Why do animals play?
We’re used to seeing dogs and cats play with toys or get the zoomies… but do animals like rats and bumblebees play too? What is animal play for? How do scientists even decide what counts as play?
Today, we’re taking a serious look at goofy behavior. We’ll discover the five-part checklist that many scientists use to recognize play in nature, and find out why taking turns is so important for healthy brain development.
This episode is a collaboration between Outside/In and Tumble, the science podcast for kids.
Featuring Junyi Chu and Jackson Ham.
ADDITIONAL MATERIALS
Love this episode? Looking for family-friendly podcasts to listen to? There are over 150 episodes of Tumble to check out, including a few of our favorites:
The five-part play checklist mentioned in the episode was developed by play researcher Gordon M. Burghardt. His paper, “Play in fishes, frogs and reptiles,” answers some other really interesting questions about animal play.
SUPPORT
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CREDITS
Host: Nate Hegyi
Reported and produced by Lindsay Patterson, Marshall Escamilla, and Taylor Quimby
Mixed by Taylor Quimby
Editing by Lindsay Patterson, Marshall Escamilla, and Taylor Quimby, with help from Rebecca Lavoie
Our staff includes Justine Paradis, Felix Poon, Marina Henke, and Kate Dario.
Outside/In’s Executive producer: Taylor Quimby
Rebecca Lavoie is NHPR’s Director of On-Demand Audio
Music by Blue Dot Sessions, Andreas Dahlback, Smartface, and Margareta.
Special thanks to Sara Robberson Lentz for refereeing the making of this episode.
This episode was a joint production of Tumble Media and Outside/In.
Audio Transcript
Note: Episodes of Outside/In are made as pieces of audio, and some context and nuance may be lost on the page. Transcripts are generated using a combination of speech recognition software and human transcribers, and may contain errors.
Nate Hegyi: This is Outside/In. I’m Nate Hegyi - and with me in the studio is producer Taylor Quimby.
Taylor Quimby: Hey Nate. So I have a question: Did you play The Floor is Lava when you were a kid?
Nate Hegyi: Yeah. Do you know what I remember? I remember that little level of like, anxiety and fun panic that would happen when a game felt real.
Taylor Quimby: You’re talking about imagination!
Taylor Quimby: So The Floor is Lava is played in houses and playgrounds all over the country. The basic premise is, you can’t touch the floor or you’re out, so kids jump from couch cushions or hop from rock to rock, or however they’re doing it.
I played it growing up. My kid spontaneously discovered The Floor is Lava at some point.
A few years ago, it became the premise of a very weird Netflix game show…
[Netflix Tape]: It’s the hottest gameshow in history…
And all this got me wondering… Is “The Floor is Lava” like… a fundamental human experience?
Nate Hegyi: Mmm… Is everyone from South Korea to Zimbabwe to the United States all playing their own form of lava?
Taylor Quimby: Exactly.
So I did some digging, and take this with a grain of salt, because this is just people chatting on Reddit.
Nate Hegyi: [Laughter]
But it does seem that kids in countries all over the world grew up playing some version of this game.
In Norway, and forgive me because I’m going to use Google Translate to help here - it’s called “jorden er giftig”
Which translates to… “the ground is poisonous.”
Nate Hegyi: Ooo… yeah, that’s just as bad as lava, poison ground.
Taylor Quimby: In Japan, kids play … “Hodō wa sameda” which translates roughly to… “the sidewalk is sharks.”
Nate Hegyi: [Laugh] That takes an active imagination.
Taylor Quimby: My favorite comes from this one poster in Germany, who said his friend group played a game called: “Himmel auf Erden (wer auf dem Boden ist muss sterben)"
Which translates to "heaven on earth (who is on the ground must die).”
Nate Hegyi: [Laughter]
Taylor Quimby: So it’s just so cool that this kind of basic game takes so many shapes. And it got me wondering… what about non-human kids?
Nate Hegyi: Oh!
Taylor Quimby: Do animals play games like the floor is lava?
Nate Hegyi: That is a great question. Are deer playing, like, “the grass is wolves,” you know?
Taylor Quimby: Squirrels are playing “the leaves are snakes.”
Nate Hegyi: Yeah, exactly.
Nate Hegyi: Today on Outside/In, it’s a serious look at a very unserious subject.
Taylor Quimby: We’re talking horse-play. Monkeying around.
