The Bone Collector, Threads of God, Cloacal Chamber

Scientific illustrator and Twitch streamer Liz Clayton Fuller (ipaintbirbs) joins the show once more to talk all things cloaca -- and why some birds lack them. Plus, Jess hops behind the mic to talk about the world's rarest pasta, and Rachel dives into carnivorous caterpillars that sound like WWE wrestlers. The Weirdest Thing I Learned This Week is a podcast by Popular Science. Share your weirdest facts and stories with us in our ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Facebook group⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ or ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠tweet at us⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠! ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Click here to learn more about all of our stories! ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Links to Rachel's TikTok, Newsletter, Merch Store and More: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://linktr.ee/RachelFeltman⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Rachel now has a Patreon, too! Follow her for exclusive bonus content: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/RachelFeltman⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Link to Jess' Twitch: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.twitch.tv/jesscapricorn⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ -- Follow our team on Twitter Rachel Feltman: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.twitter.com/RachelFeltman⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Produced by Jess Boddy: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.twitter.com/JessicaBoddy⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Popular Science: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.twitter.com/PopSci⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Theme music by Billy Cadden: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://open.spotify.com/artist/6LqT4DCuAXlBzX8XlNy4Wq?si=5VF2r2XiQoGepRsMTBsDAQ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Speaker 00

  This episode is brought to you by Indeed. You're ready to level up your business, but the pressure to find the right person to make that happen is intense. Indeed sponsored jobs can help carry the load. It boosts your job post to help it reach quality talent fast. Cut through the chaos with Indeed sponsored jobs. Get a $75 sponsored job credit at indeed.com/podcast. Terms and conditions apply. Hiring now? Then this is a job for Indeed sponsored jobs.

• 0:31Speaker 01

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• 1:00Speaker 02

  When fall comes back around, there's a sense of a reset. And new pieces from Lululemon's fall drop are an inspiration to push your goals and elevate your routines. As your calendar fills, easy to layer styles meet the demands of your day. And as you challenge yourself to try even more, versatile sets transition with you. The Lululemon Fall lineup brings new levels of comfort and confidence, whether you're starting something fresh or starting something over. Check out the latest arrivals in store and on lululemon.com now.

• 1:33Rachel Feltman?

  At Popular Science, we report and write dozens of science and tech stories every week. And while most of the stuff we stumble across makes it into our articles, we also find plenty of weird facts that we just keep around the office. So we figured, why not share those with you? Welcome to the weirdest thing I learned this week from the editors of Popular Science.

• 1:52Speaker 04

  I'm Rachel Feltman. I'm Jess Bode.

• 1:55Speaker 05

  And I'm Liz Clayton Fuller. Yeah, welcome back.

• 2:01Speaker 05

  I'm so glad you had me back on. You know that I'm gonna talk about birds again.

• 2:05Rachel Feltman?

  I suspected. It would be great if you just came on and you were like, hard pivot, not talking about birds at all.

• 2:12Speaker 05

  That would be a shock to all of us, including me.

• 2:15Rachel Feltman?

  Speaking of birds, would you remind our listeners who you are and what you get up to on the internet?

• 2:20Speaker 05

  Yes, I am a Twitch streamer, scientific illustrator, and painter. And I stream my art on Twitch and I have a little shop where I paint birds and I sell them to the masses.

• 2:37Speaker 04

  It's really, really good art. I love it. I have purchased many times.

• 2:41Rachel Feltman?

  It is great art. And also just the phrase, "I have a little shop where I paint birds and sell them to the masses", really sounds like you are a character in a very comfy cozy video game.

• 2:54Speaker 05

  Yes. No, I, that is sort of the way that I dream about my life, just in my little cottage, painting birds, having them shipped off in little bird packages carried by birds. Yes, that's, that's my life.

• 3:07Rachel Feltman?

  A dream. I love that. Well, let's get right into it. So on the weirdest thing I learned this week, we start by each offering up a little tease about some kind of fact or story that we found in the course of reading, writing, or communing with the birds. And then we decide which one we just absolutely have to hear more about first. Then, once we've all had time to spin our little science yarns, we reconvene and decide what the weirdest thing we learned this week actually was in a weird way where we don't actually do that anymore. Jess, what's your tease?

• 3:38Speaker 04

  Yeah, I'm gonna talk about a rare, secret, legendary, fabled, very special noodle.

• 3:49Rachel Feltman?

  I have this, I have an idea that I really, really strongly believe is a good idea, and I'm gonna share it here because...

• 3:55Speaker 04

  That's a really great preface, by the way.

• 3:58Rachel Feltman?

  I really stand behind this idea. Sharks, thank you for your time. I'm gonna share it here because I'm pretty confident I don't ever actually want to get into the restaurant business, so... Anyway, here's the concept. Either a multi, you know, multi-country, multicultural fusion noodle shop, or just an Italian restaurant called Tasteful Nudes.

• 4:20Speaker 04

  Wait, that's so genius.

• 4:23Rachel Feltman?

  Right?

• 4:24Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 4:24Rachel Feltman?

  I've kept this in the inner circle for like a year, but I'm, I'm willing to admit like, Rachel, you don't, you don't want to own a restaurant ever in any version of your life. So if you're listening to this, a restaurateur, um, all I ask is that you invite me to tasteful nudes and maybe name a dish after me.

• 4:44Speaker 05

  Yeah. Any sharks out there?

• 4:45Rachel Feltman?

  Yeah.

• 4:46Speaker 05

  Invest, okay?

• 4:48Rachel Feltman?

  Anyway, what's your tease now that I've gotten that off my chest?

• 4:53Speaker 05

  My tease is cloaca, a hole that does it all, but do all birds have one?

• 4:59Speaker 04

  Oh. Oh my god. If not, if not, then.

• 5:06Speaker 05

  If not.

• 5:06Rachel Feltman?

  Then what?

• 5:08Speaker 05

  If not, you're gonna learn about it and you're not gonna like it.

• 5:11Speaker 04

  Oh, boy.

• 5:14Rachel Feltman?

