Can Pets Be Curious? How About Wild Chimps?
Part-Time Genius
iHeartPodcasts and Kaleidoscope
4.5 • 2K Ratings
🗓️ 22 October 2025
⏱️ 39 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Today we’re taking a break from human curiosity and turning our attention to other animals. What makes hummingbirds explore different flowers? Are we to blame for rats’ curiosity? Are animals in the wild more or less curious than animals in captivity? And if you were a zebrafish, which would you find more interesting: a white shell or a purple cup?
Day 3 listener activity: Grab an assortment of objects and present them one at a time to the nearest animal (as long as it’s friendly) to see what it’s curious about. Then head over to our Instagram (@parttimegenius) or Bluesky (parttimegenius.bsky.social) and tell us how the experiment went. We’ll pick one comment at random to win a prize! For a bonus entry, take a photo or video of your animal, upload it and tag us. Deadline is 11:59pm ET, Sunday Oct. 26.
Got a question you’d like us to answer? A rabbit hole you think we should explore? Email higeniuses@gmail.com or leave us a message at (302) 405-5925.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is an IHeart podcast. |
| 0:05.1 | Michael Lewis here. |
| 0:06.8 | My bestselling book, The Big Short, tells the story of the buildup and burst of the U.S. |
| 0:12.1 | housing market back in 2008. |
| 0:14.8 | A decade ago, the Big Short was made into an Academy Award-winning movie. |
| 0:18.7 | Now I'm bringing it to you for the first time as an audiobook narrated |
| 0:22.7 | by yours truly. The Big Short Story, |
| 0:25.5 | what it means to bet against the market, |
| 0:27.5 | and who really pays for an unchecked financial system, |
| 0:30.6 | is as relevant today as it's ever been. |
| 0:33.2 | Get the Big Short now at Pushkin.fm. |
| 0:35.5 | slash audiobooks, or wherever audio books are sold. |
| 0:41.5 | Hey, I'm Nora Jones, and I love playing music with people so much that my podcast called |
| 0:46.2 | Playing Along is back. I sit down with musicians from all musical styles to play songs together |
| 0:51.4 | in an intimate setting. Over the past two seasons, I've had special guests like Dave Grohl, Leveh, |
| 0:57.1 | Rufus Wainwright, Mavis Staples, really too many to name, |
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| 1:04.5 | Lizzie to Nora Jones is playing along on the IHeartRadio app, |
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| 1:33.2 | Music app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. You're listening to Part-Time Genius, the production of kaleidoscope and IHeart Radio. |
| 1:35.2 | Guess what, Will? |
| 1:35.9 | What's that, Mango? |
... |
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