Nate Hegyi: And what’s more, Taylor – as our resident Dad on staff – has been reporting this episode with a couple of guests who make a science podcast for kids.
Taylor Quimby: It’s the producer version of a playdate. Can you hang out next saturday?
Nate Hegyi: That’s coming up - stay with us.
[mux]
Open
Taylor Quimby: So in the spirit of playing with others, we are collaborating on this episode with another podcast called, “Tumble,” the science podcast for kids. So, joining me in the studio right now are hosts Lindsay Patterson and Marshall Escamilla.
Hey guys!
Marshall Escamilla: Hey There!
Taylor Quimby: Can you tell our listeners a little bit about your show?
Lindsay Patterson: Well, we are a science podcast for kids, and we explore stories science of discovery for ages six through 12.
Marshall Escamilla: Well, we have listeners as young as 3, so…
Lindsay Patterson: You really put us on the spot here!
Taylor Quimby: I have listened, my son has listened. We’re big fans. We’re really happy to have you on the show.
Lindsay Patterson: We’re so happy to be here!
Marshall Escamilla: Yeah
Lindsay Patterson: So the official question we’re trying to answer today comes from Evelyn:
Evelyn: “My question is, why do some animals play… and some animals don’t?”
Marshall Escamilla: Why do some animals play and others don’t? I always just thought it was because squirrels just wanna have fun.
Taylor Quimby: Okay. Some of the best experts on play are kids, right? And I just happen to know the person who asked this question. So I talked to her…
Evelyn: I am Evelyn, and I am 7 years old.
Her sister Meredith…
Meredith: I am Meredith, and I am 5 years old.
And their 3-year old friend named Shepherd.
And I started by asking them about some of the animals we see play the most - our pets!
Taylor Quimby: What are your pets?
Meredith: Dog.
Taylor Quimby: What are their names?
Meredith and Evelyn: Uuuuuh Charlie!
Taylor Quimby: Does Charlie play?
Evelyn: I think he’s too old to play. He does play with some other dogs, like hard play.
Taylor Quimby: What do you mean hard play?
Meredith: Like wrestling!
Evelyn: And chasing.
Blue Dot Sessions - Pionono
Marshall Escamilla: So does that imply that there’s something called “soft play?” Like, dogs reading….
Taylor Quimby: Curled up in blankets.
Marshall Escamilla: But this makes me wonder… What, like, scientifically counts as play? Cause sometimes you can’t tell if it’s playing and what’s fighting - for both animals and kids.
Lindsay Patterson: Totally. Will there be giggles or will there be tears? Time will tell.
Marshall Escamilla: Yeah, I have to tell you - I’m on edge already.
Taylor Quimby: So this seems like a good time to introduce Junyi Chu - a scientist who studies play in humans. And we asked her what play is.
[00:01:42-00:02:11] Junyi Chu: Yeah, that's actually a really hard scientific question.And scientists have tried to define play for hundreds of years. It really is the kind of thing, you know it when you see it.
[Mux swells and fades]
Marshall Escamilla: You know it when you see it. Like, what does that mean?
Lindsay Patterson: Well play is easy to recognize when you’re watching human kids, right? But it’s harder to say exactly what play is.
Junyi Chu: People have different games that they like. If you're looking at animals, they behave in very different ways. So if you want to find a definition that works for both children and adults and different animals, it can get really hard.
Marshall Escamilla: Yeah,I mean I guess that does sound tricky. Cause everyone has their own idea of fun.
Taylor Quimby: But scientists have come up with a handy five-point checklist that we can use to tell if something is play… or something else. And it works for both kids AND animals.
Marshall Escamilla: Alright, a checklist. Let’s have at it!
Smartface - Old Grump
Taylor Quimby: Okay, here goes. Thing number one.
[00:02:27-00:02:35] Junyi Chu: Play should be nonfunctional, which basically just means it shouldn't be like work.
Marshall Escamilla: Play is just for fun and has no other point.
Lindsay Patterson: exactly.
[00:02:51-00:02:56] Junyi Chu: You're playing tag. You're not trying to practice running.
Lindsay Patterson: Here’s number two.
[00:03:08-00:03:15] Junyi Chu: it should be voluntary, which just means that you're doing it because you want to, not because someone else told you to do it.
Marshall Escamilla: What about play with someone exceptionally bossy.