  I thought I might not, so glad I'm on the right track. Um, my tease is just the bone collector.

• 5:23Speaker 04

  Uh huh.

• 5:24Speaker 05

  Ooh, ominous.

• 5:25Rachel Feltman?

  I like to imagine it as like a WWE.

• 5:28Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 5:30Rachel Feltman?

  You know, and a good heel coming in.

• 5:33Speaker 04

  I was gonna say, yours sounds the most video gamey between the three of us. Two of us are Twitch streamers and you are the odd one out with the video game tease.

• 5:41Speaker 05

  Very true. Like, that's, that's a boss in a video game, the bone collector, 1,000%.

• 5:47Rachel Feltman?

  It really is. It truly is. And I can get into it first. So scientists recently announced the discovery of a new species of carnivorous caterpillar. And many people might be surprised that there are carnivorous caterpillars.

• 6:04Speaker 04

  I'm people.

• 6:06Speaker 05

  If you could see our faces, you would know we were surprised by that sentence.

• 6:10Speaker 04

  Shock and awe.

• 6:11Rachel Feltman?

  Yeah. Well, if you assumed the caterpillars were all vegetarians and you're now freaked out, don't worry, less than 0.13% of all documented moth and butterfly species eat meat. And of course caterpillars are the larval stage of moths and butterflies. Though I kind of, I'm not gonna say I forget that because like, if you asked me what a caterpillar was, I would be like, it's a pre-moth or pre-butterfly. But when I look at caterpillars, I'm like, you're your own creature, you know?

• 6:37Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 6:38Rachel Feltman?

  They don't connect in my head to a future thing with wings, but anyway.

• 6:43Speaker 04

  That could get really deep, like past versions of yourself.

• 6:46Speaker 05

  Truly.

• 6:48Speaker 04

  Are they separate humans or are they just pre you?

• 6:51Rachel Feltman?

  Yeah, yeah. Well, anyway, very few of them eat meat. It's a weird thing for butterflies and moths to do, but some of them do do it. There's actually, gosh, now I'm forgetting. I think this is in the UK. There's a species of butterfly that that will eat rotting meat if you put it out. So these butterfly hunters will like take like an old fish or some stinky cheese.

• 7:17Rachel Feltman?

  We're here to catch butterflies. But again, very uncommon behavior and most, most of the butterflies and moths that are carnivorous at all, it's like there, there are several ways they can be carnivorous. It can be like purely circumstantial. They might eat each other. Which is kind of like the the lowest bar into carnivorous.

• 7:43Speaker 04

  Sure.

• 7:45Rachel Feltman?

  And then it's like, well, they mostly eat plants, but they might occasionally eat something if it's around. And then there are ones who it's like, no, they like eating meat. They they want to eat the meat. And most moths and butterflies that are carnivorous, of the very small number that are, if they primarily eat meat, generally what we mean is that they like eat aphids. So it's not quite as like horrifying as it sounds, but still, counterintuitive. And this particular carnivorous caterpillar, which lives apparently only in a six mile square area in the Waimea mountain range on Oahu in Hawaii, is pretty freaky,

• 8:29Rachel Feltman?

  even in the world of carnivorous caterpillars. For starters, it lives directly within spider webs, which as far as I can tell is not something that any other caterpillar has been seen to do. It's basically like moving into a serial killer's tarp-covered basement.

• 8:46Speaker 04

  Absolutely. That seems really brave.

• 8:48Rachel Feltman?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 8:49Speaker 04

  Ill-advised.

• 8:50Rachel Feltman?

  Yeah, it's it's like not just brave, but like seems actively pretty stupid.

• 8:55Speaker 04

  Yes.

• 8:57Rachel Feltman?

  And they're also super territorial about those spider webs. If another member of their species shows up, they will kill it and eat it. Or they'll get killed and eaten. I guess sometimes the interloper caterpillar prevails. But the point is, they're like, no, this is my serial killer basement. And this serial killer is my roommate. So get out. And speaking of eating, they live with spiders. You might ask why? This is a big question, why? So that they can feed on the dead and dying insects already caught within the web. So in the serial killer basement analogy, it's like you're like less good, less ambitious serial killer. And you, you just kind of pick off their, some of their scraps.

• 9:42Rachel Feltman?

  Sometimes that means they literally eat leftover scraps from the spiders. They'll also sometimes snag uneaten carcasses if they get lucky. And they'll even chase down some of the prey. But that only, they're only able to do that because the prey are like weak, immobilized and covered in spider web. Because these caterpillars are like tiny awkward little grubs. They're like a quarter of an inch long. So they're really getting these other bugs while they're down. And otherwise they would have no chance. So you might be wondering how they managed to not get caught and eaten by the spiders they live with, given that they are not very fast or agile or good at hunting.

• 10:25Rachel Feltman?

  And that's where the bone collecting comes in. There are no actual bones because we're talking about insects which have exoskeletons. So don't well actually me. But you know, if this was a person in a serial killer's basement, we'd be talking about bones. And the scientists have called it the bone collector. The scientists did it, not me. So it's fine.

• 10:49Rachel Feltman?

  So it starts out when these little caterpillars wrap themselves up in their silk. They make these little cases. In fact, caterpillars in their genus are actually known as Hawaiian fancy case caterpillars for this very reason. And then they basically act like they're in a Project Runway challenge. This is true of the genus in general. In other species, this will mean like finding little pieces of shells or like wood chips or algae that they stick to their silk cases as camouflage. But for the bone collectors, that means covering themselves in legs, wings, heads, really any body parts from dead spider prey that they can find.

• 11:31Speaker 05

  That's metal. Big time dude.

• 11:33Rachel Feltman?

  It really is. And apparently, so the researchers first saw them a couple decades ago, and this is the first paper describing them. And the reason they really took their time keeping tabs on them before they announced this to the world is that when they first saw them, I mean, first of all, when apparently when they first saw them, they had no idea what they were. They were like, we've never seen anything that looks like this. It's just this like squirmy little thing that's covered in bits of other bugs. So it took them a while to even be like, oh, a caterpillar. Again, it's, you don't expect them to be in spider webs and not be dead. You don't expect this thing covered in like a mishmash of exoskeletons. Just strange.

