don't throw the onion into the crowd. Treat it like a beach ball. We'll be fine. After we're... To the audience. Someone will get the onion later. I saw you. I... Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. Thank you so much, Tom. Yeah. That was so dumb. That was... What the fuck?

22:05I love... I love the... I love the science. Oh, no. I also... I made great time! You did such good time. Wow. All right. Are we moving on to our middle bit? We have a middle bit. Shall I play this again? You do make great time. Well done. Oh, yes. We are moving on. First of all, okay, so what's happening now is in the podcast, version of this, we will be doing an ad, but we don't have the ad yet. And also, we weren't going to make you sit through a real ad, so we have a fake ad.

22:37Absolute. We need to send that cheering for ads to any prospective advertiser. Yeah, that's... Yeah, honestly. Also, I love Tom. All these stupid dumb bits. Anyway, now let's read a fake ad. It was also... Shut up, shut up. They don't know that. They don't know that. So these guys haven't seen the ad script before. Which is how we read the ads, actually. We read them cold. We blind react to the ads. Here we go. We also don't have the ads on our respective laptops, so we're all sharing Ella's laptop. All right. Here we go.

23:10And then, wait, wait, wait. Ad theme. Hold on. Here we go. Oh, okay. You might have to put that down a bit.

The bed fort ad break

23:15Okay.

The bed fort ad break

23:16Okay, London to-do list. Tower of London, Buckingham Palace, Borough Market, Big Ben, the British Museum, A Walk Along the Thames. Lovely. I can't believe we're fucking doing this.

23:29And when are we going to see the bed fort? The what? The fort made of beds? Surely you guys know the history. You know what, Tom? Please enlighten us on this one. Of course. It starts in 1066 at the Battle of Rustings. William the Cozy noticed his army was cold, so he ordered the fort made. And what was it made from? Pillows and duvets. Obviously, Ella. The guards were knights in shining pajamas.

23:59I thought you guys would have learned this in school, to be honest. It's all woven into the bedo tapestry. Bedo tapestry. Bedo tapestry. Bedo tapestry. Let's restart. Let's restart. We'll restart it. Please stop.

24:11The drawbridge was a quilt. The moats was full of slippers. Oh, because they're... Slippery. Right, okay. Of course. Did anyone attack? This is so long. The Vikings tried, but the weighted blankets proved too much. It was the original tog of war. Of course it was. In 1215, the barons forced King John to sign the Magna Quilter. It guaranteed every citizen the right to a fair trial and a fair tuck-in. And the fort survived all this? Until 1666 and the great fire of linen.

24:44Terrible. Just awful. Tom, where did you learn all this? A podcast on British history. I listened on the plane. And I got to about minute four before I fell asleep. You live in a very boring country. Lots of kings. So the other 40 minutes. Oh, I filled in the gaps. I'm pretty excited about this, guys. Tom, I'm so... I'm so sorry to break this to you. No, Ella, let him dream. The bed fort is closed for renovation. But after the live show, how about we spend some time here in the Bedford pub instead?

25:19Cozy booths, warm food, cold pints. This is basically a fort for adults.

25:25And for a limited time from 8pm, you can say hi to the hosts of Let's Learn Everything and get a technically world-tour poster for £5. Terms and conditions don't apply. That doesn't make sense. We're the hosts of Let's Learn Everything. Oh, that's where you draw the absurdism line, is it? Right. Okay.

25:48Thank you. Thank you. Bella. I've never written that many puns in my life. That was amazing. Jesus fucking Christ. You ready, Caroline? In true ad fashion as well. You wrote that on the train here, didn't you? Yep, yep, yep, yep, yep.

26:11Hi, I'm Andrew Reich and I host Dead Pilot Society. And I am here with MaxFun member of the month, Jacob Eads. Thank you so much for being a listener of our show. And congratulations on being this month's member of the month. Pleasure to meet you. What made you take the leap to become an actual member of Maximum Fun? I'm spending all this time listening and enjoying them for content because it's not like just supporting one podcast either. It's supporting a whole network of people. So I feel like the dollar really goes a long way.