Lindsay Patterson: Maybe not so fun.
Marshall Escamilla: Sure
Taylor Quimby: Number three is that play is “unserious.”
Marshall Escamilla: Unserious. What do you mean?
Taylor Quimby: It’s like a silly version of a “normal” behavior.
Marshall Escamilla: Okay.
Lindsay Patterson: Here’s Number 4: Play is repetitive … but you try out different ways of doing it
[00:03:49-00:03:54] Junyi Chu: So you're kind of doing the same thing many times, but changing it a little bit in between.
[mux swells]
Marshall Escamilla: Okay, so kind of like all the different varieties of tag. You play normal tag, but then it turns into freeze tag, or zombie tag. Or blob tag, that’s my favorite.
Taylor Quimby: As an adult, I’ve really come to appreciate slow tag.
Lindsay Patterson: What’s slow tag?
Taylor Quimby: It’s where you just don’t run as fast.
Marshall Escamilla: I think that’s just how we play.
[everybody laughs]
[mux hits and ends]
Lindsay Patterson: And the LAST thing on the play checklist… number five… is you’ve got to be safe.
Marshall Escamilla: Playing with a lion hunting you is not fun?
Lindsay Patterson: [laughs] Yeah… being safe means that you’re free to play.
[00:04:02-00:04:14] Junyi Chu: So you're not in danger, right? You're not hungry. You're feeling like it's a comfortable place and you can kind of just do your own thing.
Lindsay Patterson: So that’s all five things on the checklist that define play!
Taylor Quimby: Which brings us to the next part of our question: How do we tell who’s doing it and who’s not?
Blue Dot Sessions - Our Son the Potter
Lindsay Patterson: Junyi says that even when scientists are armed with this handy 5 point checklist, it’s tricky to study play in animals.
Junyi Chu: You can't just tell an octopus go play the way that I sometimes tell kids to go play and see what happens.
Marshall Escamilla: [joking around] OK octopus, GO PLAY! Octopus, why are you not listening to me. Yeah, I mean I guess I can see why this would be a really hard subject to study.
But on the other hand, I feel like there are some animals where it’s really obvious. like you can tell when a dog has the zoomies, or a cat is playing with a ball and string.
Taylor Quimby: Yeah, and some animals even seem to be playing the same games that we do!
[00:41:52-00:42:13] Junyi Chu: there are bonobos that will engage in social play and they will sort of tease each other and then kind of almost laugh, right? There are studies of rats that play hide and seek.
Marshall Escamilla: Man, rats would be so good at hide and seek.
Lindsay Patterson: They’re very good at squishing into little spaces unfortunately.
Marshall Escamilla: I mean to be honest, I constantly feel like I’m playing hide and seek with rats anyway.
[laughs]
[mux swells]
Marshall Escamilla: Okay, so when it looks like some animals are playing, they actually are…. But what about the ones that don’t? How do we know what their deal is, or even that they’re not playing.
Taylor Quimby: we’ll TRY to answer that question – AND talk a little bit more about rat games –after a break.
Lindsay Patterson: Play break.
Taylor Quimby: Ooh. What should we play?
Lindsay Patterson: Umm….
Taylor Quimby: Marco.
Lindsay Patterson: Polo.
Taylor Quimby: Marco.
Marshall Escamilla: Oh.
Lindsay Patterson: Polo.
Marshall Escamilla: Um, wait, I don’t think this is going to work.
[mux fades]
…
Taylor Quimby: Welcome back to Outside/In. I’m producer Taylor Quimby, and today we’re collaborating with Lindsay and Marshall, the hosts of “Tumble,” the science podcast for kids.
Blue Dot Sessions - Cabsha
Lindsay Patterson: So we’ve already learned A LOT about what play is,but we’re still wondering why some animals play… and maybe why others don’t.
[00:06:23-00:06:30] Jackson Ham: Man, that's the million dollar question. So if whoever asked that wants to get into play research, they absolutely should.
Taylor Quimby: So this is our second scientist for the episode. His name is Jackson Ham. And he got interested in animals just like a lot of other people do.
[00:03:02-00:03:19] Jackson Ham: As a kid, you know, my favorite thing to watch was nature documentaries. And if I wasn't watching that, I'd love to go outside in nature and just watch animals or go to the zoo.