• 12:18Rachel Feltman?

  And then they were like, maybe this is just one really weird caterpillar because they know that this genus decorates its silken case with like random stuff. So they're like, maybe this one stupid caterpillar ended up in a spider web, somehow didn't get eaten and then was like, oh, these are the ornaments of my new environment. But then they were continuing to do insect surveys over years, apparently two decades in total. They kept finding them. They didn't find that many. They found 62 in total. And again, only within this six mile radius. But they would show up in spider webs, in like tree holes and inside rotting logs and under rocks.

• 13:01Rachel Feltman?

  And every time they found one of these caterpillars, they found it covered in bones, by which I mean insect exoskeletons.

• 13:09Speaker 05

  I'm really hung up on the thought that... At first, scientists were like, this is probably just one weird guy.

• 13:17Rachel Feltman?

  Yeah. I mean, the thing is that like, that's what, that's what scientists should do.

• 13:24Rachel Feltman?

  I mean, I was talking about, on a recent episode, I was talking about the capuchin monkeys that started kidnapping howler monkeys. And how it really does seem like it's probably just a weird thing, one of them did for no good reason once, and then others just started doing it.

• 13:40Rachel Feltman?

  An important part of science is being like, maybe this is just a freak.

• 13:47Rachel Feltman?

  I'm a freak, freaks are everywhere.

• 13:50Rachel Feltman?

  So they started observing them, including in the lab, and they were able to, first of all, confirm that this is like a deliberate behavior. The caterpillars want to be covered in exoskeletons, but they also learned sort of how it works. They would be really picky about what they put on their silk cases. Apparently, sometimes the scientists would give them other construction materials, like little bits of leaves and dirt, and the caterpillars would completely ignore them. They were like, that's not fashion.

• 14:24Rachel Feltman?

  But they would go around and like inspect different insect parts, and sometimes they would actually chew them into the size they wanted before like placing them on their silk case.

• 14:34Speaker 05

  They really had a vision, you know, that they had to pursue.

• 14:37Rachel Feltman?

  Make it work. And you can see how this would serve as camouflage. I'll link to some pictures on popside.com/ weird, but if you look at the pictures, it's not that they look like any other bug in particular, but they kind of, you can imagine a spider mistaking them for like a trash heap of dead bugs. Just, they certainly don't look like a normal, living, edible bug, so it succeeds in that regard. Also, it probably sort of masks their odor. You know, a scientist was like, they probably smell like last week's lunch. So it's just sort of unappealing and easy to ignore.

• 15:20Rachel Feltman?

  Apparently, in all of their observations, they've never seen any sign that one of these caterpillars was eaten by spiders or even like wrapped up in their silk. So it seems like it's a very effective strategy.

• 15:35Speaker 05

  Be stinky.

• 15:36Rachel Feltman?

  Yeah, be stinky, be covered in bones. And in the new study, they did some genetic analysis of these moths, these caterpillars. And, you know, they put them in that genus of case builders, like I said. But they think that the lineage of the actual bone collector diverged from the rest of the genus at least five million years ago, which means it's actually older than the island of Oahu where it lives.

• 16:03Speaker 04

  Whoa.

• 16:04Rachel Feltman?

  So, yeah. And, you know, Hawaii is like a really interesting spot evolutionarily because, you know, it's all of these little islands and then they're so far from anything else. And it's like really in unique predator-prey interactions and that sort of thing. But they think they probably evolved either on Kauai or on another volcanic island nearby that's actually gone now, that like eroded sometime during the last five million years.

• 16:33Speaker 04

  Whoa.

• 16:33Rachel Feltman?

  And then probably just got very lucky, like got carried over on some waves or on the wind.

• 16:39Speaker 04

  That reminds me of those spiders that like migrate on the wind.

• 16:43Rachel Feltman?

  Yeah.

• 16:43Speaker 04

  They like hold their silk and they like have little like, they're holding a little like balloon or something.

• 16:47Rachel Feltman?

  Yeah, the little balloons. Yeah, exactly. So, yeah, now they're on this island that didn't even exist when they first started to evolve, which is very cool. And the one thing I'll say, just to wrap this fact up, is that while of course there's no reason to be afraid of carnivorous moths and butterflies.

• 17:07Speaker 04

  Right.

• 17:07Rachel Feltman?

  You know, besides being very uncommon, they have tiny, tiny little mouths. Even if they wanted to bite you, they're not built for that. They simply are not. I mean, don't, I'm not going to promise you there's not a caterpillar somewhere in the world that could, that could take a little nibble of you, but they're tiny guys. But one of the researchers did tell Life Science, "I have no doubt that if we were their size, they would eat us."

• 17:34Speaker 04

  Oh, my God.

• 17:38Rachel Feltman?

  And he was like, this is just their fighting class. Like they're tiny, but they are cold blooded killers. That part is not a quote. That's me.

• 17:47Rachel Feltman?

  But yeah, I love how like strategic and sneaky and stinky and covered in bones. These caterpillars are and I love them. I, I love them. That's, that's the whole story.

• 18:01Speaker 05

  I'm obsessed with them. Yeah, I love them too. I love that they're just little dudes who are just the most metal tiny creature I've ever heard of.

• 18:10Rachel Feltman?

  Yeah. And then they become moths and they like live a whole other life.

• 18:13Speaker 05

  Dude, right.

• 18:14Rachel Feltman?

  I wonder if they're ever like, remember that time that I covered myself in dead spiders and [BLEEP]? Now I fly.

• 18:24Speaker 04

  I've been, I've, this is honestly inspiring, you know?

• 18:27Rachel Feltman?

  Yeah, right?

• 18:28Speaker 04

  Like go through a weird phase. Not even weird, just a phase you needed to go through. And then you learn to fly.

• 18:34Rachel Feltman?

  Yeah.

• 18:35Speaker 05

  It was an important time.

• 18:37Speaker 04

  Yes.