26:44Can't tell you how much we appreciate it. And as our member of the month, you will be getting a $25 gift card to the Maximum Fun store, a special member of the month bumper sticker. You can take that car with that bumper sticker and drive it to the parking spot at MaxFun headquarters in Los Angeles, which will be there just for you. I might have to get one of my friends to bring like a cardboard cutout of me who lives in Los Angeles just to show that I was there.

27:13Support the shows you love, including this one. Check the show notes for a link or go to MaximumFun.org slash join.

27:21Hey, MaxFun listeners, it's me, Jackie Cation. I have a podcast with Lori Kilmartin. Say hi, Lori. Hi, Jacqueline. Hi, MaxFun listeners. But I'm very formal. We have a podcast and it's about stand-up comedy and how much we love it and how much we dislike some of it. So listen to that podcast. It's called The Jackie and Lori Show. We drop new episodes every Wednesday that gives us plenty of time to decompress from our comedy weekends and discuss things with sane level heads. No, it doesn't.

27:52If you are a woman our age or a man our age or you know what? Any person of any age, I think you'll enjoy our podcast with Jackie and Lori Show on MaximumFun.org. Bye.

Fat Bear Week origins

28:03This episode's second science topic is Fat Bear Week.

28:15We're finally doing it. I assume both of you have heard of Fat Bear Week. Yes. I know who won this year as well. You can tell winner. That's a winner. You don't know this? Okay, so I mean, I've heard. Oh, this is great. I've heard of this. I have no concept of it. Is it like Shark Week or is it more like a... Surely you're the American and you don't know Fat Bear Week. Like, is it... Okay, so no. So the answer's not. Are there accusations of nepotism this year? Have you seen that? I know. We'll talk about it. We'll talk about it.

28:47For those of you who haven't heard of this, this is according to... Me. Yes, you.

28:51This is according to the US Department of the Interior. Fat Bear Week is a single elimination tournament. It's run by Katmai National Park and Preserve. The preserve is 4 million acres of habitat. It's home to one of the largest populations of brown bear in the world. It's got 2,200 brown bear there and 50 million salmon that move into the area each year.

29:22Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's the keystone species there. The whole ecosystem is very much dependent on these salmon coming back to the preserve every single year. And yet we don't have an alive salmon week. That makes you think. Slimy salmon week. Slimy salmon week. The way this whole thing started was now ex-ranger Mike Fitz was scrolling through comments on explore.com, which has a lot of live feeds of webcams of a place called Brook Falls. It's a 1.5-kilometer stretch of river that runs through the reserve. And he saw a bear cam fan post two images of the same bear, one from June and one from September.

29:58This is in 2014. And he was shocked by the difference of the bears from then to there. He was shocked? He was shocked. He was so fascinated by this. Bear get fat. Bear get fat. Bear get fat. I'm so stupid. Is the bear fat because of hibernation? I'm so stupid. You know what, Tom? I truly just thought this was an internet thing where people were like, this is fun and cool. No. This is a science topic, Tom.

30:30I'm so stupid.

30:33And this isn't being recorded and no one's watching this, right? No one's watching this. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. So they wanted to find a way, Fitz and the other rangers wanted to find a way to highlight this change. They came up with Fat Bear Tuesday. This was on Facebook. And they encouraged people to vote for the fattest bear through Facebook likes. Love this. Love it. Absolutely love it. Really grass moves. Right. Fruits move, isn't it? The tournament today is a week-long affair, which invites... It's only a week? It's only a week. Wow, they've got a lot of...

31:03Yeah, loads of stuff. It's called Fat Bear Week. Yes. Fucking idiot. But they changed ways massively at that time. So no, the bears aren't getting fat during that week. This is looking at spring to autumn or summer to autumn change. I think we should... Okay, I don't like that as much. We should extend that into like a full fat bear six months.