Taylor Quimby: Now one of the things we’ve learned is that it can be really hard to define play – scientifically speaking – but for some animals, it’s also pretty easy to recognize. For example, Jackson spends a lot of time studying rats.
[00:01:07-00:01:28] Jackson Ham: I think if you saw a pair of rats playing, you would know. And if you saw a pair of rats fighting, you would also know. Just like if you saw, you know, I don't know, maybe two kids on the playground having a lot of fun versus something that's escalating into something a little bit more serious.
[mux fades]
Marshall Escamilla: So that’s the whole playing versus playfighting issue.
Taylor Quimby: Yeah. Now before we go any further… I want to check-in with our kid experts, Shepherd, Evelyn, and Meredith… and make some guesses about which animals play and which don’t.
Taylor Quimby: Do you think squirrels play?
Evie and Meredith: Yeah!
Shepherd: Maybe foxes.
Meredith: Dolphins play, sometimes they play with balls.
Shepherd: Maybe giraffes play.
Taylor Quimby: Giraffes?
Shepherd: Yeah.
Taylor Quimby: Okay, do you think there are animals that don’t play. Like do you think worms play?
All: No!
Meredith: They’re too slow to play.
Evelyn: Bees don’t.
Meredith: They do Evie.
Evelyn: No they don’t, all they do is work!
Blue Dot Session - Mischief Making
Marshall Escamilla: You know what they say: all work and no play makes bee a dull bee. [everybody laughs] I don’t know. I can kind of imagine it both ways. They do seem too busy to play, like they’re definitely getting stuff done. But on the other hand flying around kind of looks fun.
What does Jackson say?
[00:06:35-00:07:19] Jackson Ham: so we definitely have some clues as to maybe why some animals aren't playing. So, you know, if we look at a bunch of different animals and we just compare how large their brain is, that sort of starts to add up to a bit of a picture where bigger brained animals like dolphins, humans, Um, gorillas...They engage in play more than something with small brains. Um, you know, say a mouse or something like that.
Mux fades
Lindsay Patterson: And so for a long time, scientists thought big brains equaled more play. But that didn’t quite add up, when scientists really started to look at smaller animals. Like Jackson’s rats.
Jackson Ham: They have very small brains and they engage in lots of play. And more recently, even bumblebees have been found to play.
Blue Dot Sessions - Pianono
Marshall Escamilla: Wait… So bumblebees DO play! Like what are they playing? Are they doing like, bee quidditch?
[00:11:03-00:11:17] Jackson Ham: So bumblebees, basically all they do (not to limit what bumblebees are doing because it's amazing) but all they do is roll around balls.
Marshall Escamilla: Wait, all they do is ROLL AROUND BALLS? They’re just like…
Lindsay Patterson: They’re just like, oh my gosh, wanna roll balls? YES!!!
Marshall Escamilla: Where do they find the balls that are small enough? I don’t see the bee section at the sporting goods store.
[laughs]
[mux swells]
Taylor Quimby: So Jackson told us that in recent years, we’ve had to rethink a LOT of our ideas about which animals play, and which animals don’t.
Lindsay Patterson: He said sometimes, that’s because animals might behave differently in the wild than they do in a safe environment, like a laboratory.
[00:07:46-00:08:11] Jackson Ham: So, for example, for a long time we thought octopus did not play. Every time you go and look at them in the wild. They do not play. As soon as you bring them into the aquarium, they play.
Marshall Escamilla: So I guess you can’t tell an octopus to go play, they’ll just do it on their own… especially if there’s nothing there to eat them.
Taylor Quimby: Yeah!
Marshall Escamilla: So, rule number five: they’re safe!
[mux swells and fades]
Taylor Quimby: Another reason we might not see play, is we don’t always know how to look for play behaviors.
So, one example is komodo dragons.
[00:16:11-00:16:31] Jackson Ham: So those are those really big lizards that, you know, have venomous saliva and they're just massive. But they move really slowly so it doesn't look like they're doing a whole lot. But once you speed up the video clip so they look like they're moving more at what sort of speed a human might move, you start to see, hang on, they're playing.
Marshall Escamilla: Slow mo-play! Hmmm. I’m starting to see it’s hard to know why some animals don’t play… if we’re still discovering that some of the ones we thought didn’t…actually do.
Lindsay Patterson: Yeah. Scientists have even seen behaviors in fish and frogs that might fit the scientific definition of play.
Marshall Escamilla: So like, they’re playing… leapfrog?
