0:01

Today's episode is sponsored by Greenlight. Did

0:03

you know that 27 states don't require a

0:06

personal finance course for students even though teens

0:08

score an average of 64% on

0:11

the National Financial Literacy Test?

0:14

Let's make a difference. Our friends

0:16

at Million Basilian and Greenlight are

0:18

hitting the road visiting schools to

0:20

teach important lessons on financial literacy.

0:23

It's all the fun of the podcast,

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but not live and interactive. Greenlight

0:28

Basilian Live is in partnership with Greenlight,

0:30

the money app for kids and teens. Learn

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more about Greenlight at

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greenlight.com/million. That's

0:37

greenlight.com/million. Today's

0:40

episode is sponsored by the new film If,

0:42

out in theaters on May 17th. From

0:45

writer and director John Krasinski comes

0:48

the story of Be, a curious

0:50

young girl with the power to

0:52

see everyone's imaginary friends, or ifs,

0:54

and her quest to reunite forgotten

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ifs with their kids. Audiences

0:59

of all ages will know and love

1:02

the cast, which includes the likes of

1:04

Steve Carell, Maya Rudolph, and the late

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great Louis Gossette Jr. After

1:09

watching the trailer, I am so excited to see

1:11

all the ways kids imagine their ifs. Celebrate

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the magic of imagination and take the whole

1:17

family to the movies to see If, out

1:20

in theaters on May 17th. From

1:23

the brains behind Brains On, this is

1:25

the moment of um. Answering

1:30

those questions that make you go um.

1:47

Moment of um comes to you from APM

1:49

Studios. I'm Anna G. I

1:53

have three pets, two cats and

1:55

a dog. My dog, a German

1:58

Shepherd named Fiddle, joined our family. family about

2:00

a year ago. Fiddle

2:02

really, really, really wants to be

2:04

best friends with my cats, Izzy

2:07

and Heidi. But in typical cat

2:09

fashion, those two want nothing to

2:11

do with a loud stinky 55-pound

2:14

goober that keeps trying to sniff their butts. I

2:18

love my pets, but sometimes my house feels like

2:21

a zoo. And just like at

2:23

the zoo, everybody needs to be fed the right

2:25

food, and we have to scoop litter boxes and

2:27

pick up doggy poo piles. Ugh.

2:31

Honestly, if you think about it, having pets

2:33

is kind of a strange thing. We

2:35

humans just sometimes have these little animal

2:38

friends that share our homes and demand

2:40

treats in exchange for companionship and

2:42

snuggles. And don't get

2:44

me wrong, the snuggles are totally worth it. But

2:47

who decided this was the plan? It's

2:50

just like my friend Herschel was asking me the other day.

2:53

Hi, my name is Herschel,

2:55

and I'm from Linebeck, New

2:57

York. And my question is,

2:59

when did people first

3:01

start having pets? We

3:08

know people started hanging out with dogs a

3:10

long time ago, upwards of 20,000 years. My

3:14

name is David Ian Howe. I am an

3:16

anthropologist, which means I study people. And

3:19

I also study their dogs, because

3:21

dogs are such a part of

3:23

being a human. I would say

3:25

just like today, people probably picked

3:28

up lizards or small birds or

3:30

little caterpillars and brought them home

3:32

to their parents. And their parents would say, ew, get it

3:34

out of here. And you know, there's

3:36

really no way to maintain or to

3:38

keep a caterpillar or a lizard, especially when

3:40

you are in cave people times.

3:43

But we do know that eventually people

3:45

started hanging out with dogs and cats.

3:48

The first dog was a very

3:51

hungry wolf that didn't want

3:53

to hunt and got

3:56

really interested in the nice smells coming from

3:58

human camps. They smelled the

4:00

barbecue and really wanted to eat some just like

4:03

your dog does at the dinner table. And

4:05

that happened probably at least 20,000 years ago. It was

4:07

a very long time ago. And

4:11

that was in East Asia and in

4:13

a place called Siberia, which was very

4:15

cold. And once the the wolf kind

4:17

of realized that, you know, this food

4:19

was really good and easy to get,

4:22

it worked out well for people because

4:24

people then had a built-in alarm system.

4:26

They had something that could help them

4:28

hunt. And they also had

4:30

a friend that could stay and give

4:33

them companionship. Once we started

4:35

farming, we got a lot more cats. And

4:37

therefore we see cat burials. And

4:39

that's where a person is buried with a cat

4:41

and they're laying next to each other. So for

4:43

over 10,000 years and over 20,000 years, we've

4:47

been hanging out with cats and dogs. And I think

4:50

that's really cool. Okay,

4:58

so the first pets were probably

5:00

dogs. And it was a two-way

5:02

relationship. Some hungry wolves got

5:04

tasty snacks. And the people who gave them

5:06

the snacks got hunting helpers, a protector with

5:09

sharp teeth and claws, and a warm fuzzy

5:11

friend to huddle up with on cold nights.

5:14

The wolves that got used to being around

5:16

people had wolf puppies who were

5:19

also raised by humans. Over a

5:21

long time, these wolves gradually evolved to

5:23

be less wild. Ancient humans

5:25

had other types of animals as pets too,

5:28

like cats. Our feline friends

5:30

hunted the mice and rats that often tried

5:32

to eat the food that people stored away.

5:35

I'm glad those first wolves and wild cats

5:37

decided that humans were worth hanging out with,

5:39

because I love my fuzzy friends. Now,

5:43

if you'll excuse me, I need to take fiddle

5:45

out for a walk. And I'm pretty

5:47

sure I just heard one of my cats barf in the

5:49

other room. want

6:00

to mark up this tree a little bit

6:02

more, check out the Brains On podcast, where

6:04

we have a whole episode all about why

6:06

dogs wag their tails. Want

6:08

to see our shows come to life? Head

6:10

to YouTube, where we've got awesome

6:13

animated Brains On episodes. Search

6:15

Brains On Universe on YouTube and

6:17

subscribe. If you have a

6:19

question, we'd love to help you answer it.

6:22

Drop us a line by

6:24

going to brainson.org/contact. See

6:26

you next time, and the next day and

6:29

every weekday. Until then, um, Hi,

6:44

I'm Anna Weigel and I produce moment of

6:46

part of the Brains On universe. Support

6:48

for this show comes from folks like you

6:51

and we need you today. We're behind on

6:53

our budget goals this year, but we can

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change that with your donation. Take

6:57

a moment to support the

7:00

entire Brains On universe today.

7:02

Head to brainson.org/donate and

7:04

thanks.