31:25Fat bear year. Fat bear year. Things would be a lot better. So the community now looks at photos of bear from... spring and autumn and then votes for the fattest bear. They consider things like personality obstacles it overcame on the path to beefiness. The website says, vote for the bear you believe best exemplifies fatness. But fatness is not just a physical state. It's a state of mind. It's a state of mind. Yeah, absolutely.

Comparing bears and pumpkins

31:56Now, have you seen how fat bears can get? No. No? Oh, yeah. Are we about to? We're about to. Would you like to go on to the first slide of this? Let's see it. This is Bear 480, also known as Otis, who won Fat Bear Week four times. Yono, could we have a first person to describe what we're seeing right now? It's like it's a fat bear, Caroline. Ella! Well, no, no. This is not a fat bear. It's not a fat bear, is it? I didn't look. That was really... You know what?

32:27You're right. Cut that. What are we seeing? It's a very much not fat bear. It's very much not a fat bear. Tom, would you like to go to the next slide? If you want to hold on to the mic, you can do the next one, too. I know what they're going to say. They're going to say, it's a fat bear. Why are we doing this? It just really... That reaction brings it. It's a fat bear. That difference is absolutely crazy.

32:58Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. They can get up to 1,200 pounds or 540 kilograms. If you go to the next slide, actually, I have a helpful comparison. Yeah, I'm also going to, when I'm editing this, see if the bear got a louder cheer than we did. Anyway, next slide.

33:12Um, sorry. Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. And I did double-check, that is a 540-kilogram pumpkin.

33:30Would somebody in the audience like to describe what you're seeing here? Imagine you didn't just hear Caroline describe what the picture was. No, for the audio's sake. It's two side-by-side. Oh, my God, this is the new one.

33:45Sorry, I've heard that's really exciting news. This really is an update corner in the middle of this topic. It's two side-by-side photos, and on the left, there's a very fat bear, and on the right, there's a very fat pumpkin. Yes!

33:59This is, thank you. Are they comparable weights? Yes, these are the same weights. Are you fucking kidding me?

34:07That's, like, cool. The bear must be much bigger as well, so the pumpkin in comparison is like... The pumpkin is heavy. Yeah, that's heavy as hell. I can't tell. Is this the new pumpkin? This was a winner from this year, I think. Yeah, but it's not the new... It's not the new... Oh, like, apparently, like, a week ago, the record for giant pumpkin was wrong. Oh, we're going to do a full topic on the update, right? Just so, you know, if you've listened to the last episode, pumpkins... Pumpkins are bigger now. Are we all... Pumpkins are bigger now! And they're theoretically limitless. Are we all mentally doing the same thing where we really can't tell if that makes the bear big or the pumpkin big?

34:39And you're like, oh, that's a... The bear... Oh, there's a sea song in my brain, I can't tell. The size of the pumpkin is like... It's like half the size of a man. Yes. So the bear is... It's a very heavy... It's a heavy pumpkin. So really... What do you want? It's an absolutely worthless comparison. It's like when they say, like, an asteroid... It's just for you! It's like when they say an asteroid's, like, the size of three giraffes. It's like, thanks? Did you know the largest pumpkin's the size of the largest bear? Ah, two points of reference I always think about. Just for a little bit of info on the bear, the bear is called Otis.

35:11He's a four-time winner of Fat Bear Week. He won the original Fat Bear Week as well. The last photo that we got of him was from 2023. He hasn't been seen since. So... I know, I'm sorry. What the heck? I'm sorry. I'm sorry. He's probably living on his wealth and just... Yes. He doesn't need to be in movies every year. He's probably thriving.

Torpor and hyperphagia in bears

35:31Now, Tom. Yes. Why are the bears getting so fat?