Taylor Quimby: Or frogger, if they had an Atari.
Marshall Escamilla: I feel like frogger wouldn’t actually be fun for frogs.
Lindsay Patterson: No, it seems very difficult for the frogs!
Marshall Escamilla: It seems like rule number five… they’re not safe!
[laughs]
Lindsay Patterson: So actually, scientists have observed some frogs and fish riding little air bubbles in an aquarium to the top of their tank.
Marshall Escamilla: So it’s like a little froggy roller coaster?
Lindsay Patterson: Maybe! Jackson says There isn’t really enough evidence to say these things are “play” for sure, but they do look kind of fun.
[00:14:46-00:15:18] Jackson Ham: Put yourself in their shoes. It's really hard to pretend you're a bug and go, are you playing? Because they might just play in a completely different way to anything that we recognize.
Blue Dot Sessions - Organza
Marshall Escamilla: So it sounds like Jackson is saying we can’t rule out anything when it comes to what might be play - and who might be doing it.
Lindsay Patterson: Exactly. It’s like, playing long and complicated board games might be fun for someone like Taylor, for example, but look really boring to me.
Taylor Quimby: Hey you don’t want to play a board game for four hours?
Lindsay Patterson: Not all in one sitting, no.
Marshall Escamilla: Just imagine doing it with a sloth, it would take 12 hours.
Taylor Quimby: But yes Lindsay, that is kind of the point. When we ask, “Why do some animals play and others don’t” - we can’t say for sure that animals DON’T play. We might just not know how to recognize it yet.
Marshall Escamilla: Okay - so that’s looking at why there’s play on a species level. But what about on the individual level? What do we - or dogs - or squirrels or bumblebees - like, what do we all get out of play?
Lindsay Patterson: That’s a really good question. And Jackson is asking it too.
[00:24:11-00:24:27] Jackson Ham: Is there any function or is there any benefit to playing.
[mux fades]
Taylor Quimby: Well let’s check in with our kid experts to see what they think - one last time.
Taylor Quimby: Do you think play helps us? Does it do something? Like, what is play for?
Evelyn: Energy!
Meredith: When you’re playing, it can also make you strong. Because like, running games make you very strong!
Blue Dot Sessions - The Maison
Lindsay Patterson: So to answer this question, it’s kind of helpful to think about how scientists define the different kinds of play we see in both animals AND humans. So for example, there’s social play.
Taylor Quimby: Yeah, playing together.That could be roughhousing and wrestling, or even snuggling.
Lindsay Patterson: Then there’s object play, like we heard with the bumblebees. Tossing a ball or playing with a hula hoop.
Taylor Quimby: And finally, there’s movement play - that could be getting the zoomies, or just jumping around for fun.
Lindsay Patterson: So in each of these categories, you might even see what Jackson calls “handicapping”... where the people or animals playing might purposefully make something even harder than it usually is… just for fun!
[00:18:29-00:18:40] Jackson Ham: so for example, in monkeys, they'll often put something over top of their eyes and then go out on a rope. So, you know, they've made crossing that rope much more challenging because they can't see anymore.
Lindsay Patterson: And all these different types of play - they help us learn the skills that we might need as grown-ups.
Marshall Escamilla: So, when you see a kitten practicing stalking a bug…. Even if they’re just having fun, they’re kind of practicing for the real thing.
Taylor Quimby: Exactly. What’s neat is that humans have a way of blending these different play categories together or taking it even further.
Pretending you’re a pirate, while hopping on one foot and playing “the floor is lava.”
Lindsay Patterson: I do that every night.
[Mux fades]
So, Jackson says studying rats has taught us some really interesting things about the benefits of play - so not just what it teaches us, but how it helps us as we’re growing up.
[00:24:28-00:24:55] Jackson Ham: Some early studies with rats where, you know, you, you take a juvenile rat and you grow them up by themselves so they don't have any play partners. Found that as adults they have a lot of problems.
Marshall Escamilla: What kinds of problems?
Jackson Ham: They have problems with working memory, so they can't remember if they have to make a decision and they just learn something, they'll forget it. So they can't remember, you know, how to make a decision. They have a problem with their social skills.
Marshall Escamilla: Wow. So he’s saying it’s not just about being fun. Missing out on play affects things like memory and decision-making? That’s crazy.