• 18:37Speaker 05

  And then you move on, you know?

• 18:39Rachel Feltman?

  Yeah. Yeah. When it doesn't serve you, you wrap yourself up in a cocoon and liquefy yourself.

• 18:46Rachel Feltman?

  You let it go.

• 18:48Speaker 05

  Yeah. Do you think they as moths talk about it like post transformation?

• 18:54Rachel Feltman?

  Kind of gauche to bring it up.

• 18:58Speaker 05

  What kind of legs did you used to put on you?

• 19:00Rachel Feltman?

  They talk about it like the way me and other millennials talk about like low rise skinny jeans. It was a mistake. We all did it, but.

• 19:11Rachel Feltman?

  Okay, we're going to take a quick break and then we'll be back with some more facts.

• 19:19Speaker 00

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• 19:49Speaker 06

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• 20:19Speaker 02

  When fall comes back around, there's a sense of a reset. And new pieces from Lululemon's Fall Drop are an inspiration to push your goals and elevate your routines. As your calendar fills, easy-to-layer styles meet the demands of your day. And as you challenge yourself to try even more, versatile sets transition with you. The Lululemon Fall lineup brings new levels of comfort and confidence, whether you're starting something fresh or starting something over. Check out the latest arrivals in-store and on lululemon.com now.

• 20:54Rachel Feltman?

  Okay, we're back. And Jess?

• 20:56Speaker 04

  Yup.

• 20:57Rachel Feltman?

  Why don't you tell us about the forbidden pastas?

• 20:59Speaker 04

  I will. And maybe not so forbidden anymore?

• 21:04Rachel Feltman?

  Whoa, twist. Stop gatekeeping the pasta.

• 21:08Speaker 04

  Yeah, it's a whole thing. But yeah, so I've been playing a bunch of video games lately, like-

• 21:13Rachel Feltman?

  What?

• 21:14Speaker 04

  Elden Ring: Night Rain. I know, I've been playing so much Elden Ring: Night Rain. It's the new multiplayer Elden Ring. It's so good. And, you know, I've been playing Metal for Refentasia, which I still haven't beat after like a year because I've been busy playing Expedition 33 and Chrono Trigger. I've been playing so many things, but somehow I haven't come across the weirdest thing fact- tendril in any of that.

• 21:36Speaker 04

  So I have a fact from way out of left field today, and it's about pasta. And where did I find this? You know, Old Faithful, an Atlas Obscura podcast episode. Thank you, Atlas Obscura.

• 21:46Rachel Feltman?

  We love Atlas Obscura.

• 21:47Speaker 04

  And also, there was a magazine piece about it in Sever.

• 21:51Rachel Feltman?

  I, it's funny, I, when you said, like, "The rare secret pasta", I like saw in my mind-

• 22:00Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 22:01Rachel Feltman?

  -a magazine spread. And I, it must be- Yes.

• 22:05Speaker 04

  For vintage listeners, I don't even know how much we talked about it before, but that used to be one of the magazines that was like our sister brand, basically.

• 22:12Rachel Feltman?

  Yeah, we were owned by Bonnier together back in the day.

• 22:16Speaker 04

  And we, wasn't our old podcast closet in the Subur office?

• 22:21Rachel Feltman?

  Yeah, it was. We were in the like, it wasn't quite a boiler room, but it was like a steam pipe room.

• 22:27Speaker 04

  Yeah, we would have to sit and wait for like 10 or 15 minutes for the steam pipe to stop wailing.

• 22:33Rachel Feltman?

  And one time I walked in and the whole, first of all, all of our sound equipment had been put away in drawers that I didn't know which drawers it was in. And then the whole room was full of vases and vases, like easily like five dozen. Yes, glass. So wonderful recording setup.

• 22:54Speaker 04

  I forgot about that. That's so funny.

• 22:57Rachel Feltman?

  But because Subur would do these photo shoots, they had tons of random home goods, like, you know, cutlery and plates and, you know, decor so that they could put together these beautiful photo shoots to showcase the food. And I guess they'd been doing something involving a lot of floral arrangements.

• 23:13Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 23:14Rachel Feltman?

  And just, it was so surreal, opening the door and have there be like a hundred different vases where our microphones were supposed to be.

• 23:23Speaker 04

  Yes. Yes, we should have just recorded the audio of like clinking the vases around as we like set things back up.

• 23:31Speaker 04

  Oh, boy. But yeah, I'm sure we saw the cover or the, or the spread, you know, the art. So, yeah. So, so, you know, Subur talked about it, Alice Obscure talked about it. There's some stuff on YouTube about this, but they all kind of call it the rarest pasta on earth. And it comes in this fabled shape known only to a select few for hundreds of years, obviously until now, until everybody's learned about it. So we'll start at the beginning. So out in a part of Italy called Sardinia, which is like, you know, its own island out in the Mediterranean, but it's part of Italy. Today, this still happens. Around like 200 people, sometimes more, will make a religious Christian pilgrimage.

• 24:12Speaker 04

  So they walk between this small city of Nuro to the tiny village of Lula and they do it in the dark at night. Italian Christian pilgrimage at night.

• 24:25Speaker 04

  And it's not just like a cute little stroll. It's like, it's, it's 20 miles long.

• 24:30Rachel Feltman?

  Okay, yeah.

• 24:31Speaker 04

  So it is a trek. And, you know, when you like hear about this, it sounds like it should be like old timey folks, like in, in tattered robes, like the Sephiroth clones from Final Fantasy VII. If you know, you know. But in Sever, they like went on this pilgrimage with these, with, with these pilgrims. And they said that it was just like regular old people, like, like hikers with gear. And they called them extras out of an LL Bean catalog, which I thought was funny.

• 25:00Rachel Feltman?

  Yeah, I've heard that there are a bunch of on foot pilgrimage routes in Spain. And, and I know a few people who like know people who've gone on trips that are just like walking those paths, usually not for religious reasons, just because like there's a lot of infrastructure for people walking for days at a time because of those pilgrimages. And yeah, it seems like it's a lot of people in LL Bean.

• 25:23Speaker 04

  Yeah. That's the modern pilgrim attire. Not sponsored by LL Bean unless.

• 25:30Rachel Feltman?

  LL Bean, hello.

• 25:31Speaker 04

  So, so when these folks arrive at their destination, usually presumably in the daylight, they get two things. A warm foot bath, which sounds truly delightful after a long walk. And a bowl of something called su filendeu, which is the threads of God.

• 25:48Rachel Feltman?

  Oh.

• 25:48Speaker 04

  Which is like such an important name for, for, for pasta. It's the rarest pasta in the world. And why? Why is it so rare? So only a select few of people in Lula actually know the intricate process that it takes to make it. So it's passed down through, like through generations of women in the community. So it's like this really cool matriarchal line of pasta knowledge, which I love. And so when a pilgrimage is coming up, the women spend like, you know, five hours a day. Depending on, depending on how many pilgrims it's going to be, like back when it was like closer to like a thousand pilgrims. They would spend like five hours a day for a month prepping meals, which is wild. And so, yeah, I said back in the day, but this started like 300 years ago ish.

• 26:29Speaker 04

  And it's been alluded to in Italian literature. So the Sardinian writer Grazia de Leda included it in her 1903 novel. It's called Elias Portolu. And the protagonist in that book.

• 26:42Speaker 04

  Eats it in their, after their pilgrimage. And she actually won the Nobel Prize for literature for that book, which is kind of cool. Uh, but yeah, so the story's fiction, but it does like nod to reality. And she talks about like the, the quote, wild nocturnal solitude of the scrub land. And that the climb was hard and dry. So, you know, but at the, at the end of that dry, hard climb, it's noodles.

• 27:05Rachel Feltman?

  Yeah. I love noodles at, at the end of a dry, hard climb.

• 27:08Speaker 04

  I do too. Like what, what better nourishment? So, okay, what exactly is the threads of God, God's threads? It, it's these like super, super thin noodles in a mutton broth with a little melted sheep's milk cheese. When I say they're thin, they're like, they're like so thin. They apparently make angel hair look thick. Which is a wild concept, but they make it just by taking semolina flour, water and sea salt. Like that's it. No eggs, no special like ingredients. It's all in the process that makes it special. So they knead it into a very elastic dough and then they use their hands to stretch and loop it a bunch of times essentially.

• 27:52Speaker 04

  To be exact, it's 256 times.

• 27:54Rachel Feltman?

  Wow.

• 27:55Speaker 04

  So, and for whatever reason, like after that, that is like the hard limit. Like they, nobody can get it past 256 loops. And nobody knows exactly why, but like, I'm thinking like, there's got to be some mathematical physics.

• 28:12Rachel Feltman?

  Sure.

• 28:13Speaker 04

  Something or other at play, like how you can only fold a piece of paper like seven times allegedly.

• 28:18Rachel Feltman?

  There must be like exponential threading.

• 28:21Speaker 04

  Yes, I think so too. Um, and I'm reminded, have you guys seen that Mythbusters episode where they test that?

• 28:27Rachel Feltman?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 28:28Speaker 04

  And they, I think actually do get it to eight times, but they have like special paper and it's like giant, like in a warehouse. And they like have a team of people to like fold it. So they can get it to eight. So usually it's like seven times you can fold a piece of paper. Listeners, you can try this at home.

• 28:45Speaker 04

  And then if you're, if you have access to special resources, maybe eight. But interestingly, paper folded seven times has 128 layers of paper and paper folded eight times has 256 layers.

• 28:56Rachel Feltman?

  What?

• 28:57Speaker 04

  Which I was like researching this and I was like, I need a PhD student somewhere to do a thesis on this.

• 29:02Rachel Feltman?

  Yes.

• 29:03Speaker 04

  The noodles and the layers of paper. It's like, I need some 3D modeling, like, I just, I need it in my life.

• 29:10Rachel Feltman?

  The golden ratio, like, this is...

• 29:11Speaker 04

  Yeah. The noodle ratio.

• 29:14Rachel Feltman?

  Yeah.

• 29:14Speaker 04

  The noodle ratio. So, in their process of making this, it is like too delicate and fragile to boil once it's been stretched so thin. So what they do is they lay it on these big wooden discs called a fondo. And then they take another batch of the 256 threads and they lay it like over top kind of crisscrossed, so it looks kind of like a fancy giant Chex Mix thing.

• 29:42Speaker 04

  And then they allow that to like dry in the sun and it kind of like, you know, dries together and then they break it into these like big shards. I saw Atlas Obscura call it, they're like big chunks. And then, yeah, once they like accumulate enough of those, they put it into like this vat of hot sheep's broth and then they toss in that hunk of cheese and then it's basically ready to serve. And the noodle is apparently so delicate, you don't even chew it, it like just melts in your mouth.

• 30:11Rachel Feltman?

  Wow.

• 30:11Speaker 04

  So I want to get some. And I know that's probably what you guys are thinking too. And where, where, where might we get some if we don't want to do the pilgrimage? It's really, it's, it's, it's, there's maybe one place, because it's really, it's really hard to make. Barilla, the pasta company, like the, probably the biggest pasta company, tried to make a machine that would make it and no machine could make it.

• 30:33Rachel Feltman?

  I would be actually upset if Barilla did that. It's like, I want to be able to eat this pasta, but it feels insulting to the tradition of this extremely fuss, fussy craft of making this pasta.

• 30:46Speaker 04

  100% agree.

• 30:47Rachel Feltman?

  Absolutely.

• 30:48Speaker 04

  Apparently there's also a video on YouTube of Jamie Oliver going to Sardinia and trying to learn from the women and just failing miserably, which sounds awesome.

• 30:57Rachel Feltman?

  Skill issue.

• 30:58Speaker 04

  Yeah, skill issue, truly. Skill issue, right, yeah. So, yeah, it's like, this recipe isn't like per se a secret, it's just really, really hard.

• 31:09Rachel Feltman?

  Yeah.

• 31:10Speaker 04

  You need like a lot of practice and repetition to learn to make it, so... It is cool that it's rare and like this knowledge that's passed down, but it's also kind of scary because the women who know how to make it, there's these select few of them and they're getting older.

• 31:22Rachel Feltman?

  Yeah.

• 31:23Speaker 04

  So like, what if the recipe dies out with them? Which is why the current pasta master, like the matriarch of the pasta knowledge, her name is Paola, she started making an effort to talk to outsiders and like, spread the knowledge. And so, one chef named David Marchelli went to go see and learn from her, he was from LA. And she was like, all for it, she like, laid out the welcome wagon, like, you know, they did a little ceremony, got him like, biscotti and coffee and then they spent like, hours learning how to make the threads of God. He was able to do it.

• 31:57Rachel Feltman?

  Wow.

• 31:57Speaker 04

  There with her, he brought it back to LA, tried to make it, he couldn't do it.

• 32:04Speaker 04

  He just apparently like, kept breaking the threads, like it was just like, too delicate. But apparently, after enough practice, like after many, many, many months, he got it down and he worked with his boss who owns Stella in West Hollywood. And you can apparently go there, I just looked at the menu, it's on the menu right now.

• 32:21Rachel Feltman?

  Wow.

• 32:21Speaker 04

  Whoa. And this is what it says, it says, "The world's rarest pasta served traditionally in roasted bone brodo with pecorino primo sale, sa- sale, sale, and lamb neck." So, I guess you can go get it, and I guess, you know, it is like, they have the blessing of Paola, but at the same time, apparently there are mixed feelings within Paola's family.

• 32:44Rachel Feltman?

  Sure.

• 32:46Speaker 04

  The Abra- Abri- Abrainy, I think is her last name, family, about like, commercializing it. And there is kind of like, you know, a little bit of a rift, and like, I get it, like, I feel both ways about it, because I want the recipe to like, persist, and I want some PhD student to study it for me. But, at the same time, like, it is this kind of specialized process and I want the respect to be retained, which I think, it sounds like David and the chefs at Stella are doing that, like, they have a lot of respect for this, but, I don't know. And then my final note on this is just that, in researching, I was looking at other pastas. That are more widely available. And I didn't know that a lot of pastas are named after like body parts.

• 33:30Rachel Feltman?

  Oh, yeah, yeah.

• 33:31Speaker 04

  Like tortellini is supposed to look like Venus's belly button.

• 33:35Rachel Feltman?

  Yeah, that's true.

• 33:36Speaker 04

  Which is hilarious. And then orciete, our little ears, which makes sense now, hearing the name. So, that's my story. I think if next time I'm in LA, I kinda wanna try it. Who knows how expensive it is, but.

• 33:51Rachel Feltman?

  It's probably pretty expensive.

• 33:52Speaker 04

  It probably is.

• 33:52Rachel Feltman?

  Also, I don't really like lamb, so.

• 33:55Speaker 04

  No, I don't really either. It makes me sad.

• 33:56Rachel Feltman?

  Can I have mine with just a little bit of butter?

• 33:58Speaker 04

  Yeah, butter and cheese. Buttered threads of God, please.

• 34:01Speaker 05

  Yeah, can I just have some shards just by themselves?

• 34:06Rachel Feltman?

  I feel like if I went to Paula and asked, she'd probably.

• 34:09Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 34:10Rachel Feltman?

  She'd probably, she's probably done that for grandkids.

• 34:12Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 34:13Speaker 04

  Oh, yeah.

• 34:14Speaker 05

  Yeah. Just have a couple shards when they come over to visit. It's no big deal.

• 34:20Rachel Feltman?

  There used to be, my grandma used to make this special recipe of communion bread. That was only for special occasions, even at her church. And she was, she grew up Catholic, but I think at this time, she was at a Presbyterian church. But anyway, for like special occasions, they would be like, we're not doing the little store-bought wafers or like pieces of matzah. We're gonna make this communion bread. And I'll have to look and see if this is like a real recipe that people use. But it was this, the most buttery, delicious bread. And she would always let us have the ends, cuz like, they didn't want the ends. They wanted it cut into nice little lines.

• 35:02Rachel Feltman?

  And I always, I was young enough that I remember feeling like we were doing something really illicit cuz this was, this was, this was church bread.

• 35:10Speaker 04

  Right.

• 35:11Speaker 05

  Yeah, the butt pieces of the church bread.

• 35:13Rachel Feltman?

  Yeah, the butt pieces of the church bread. Those were, those were good days.

• 35:18Rachel Feltman?

  Wow. What a great fact, Jess. Thank you.

• 35:20Speaker 04

  Thank you.

• 35:21Speaker 05

  Yeah, that was good. I also wanna say Bone Collector and Threads of God, like, there is some.

• 35:26Rachel Feltman?

  Yeah, there's something there.

• 35:28Speaker 05

  Like, really, I don't know if I'm gonna have a phrase to contribute, but I hope so.

• 35:32Speaker 04

  We'll get one by the end. I have faith.

• 35:35Rachel Feltman?

  All right. We're gonna take one more quick break, and then we'll be back with one more fact.

• 35:43Speaker 00

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• 36:47Rachel Feltman?

  Okay, we're back. And Liz?

• 36:49Speaker 05

  Yep.

• 36:50Rachel Feltman?

  Talk to us about cloacas. Or lack thereof.

• 36:54Speaker 05

  Right, yeah.

• 36:55Rachel Feltman?

  Wait, did we just jinx? We just did.

• 36:57Speaker 05

  That was really good. Yep, I'm going to talk to you about both, okay? So, I do a lot of bird watching, as you might imagine from that that is my whole thing. And sometimes during mating season, like, birds are just out there like absolutely flashing cloaca, like in a really obvious way. And you're like, that's a weird thing. Like, and I feel like I know that it exists, but I want to know more about it. So I did like a cloaca deep dive. Hated that sentence that I just said. I learned some things. So, let's first talk about what a cloaca is. So, a cloaca is a one-stop shop that is the exit point for the digestive, urinary, and reproductive systems.

• 37:42Speaker 05

  So, we're talking peeing, pooping, mating, egg laying. There are three internal cloacal chambers? Maybe that's my phrase, actually.

• 37:50Rachel Feltman?

  Yeah.

• 37:51Speaker 05

  The cloacal chamber.

• 37:52Rachel Feltman?

  Yeah.

• 37:53Speaker 04

  The thread of the cloacal chamber and the bone collector.

• 37:57Speaker 05

  Exactly. We found it. So yeah, there are three cloacal chambers that house these different excretions. So, most birds don't have external reproductive organs and remember the most for later, but bird mating occurs when a male and a female boop their cloacas together. So if you've never seen a bird cloaca, it's kind of just like a donut and it's like usually mostly like hidden by their feathers, but they have like skin level control of their feathers and they can kind of like flare them out to like expose their cloaca. It's not, it's not great. Yeah.

• 38:32Speaker 04

  Surprise.

• 38:33Speaker 05

  Yeah, surprise cloaca. So, they boop their cloacas together in a quick touch that is referred to as the cloacal kiss, which is where the sperm transfers from the male to the female.

• 38:44Speaker 04

  I've heard of that because salamanders do it too.

• 38:46Speaker 05

  Yes, right. So yeah, cloacas aren't just for birds. They're present in amphibians, reptiles, some fishes and monotremes as well. So, I know. And I, I think monotreme literally means like one hole actually. And I think cloaca, cloaca is from like a Latin origin of the word like sewer. So, there's that as well.

• 39:10Speaker 04

  And monotremes are like platypus echidna.

• 39:13Speaker 05

  Exactly.

• 39:13Speaker 04

  Okay. Yeah. The weirdos, the weirdo mammals.

• 39:16Speaker 05

  Yeah, well, the little freaks affectionate. So despite the quick nature of the cloacal kiss itself, y'all have probably seen that birds often engage in really complex and lengthy courtship rituals leading up to the kiss. You know, that can involve like very elaborate dancing, displays, songs, gift giving, house building, offering food, other behaviors. And like all of that culminates in them just being like boop, a little kiss.

• 39:45Speaker 04

  That's really funny, actually.

• 39:47Speaker 05

  It is. Yeah. So, most birds have a cloaca, which obviously begs the question, which birds don't?

• 39:54Speaker 04

  Yes.

• 39:54Speaker 05

  And also did dinosaurs have cloacas? So these are two questions that came up when I was thinking about cloacas.

• 40:00Speaker 04

  I've never thought about that.

• 40:02Speaker 05

  Exactly. So.

• 40:04Speaker 05

  If birds don't have cloacas, unfortunately, they have bird penises instead.

• 40:09Rachel Feltman?

  Yes, the duck penis, etc.

• 40:11Speaker 05

  Yeah, exactly. Yeah, I won't, I won't go too deep into that, but most birds don't have external sex organs. Ninety-seven percent of birds do not, in fact. So that means only three percent of species do have penises, which is not ideal because bird penises are pretty weird. Don't Google that if you're faint of heart, you know, like it'd be better if we just were up to a hundred percent cloaca, you know, let's just get that, let's just get that number up, right? Let's get that number up. Yeah. So our penised birds are ducks, geese, swans, ostriches, emus, and tinamus, which was

• 40:53Speaker 05

  a new bird species for me, and ornithologists, please feel free to correct me, I'm not sure, I've never had to say tinamoo out loud, so it might be tinamoo, but they're most closely related to the extinct moa, if you're familiar with that bird. All big birds with penises.

• 41:08Rachel Feltman?

  All birds with a reputation for being real [BLEEP].

• 41:12Speaker 05

  Absolutely. Yes. Yeah. Honestly, literally the birds you wouldn't want to have. Right. The very ones. So in researching this sort of subset of birds, it turns out that possibly other bird species would grow a penis if it were not for a gene called BMP4. So researchers from the University of Florida and elsewhere determined that most types of landfowl, so we'll use like a chicken, for example, do have penises while in a very early embryonic state. And then as they develop, a gene called BMP4 triggers a cascade of chemical signals that cause the cell in the developing penis to die off and wither

• 41:57Speaker 05

  away. So interestingly, they like tested with BMP4, like if they gave like embryonic ducks BMP4, they didn't grow a penis. And if they took it away from chickens, they did grow a penis. So interestingly, Holy moly. BMP4 is just sort of in control of which birds do and do not have penises. And so That sort of leads to the question, why do some birds have penises and others not? So I honestly really love when scientists answer is like, we're really not sure.

• 42:33Speaker 04

  Right.

• 42:33Speaker 05

  But we have a couple of ideas. So they're still kind of theorizing on this one. For ducks, it's possible that it might aid in water copulation. Another idea is that it ensures that these creatures mate within members of their same species. So it's referred to as like the lock and key theory. So ducks have like corkscrew penises.

• 42:56Speaker 04

  I was just like trying to pull that fact out of my deep memory. I'm like, I know that, I know that it's something weird. It's a corkscrew. Okay.

• 43:03Speaker 05

  Yeah, ducks have penises that are shaped like a corkscrew and female ducks have vaginas that are also corkscrew shaped as well.

• 43:11Rachel Feltman?

  Oh my god.

• 43:12Speaker 05

  Yes.

• 43:14Speaker 05

  Really wild.

• 43:15Rachel Feltman?

  Can you imagine?

• 43:17Speaker 05

  You know, I really can't.

• 43:20Speaker 04

  Dude.

• 43:21Speaker 05

  Yeah, like having recently had a kid.

• 43:24Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 43:24Speaker 05

  Cannot imagine a corkscrew vag situation, honestly.

• 43:28Speaker 04

  Oh my god.

• 43:30Speaker 05

  But yeah, so ducks like during copulation often engage in forced copulation. Like that is their way. And so female ducks have false vaginas as well. So they can like send the corkscrew penis to a different one if they do not want to like have their egg fertilized. Which is honestly really badass.

• 43:51Speaker 04

  That is.

• 43:53Speaker 05

  So a theory for the disappearance of the bird penis is that the absence of it allows for female birds to be more choosy. So in our like previous example of the cloacal kiss, cooperation from both sides is required. So it allows females to be like, not into that. No thanks. Someone else posited that like, maybe it's to keep bird anatomy light. Like to not have a penis would make it easier to fly. But ducks are some of the most prolific migrators of the bird world. So that kind of like, doesn't really, kind of falls a little flat as an idea.

• 44:25Rachel Feltman?

  Maybe they'd be even more prolific flyers.

• 44:27Speaker 05

  True.

• 44:28Rachel Feltman?

  If they didn't have a penis.

• 44:29Speaker 05

  Go farther.

• 44:30Speaker 04

  Wow, yeah.

• 44:31Speaker 05

  Yeah, let's just, let's, let's get rid of that 3%, you know? Let's just. Let's work on it.

• 44:37Speaker 04

  I'm picturing like protest signs, like, you know, stop the 3%.

• 44:42Speaker 05

  Stop the 3%, exactly.

• 44:46Speaker 05

  So this gets to our next question, which was, did dinosaurs have cloacas? And the answer that I have written down is, kinda maybe, yeah, some of them. So that's like similar to birds, right? We don't, you know, they don't all have cloacas, but some of them do and some of them don't. So a fossil that they found in China of a sitacosaurus, that's spelled P S I T T A C O Saurus. So sitacosaurus, that's my best guess of that, was so well preserved that the opening that the dinosaur used to pee, poop, and reproduce is actually visible, allowing paleontologists to study it for the first time.

• 45:25Speaker 04

  Wow.

• 45:26Speaker 05

  Also, just want to say shout out to paleontological illustrators. Like, I'm a bird illustrator. The fossil itself is like, it basically just looks like nothing to me. And to be able to look at that and do an illustration of what a dinosaur would have looked like, I'm very impressed with y'all. I just want to say, you're doing an amazing job out there.

• 45:49Speaker 04

  It's so interesting too, because like, I imagine you would have to like, take some like guesswork, right? More so than like existing species.

• 45:57Speaker 05

  Oh yeah, that's why I could never do it. I'm like, I'm gonna look at that bird and I'm gonna paint it. You know, like, I've got.

• 46:03Speaker 04

  You've got your reference.

• 46:04Speaker 05

  Yeah, I don't have like the creativity to be like, this is what it could have looked like. So paleontologist Jacob Vinther describes the fossil this way. "It's very unique. Most cloacas form a kind of slit. Sometimes it's a vertical split, sometimes it's a smiley face, sometimes it's a sour face. This thing has a V-shaped structure with a pair of nice flaring lips, and there's not a living group of animals that have morphology like that," Vinther said. "It is somewhat similar to crocodiles, but still unique."

• 46:38Speaker 04

  Uh huh.

• 46:39Speaker 05

  Yup, I know. I was like, well, I've gotta, I've gotta read that quote, because it's really painting a cloacal picture, if you will.

• 46:48Speaker 04

  Oh my god.

• 46:49Speaker 05

  He also noted.

• 46:52Speaker 05

  What's more, the outer margins of the cloaca are highly pigmented with melanin. So while they don't know for sure what color it was, it likely would have contrasted very sharply with the dinosaur's pale underbelly, Vinter said. So not only did dinosaurs, some of them have cloaca, but were fancy and colorful.

• 47:13Speaker 04

  Bad respect, honestly.

• 47:14Speaker 05

  Yeah, yeah. So, you know, kind of wrapping it all up, most birds have cloacas. Some of them have penises and dinosaurs had like really cool fancy cloacas.

• 47:27Speaker 04

  I love that so much. I love that we just keep learning more and more crazy stuff about dinosaurs, like the whole feathers of it all and

• 47:34Speaker 05

  I know.

• 47:35Speaker 04

  The fancy cloacas of it all.

• 47:37Speaker 05

  Yes, the colorful cloacas. What will we learn next? I know, it's really, really cool. And you have to assume, you know, there's, there's a lot of disagreement, I think, among paleontologists about dinosaur genitalia. So let's keep, let's keep finding those fossils so that we can

• 47:56Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 47:56Speaker 05

  learn more.

• 47:57Speaker 04

  Please.

• 48:01Rachel Feltman?

  That's so great. I love that. Thank you. I mean, I hate thinking about duck penises. I try not to most of the time, but you know, this was, if I have to think about duck penises, this was a good context.

• 48:11Speaker 05

  Right. At least I followed it with dinosaurs, which you know, kind of is a good palate cleanser.

• 48:16Speaker 04

  Big time.

• 48:18Rachel Feltman?

  What a great ep. Wonderful facts today. We had cloacas, we had pasta, we had the bone collector. Thank you both so much. And Liz, would you remind folks where they can find you?

• 48:30Speaker 05

  Yes, thanks for having me again. Love coming back.

• 48:34Speaker 04

  We love having you.

• 48:35Speaker 05

  I'll talk about something less gross next time.

• 48:37Speaker 04

  No, we like gross, we like gross.

• 48:39Speaker 05

  Okay, that's fair. You can find me around the internet as I Paint Birbs. That's B I R B S. And I stream on Twitch, I post my art on Instagram, I've got a website, ipaintbirs.com. So look for Birbs and you will find me.

• 48:55Speaker 04

  Yay.

• 48:56Rachel Feltman?

  And Jess, would you remind our listeners where you stream?

• 48:58Speaker 04

  I would love to. I stream at Jess Capricorn, like the astrological sign. And I do, you know, all kinds of stuff. Elden Ring Night Rain, for instance, which has consumed me entirely.

• 49:14Rachel Feltman?

  The Weirdest Thing I Learned This Week is produced by all of our hosts, including me, Rachel Feltman, along with Jess Bodie, who also serves as our audio engineer and editor extraordinaire. Our theme music is by Billy Cadden. Our logo is by Katie Belloff. If you have questions, suggestions, or weird stories to share, tweet us at weirdest underscore thing. Thanks for listening, weirdos.

• 49:47Speaker 07

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