35:36Hibernation. Oh my god. You're wrong.

35:39Wait. Wait, what the hell? You're wrong. Wait, what? Left the record show. Ella was also wrong. What? I didn't say it. What is... What is hibernating? Oh, torpor. Yes, Ella. That's a lovely word. Thank you. Brilliant. So, that's right. Ah! I don't know. That was like the most aggressive sound I've ever made in my life. Oh my god. So, hibernating is a state of minimal activity and reduced metabolic rate. It's characterised by low body temperature, slow breathing, heart rate, all of that sort

36:13of stuff. That's according to Wikipedia. And it's commonly used through the winter months to overwinter, is the scientific term. It's not as common as people think it is. In the UK, for example, there are only three groups of animals that actually hibernate. Do you want to have a guess? Oh, uh... Badgers. No.

36:34Squirrels. No. Me after eating a Thanksgiving meal, am I right? No, I keep on listing them and I'll get there eventually. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We've only got 20 minutes left. Yeah, no.

36:44Hedgehogs. Yes! Hey! Yeah! It's hedgehogs, bats, and... Bats? Yeah, bats. No, I did not know that. Fat, bat, wheat. Fat, bat, wheat. Oh my god, yes. Yes, doormice are the other one in the UK. Oh, that's cute. But species like marmots will hibernate too in the States. And to give a little bit of context about what hibernating looks like, their body temperature will drop from 38 degrees Celsius, or about 100 Fahrenheit, down to 3 degrees Celsius. Wow. I know, right?

37:14Or 37 Fahrenheit. Thank you. Yeah, you're welcome. They, during the rest of the year, they have an active heartbeat of 180 to 200 beats per minute. That can go down to 30 beats per minute. So it's quite a big change. Sleep mode. Yeah, sleep mode. Low battery mode. But it's not the only technique for overwintering. There are lots of different things that animals can do. Diapause is one of them. It's like a state of stasis rather than sleep. So they enter a stage of delayed development. Insects will do that. Oh, okay. So like monarch butterflies will do that.

37:45There are other things as well, like shedding leaves is a type of overwintering. Brumation is a type of overwintering. Like when cicadas just kind of chill in the dirt. I feel like that's the space to see. Wow. Yes.

37:57So yeah, there's loads of different examples, but the word that Ellie used there was torpor. And that is what brown bears do. So instead of entering this super deep sleep on their body temperature. Sorry, do bears not hibernate? No. No, they enter torpor. They enter torpor. I said that. I literally just said that. And then Caroline said it again. And Caroline's re-evaluating some shit right now. My goodness. So it is still a state where they're going to sleep. Their body temperature is decreasing a little bit. They are having a reduced metabolism.

38:28But it's not that super heavy hibernation that other species will go through. And this is really helpful for bears because it means that they can wake up and defend their den when they need to. Ah. Okay. So torpor. So it's like the bottom layer is cicadas in the ground. Stasis. Stasis. Stasis. Hibernation. Torpor. Wait, and then you've got torpor. Okay. What they will do during this time is give birth. What? Just putting that out there. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They will give birth during this time. Would you like to learn a little bit more about that? Ah. Yeah.

38:59Actually, we'll touch on it later. Because, so yeah. So instead of hibernating, they're going into torpor. In order to get through this torpor, where they're not eating and drinking, they have to get real fat beforehand. And because of the salmon at Katmai, they can get really fat. Yeah. For brown bears in autumn, before they enter torpor, they enter a psychological state known as hyperphagia. Ooh. I know, fun word, right? We're sorry. I'm breaking it down. That just means eating a lot. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But this is a period where their fullness hormones, so things like your leptin, they don't produce it.

39:34Or they produce it at a much lower rate, basically, so that they don't experience fullness to the same extent. Wow, yeah, because it does have to, like, biologically and chemically happen. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I never thought about that one. They can't mentally be like, well, I got it. I got it. I just got to keep going. Fascinating. They'll end up eating for 20 hours a day, consuming 15,000 to 20,000 calories. Sorry, 20, sorry, sorry. Yeah, 20 hours. Sorry. Yeah. So, they can eat up to 30 salmon a day, and they'll gain two to six pounds per day, or one to three kilograms per day.

40:05And as I said previously, the bears and cat might get particularly large, thanks to that amazing salmon supply. Mike Fitz, who I mentioned earlier, says, it all revolves around the salmon. The salmon are the reason there's a fat bear week. Damn. A lot of amount of water is required before they enter hibernation. One source that I found, they need lots of water to process the food, get rid of nitrogenous waste during this time. They could urinate two to four gallons, or eight to 16 liters of liquid per day.

40:36Now, I don't want to drink this anymore, actually.

40:39I'm going to have a swig a monster at you. Yeah.

40:45Hyperphagia is particularly important if you're a female, because brown bear mating takes place during the summer, but the fertilized egg will go into a state of diapause, that delayed development that I mentioned earlier. But it won't attach to the uterine wall until the female has passed the fat threshold that she needs to. Oh. Yeah. So, the egg won't implant unless she's fat enough, basically, to get through the... Yeah, go for it, Ella. This is completely unrelated. Yeah, I love it. I just thought it was just a good time to mention, remind you all of my favorite fact again, vagina.

41:19Say it with us! Kangaroos have three vaginas! But also, they have a stasis egg thing. Yes, they do! So, they have, at any one time, they can have a joey, which is going in and out of the pouch. A joey that is in the pouch, suckling, like, kind of permanent suckling, and a joey, which is, like, just an embryo still, kind of waiting to come out. So, lots of animals do this kind of stasis-y thing. Yeah, lots of animals do this sort of stuff. Which is pretty cool. They have, like, a circle of life within them at all times, like the stasis.

41:49Yeah, yeah. It's cool. So, the brown bear will, once the egg has implanted in, like, November-December time, it's an eight-week gestation. It's really short. Oh, wow. She'll give birth to tiny bear cubs, they're, like, one pound, 300 grams, and I know, I know. I guess it makes sense, because I know, um, with, uh, panda bears, they come out, like, super tiny. Yeah, super tiny. That's marsupials. They're marsupials, right? No, they're not, they're bears. They're just bears. They're bears. I had this, I had this argument with someone, they're just normal bears. Yep. Marsupials have really, really tiny offspring. Yes, they do. But, actually, yeah, pandas also have very, very, very, very tiny.

42:21Bears, I think, in general, I'm assuming here, have tiny. I mean, cubs are tiny, even when they have, like, all their fur. They're so tiny, yeah. Tom, it's fascinating that you should say that. Would you like to go on to the next slide? Yay!

42:36Listeners, it's a photograph of me that everyone just wanted to ask.

42:42Would somebody like to describe this one, and the next photo after it as well? Oh, there's a few people. Lovely. I mean, what can they say, Caroline? Ella, let me have this. I just want you to know that I'm equally mean to both of you. Yes. Yeah.

43:00It's a small, extremely cute bear cub. It is. Would you say that this is particularly fat?

43:08Eh. Pfft. Are you asking me? Go for it, yeah. No? No. Tom, next slide, please. Yes. Yes. Oh!

43:19Holy hell. Oh, my God!

43:25Oh, my God! Would you like to describe this bear? That is a spherical bear cub? Yes. Is that still a cub? Yeah, that's the same. Oh, my God! That's the same cub, because there is a Fat Bear Week Junior. Oh!

43:44Yeah!

43:46Life is beautiful! That is so good! So, this started in 2021. This is a bear known as 132's Spring Cub. All of the bears are given a little biography, by the way. And 132's Spring Cub, the biography says, This spring cub is one of two surviving members of a litter of three. It may look small, but it probably weighs about 60 pounds. It is poised to gain even more body mass, as it follows its mother in her late summer pursuit of salmon.

44:19Okay. Amazing. I've been watching sumo wrestling a lot lately. Have you? Me and my friends have been getting into sumo wrestling, and this very much, the way that was described, very much reminds me of how the sumo wrestlers are introduced in summer. He eats 60 salmon a day! Genuinely, it's like, he weighs 120 kilograms, and he's this little tall, and he's poised to get even bigger.

44:43Very much that energy. Fat Bear Week now has been running for 12 years. So, typically, 12 bears are chosen to participate in Fat Bear Week. This year, it was 16. And if you want to participate, you have to head over. If anyone here would like to participate by voting for the bears, you can head to that website and download a bracket, and actually have this year's bracket. Would you like to show the next side?

45:13So, this is what it looked like. Isn't it great? Oh, that's so cute. Isn't it lovely? Tom, would you like to describe this one? It's like a video game pixel art bracket. It's really well designed. I love it. It's lovely, isn't it? They put a lot of effort in. That's so cute. And, like, there's so much press and publicity around this thing as well. It is amazing. And so, now, Fat Bear Week is incredibly popular. From 2025, there were 1.7 million votes cast. Holy moly. From 100 countries to crown the Fat Bear, I know.

45:44In 2026, that went up to 2.5 million votes cast. Would you like to see this year's winner? I know. Yes, show them. I've seen it. And now that Let's Learn Everything fans listen to it, it's going to be 10 more. Yeah, it's going to get crazy. Than last year. Than last year.

46:02Okay. Ella, would you like to describe this one? I'll describe him this time. That's a skinny bear. Yes, it is.

46:09This is... But personality. Actually, do you know anything about his personality? About his... Oh, Caroline's been raising their eyebrows like, yes. Yes. Okay, let's look... Tom, do you want to show that at the next photo? Bam! Bam!

Backpack and Bear Force One

46:22He's fat.

Backpack and Bear Force One

46:23That's a fat bear. This is bear 89, also known as Backpack.

46:31He's from a fat bear dynasty. His mum, Holly, was first introduced to Brook River... First introduced him to Brook River in 2006 as a yearling, but Holly has previously won Fat Bear. This is what I was saying about there were accusations of nepotism this year. Now, would you like to see why he's called Backpack?

46:54The cheer for the yes from the audience was so good. I saw the preview of the next image.

47:01I should warn you, the quality isn't great because this was taken in 2006, but Tom, if you would like to show it. Oh, Lee. Oh, my goodness. His bio literally says that Backpack often climbed onto his mother's back when the pair saw him in the river. That's him! He's the backpack! Yeah!

47:23If... For people listening and not deafened, if you want to see these images, you can see them at let'slearneverything.com slash... 1-4... 1-4... 1-4... 1-4... 1-4... 1-4... 1-4... 1-4... 1-5... 1-5... 1-5... 1-5... 1-5... Thank you. Thanks, audience, for being more on top of that than us. That's so lovely. Oh, my God. Now, why is Fat Bear Week important? Wait, you didn't tell us about his personality. In many ways, we are the Fat Bear and our listeners... Would you like to share some...

47:54Do you know about his personality? I know that he's very resilient. I know that that's a big part of why Fat Bear is... When they're weak, they're very resilient. Often, they will have, like, a sudden spurt of... Yeah, I think Backpack is quite a... He'll stand his ground. He's a little bit territorial, is what I know about him. I think one of the things about him was that he stood still for a really long time, like, not really moving and just waiting for the kind of fish to jump to him. No, that was Otis. Oh, that was Otis. That was Otis. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So we're now having a private conversation about the bear. I'm not even a part of it.

48:27So, yeah, Fat Bear Week is important for a few reasons. It's a part of a wider marketing campaign for the preserve, which I think is really, really important. The preserve's out in Alaska, so it's not getting people, like, accidentally stumbling across it that often. But it's also essential for education as well. So Mike Fitz, on the first Fat Bear Day, said, I suddenly realised that people are connecting with these animals just as strongly online as they would in person. People learn about brown bears and salmon this way, and hopefully that translated to a greater sense of care for this remarkable place,

49:00as well as for the bears and salmon around the world. Which is lovely. Also particularly important, given the current American climate. Yeah! I know, I know. It's really nice having that, like, snakey spread. Let me stay, please, let me stay, please. Put me anywhere, please. And Candice Rush, who's a spokesperson for explore.org, who hosts all of the webcams, also thinks that this week has come to represent something positive and even a little silly.

49:31A time when we can feel like every story is negative. There's this piece of joy, which I think makes it a lovely story to share for the Let's Learn Everything live show. So, we have made it to the end of my script, and there is one more bear that we have time to show off. Please. If you would like to. Please. Here we go. I'll describe this one. This is bear 474, also known as Bear Force One. Yeah! Nice, nice, nice, nice, nice. He won Fat Bear Week in 2020, and then again in 2022. We're looking at a skinny bear right now. Tom, there is a photo of a fat bear.

50:02Looks like he just fell in the river and got out. Yeah, not very happy. The reason I wanted to share this story about Bear Force One is that because in 2022, he nearly didn't make the semi-final because there was voter fraud. What?

50:21Stay in line for Fat Bear Week. Don't leave the polls. Catmine National Park tweeted, It appears someone has decided to spam Fat Bear Week's poll, but fortunately, it's very easy for us to tell which votes are fraudulent. So that's how popular it's become. Wow. Thank you so much for learning about Fat Bear Week. Go on, Ella. We should all choose a fat bear next year. Yes. We should all... We should... Yeah. If we can't get away with the voter fraud, then we can sway it that way instead.

50:55I think so. Yeah. Nice. Are you guys up for that yet? Yeah.

51:00Do you want to show me? We have ads for Fat Bears. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Tom, do you want to show the next photo of 474? Yes, please. Just for everybody to... Yeah. Oh, this is right, yes. Yes. Oh, he's lovely. So, yeah. Bears do be getting fat, though. Bears do be... They really do, though. Thank you, Caroline. That was fantastic. Thank you.

51:22Wonderful. Thank you so much, Caroline. Oh, fuck. Oh. Oh, fuck. I've not been thinking about it at all. Oh, it's just so true to form. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Give Ella, give Ella, like, five minutes. We got it. Oh, no.

Review corner and closing wrap

51:39What's about to happen is we're about to transition into Review Corner, and what often happens when we're recording is that we have to sit there and wait for Ella to figure out how she's going to do this bit, and I feel like there's a lot of pressure on you right now. There's, like, a hundred people in here. I mean, you've all heard Review Corner. You know they don't end up good anyway.

52:01I believe in you.

52:11Does anyone have any ideas? What are you talking about? You guys aren't... Any ideas? What's that in the corner? It must be a fat bear. It's so big. Oh, the bear. It is so big. Oh, okay. Fine. I... I... I... I... I... I... I... I... I... spy something big in the corner. What is it? It's a fat bear? No, it's Review Corner. Fuck. Hey.

52:41Every time. Wow. Do you want to go and grab... Shall I go and pick a review from Review Corner? Well, why don't you bring them, like, a handful up? I can bring a handful. For the audio listeners, Caroline has crafted a corporeal Review Corner, which, to be clear, we do have in every recording.

53:02This was truly a, like, one-off bit. We were like, what if we had a physical Review Corner? And Caroline was, like, on it, and here we do. Wait, is that literally all of them on this? No, there's so many. I'm like, that's so many. Oh, okay. That's, like, three people? Would you like more? Yeah, I mean, bring a bunch up. We can't. We carry them all. No, we can't. What do you mean? Yeah, we're going to sit here for the next two hours. And then you listen to us, yeah, be like... I just, I'm worried that if I say, like, I accidentally just choose a random one, it's

53:32going to be really mean. One star, too much swearing. You're all so mean. Yeah. You know, behind the scenes, yes, those are the reviews we get that are bad. One star, Tom swears too much specifically.