Lindsay Patterson: Yeah! The problem with these early studies because rats are really social animals. So if you just take one rat and have him grow up in a lab - how do you know these problems are happening because they’re not getting enough playtime?
[00:25:47-00:25:55] Jackson Ham: Well, are all of these problems that they have as adults because they didn't play or just because they were alone for so long, right? I mean, can you imagine growing up alone?
Blue Dot Sessions - Powder Room
Marshall Escamilla: Wow. So it’s not just the playing these rats are missing out on… it’s the hanging out.
Lindsay Patterson: Yeah! It’s the hang-time. So Jackson and his colleagues came up with new idea to narrow in on the effects of play. They partnered “fun” and “unfun” rats together in pairs.
[00:26:19-00:26:39] Jackson Ham: rather than having these juveniles grow up alone, we have them grow up with a partner that's just not very playful. Um, so they get all the social contact, they get all the the huddling and the cuddling. Um, but they're, they're, they're friends that they grow up with. Doesn't want to play.
Marshall Escamilla: So they’re pairing the rats with the boring rat and seeing if it has a negative impact on their friends.
[laughs]
Taylor Quimby: And what Jackson discovered, is that the rats that grow up with an unplayful partner do have the problems that came up in earlier studies. They’re not great at socializing. They have trouble with memory. And the part of the brain responsible for decision making is actually wired differently.
Marshall Escamilla: Wow, so play really makes a difference!
Taylor Quimby: But here’s the wildest part.
[00:28:53-00:29:01] Jackson Ham: we actually find that it's not the amount of play that they engage in, but instead it's actually the turn taking.
Lindsay Patterson: In other words, it’s not how much they play, but how much they’re cooperating - or actually taking turns - while they’re playing.
Marshall Escamilla: So when you’re playing with your friends, taking turns is actually the most important part.
[00:30:04-00:30:15] Jackson Ham: So it's all about sharing. It's all about turn taking. And it's about learning. I think that things don't always go your way, right?
Margareta - What If?
Marshall Escamilla: Uh, to me that sounds like a pretty direct connection between human and animal play there.
Taylor Quimby: Yeah, it turns out play isn’t just fun, it is also good for you.
Lindsay Patterson: But don’t think about it that way - play is just have fun! But if you’re curious about the science of play, Jackson says there’s a lot left to learn about play.
[00:10:07-00:10:51] Jackson Ham: So, you know, in science we're always working with our best hypotheses and our best predictions, but they can change with time. And that's the really fun part about science, is that there's always questions to be asked, even if you think you already know the answer.
Meredith: I have a LOT of questions… Did you know that questions are… questions marks have a circle on the bottom and then line… loop.
Nate Hegyi: That’s it for today.
This episode was reported, produced, and edited by Taylor Quimby, as well as Lindsay Patterson and Marshall Escamilla of Tumble, the science podcast for kids.
Taylor Quimby: Music by Blue Dot Sessions, Andreas Dahlback, Smartface, and Margareta.
If you want to check out more episodes of Tumble, they’ve got a backlog of over 150 episodes to choose from… everything from dinosaurs to space and more. We’ve listed a few of our favorites in the shownotes including:
Do Trees Fart?: https://pod.link/984771479/episode/0b4fb5be20f15fcdc118913dcde1f445
The Swift Quake: https://pod.link/984771479/episode/2d9d3eaa8b5836f9be51ae26b6a35acd
Why Are Sloths Slow: https://pod.link/984771479/episode/da36696c9faca992a5ccca9aedd20516
And a question scientists have been debating for centuries: Are cats evil? My vote is Yes.
Nate Hegyi: My vote as well. Sorry Justine Taylor Quimby is Outside/In’s Executive Supplier of imaginary lava (which luckily won’t be affected by tariffs).
Rebecca Lavoie is our Director of On-Demand Tag.
I’m your host, Nate “Tetherball” Hegyi.
Our staff also includes Justine “Monkey Bars” Paradis, Felix “swings” Poon, Marina “Capture the Flag” Henke, and Kate “Four-Square” Dario.
Special thanks to Sara Robberson Lentz for refereeing the making of this episode.
Speaking of which, This episode was a joint production of Tumble and Outside/In.
Kid tape: Are you an inventor?
Taylor Quimby: Am I an inventor? Sometimes in my mind, I’m an inventor.
Kid tape: I’m always inventing something. From trash: