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Next month, in the meantime, this week we're bringing you a super fun circle round tale from the archives, featuring our amazing friends Mindy, Thomas and Guy Roz, hosts of Wow in the world. Enjoy the story and stay tuned for an exciting new season of Circle Round soon!

Have you ever heard a rumor? A rumor basically is gossip, a story about someone or something that gets passed from one person to another. And that story, by the way, isn't necessarily true. We're about to meet some characters who love spreading rumors until their tales come back to bite them.

I'm Rebecca Scher and welcome to Circle Round. Where story time happens all the time. Today our story is called The Shattering Clams. It's based on a Native American legend from the area we now know as Washington State, in the Northwestern United States.

Some really great people came together to bring you our version of this tale, including Mindy, Thomas and Guy Roz. Mindy and Guy are the hosts of Wow in the world, the NPR podcast that encourages families to say wow about the amazing things happening in the world of science, technology and innovation.

So Circle Round everyone for The Shattering Clams.

Long ago, before people roamed the earth, animals ruled the planet. Back then, all the animals talked, and the most talkative, chattery and chit chatty of all of them were...

It's us, right? It's totally us. As I was saying, the most talkative, chattery and chit chatty of all of them were the clams.

I knew it was us. Where total chatterboxes? Or would it be chatter shells? Get it? Like clam shells, but chatter shells?

But back then, you wouldn't find clams buried beneath the sandy beach or under the muddy bottom of the sea like you would today.

Instead, the clams walked around on two little feet sticking out of their shells. And all day long, those shells clicked and clacked like crazy as the clams engaged in their favorite activity.

Spreading rumors. Or starting them, really? The clams went around making up stories that simply were not true just to cause trouble.

For instance, one day, Bear was heading to the river to catch fish when the clams scuttled his way.

Hey Bear! You'll never guess what Alex said about you!

Oh, what did she say?

Well, we really shouldn't tell, but since you asked, we heard her say that she could run way faster than you can.

...