53:46Okay, right, okay. Tom, you normally read the reviews. Do you want to take a review? Okay. That's for you, Ella. Oh, well, I'll just, I'll read this out. This is from, this review is from George, and it's a picture of a cat.

54:01Thank you. Tom? This one's from Hussein with a gasping smiley face at the end. A Drosophila Lanagaster walks into a bar and says, LLE is the best. The bartender responds, how are you saying that?

54:16Nice, nice, nice, nice. I'm just, I'm dishing out. Somebody, this is from Brian the Bitten, who drew a lovely bird and says, a booming, marvellous show. Love that. Love that. Oh. Are we doing more? A few more? No. We've got three minutes. We've got three. Do you want another one? One more. Go on. Yeah. Leia says, this podcast is like crack to my fun, fat, neurodivergent ears.

54:48Ten out of ten, criminally underloved pigeons. What? Always.

54:54Nice. That was a good one. Okay. Ear crack. Go on then, Caroline. One more. We have time. Oh my gosh, okay. Oh, this one's lovely. So this is from, I assume, Johannes and Kerr. I'm sorry if I've pronounced your names wrong. This podcast is so great. We came from Estonia to listen live. Thanks. Thank you so much. That's crazy. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I agree. So I know people have come from far and wide to this, and we just want to say thank you so much. This is unbelievable.

55:24We love you. We will be, oh, oh, any plugs or shout outs? I was going to ask, who thinks they've come from furthest away today? Oh, go on. Where are you? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Okay. I mean, I think the like, what's the word for like? Antipode. The antipode is, I mean, it's not New Zealand, it's a bit further into the water, but it's basically New Zealand. So yeah, yeah. New Zealand wins. Congratulations.

55:54Any plugs or shout outs? I'll shout out us. Yeah. They're doing the thing from the podcast. I would like to shout out us. There we go. I've done it like I've done it on the podcast. Thanks so much for coming today. We have got posters. They are five pounds. You can come and say hi to us. We will sign them. And also we will stick around. Or not if you don't want that. Yeah, if you don't want it. And also we're sticking around just to say hi to people. Yeah, if you want to say hi, we'll be in the bar afterwards. Come and say hi.

56:26Just, we love you. Thank you. Yeah, this is amazing, y'all. I really can't believe it. In many ways, you are the eyes. We.

56:35I'll workshop. I'll workshop for the second live show. Okay. So what I'm going to do now is I'm going to do a brief summary of the episode. And then I'm going to say, when I say everything, you can all say everything with us. Yeah. The podcast to the end. I know not everyone listens to the end. Fair enough.

56:53So today we have covered Eyevolution 3. We've learned about mudskipper eyelids. We've learned that eyes are wet. And mucousy. And oily. Yes. We have learned that the cornea is vascular. So we can see. Avascular. Avascular. I did write vascular. I wrote is avascular.

57:13So we can see. I've learned that the, we've learned that the cornea is atmospherically powered. We've learned that seal's so weepy. And we've learned that eyelids are the friends we made along the way.

57:27We've also learned about. It's not much better than what I actually said. It's actually better, I think. We've also learned about Fat Bear Week, which is a single bracket knockout tournament of bears. We've learned that bear get fat and that fatness is a state of mind. Nice. We've learned about torpor and hyperphagia. We've learned about Fat Bear Week, junior, obsessed. We've learned that backpack is a winner, but aren't we all really? Aww. And you can join us next time where we will learn about everything.

58:01Thank you so much guys. We love you so much. We love you so much. We're running off.

58:32We love you so much. Oh, she doesn't know what she's missing.

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