I'm Aiton Weinstein.

And I'm Naor Menninger.

And you're listening to Two Nice Jewish Boys.

Let's do a little thought experiment.

Imagine you're going to your local supermarket.

When you leave your house or your apartment building,

do you take a right or a left?

Think about the next steps. When do you

turn? How do you know when to turn? When do you cross the street? Or if you're in a car, how many

traffic lights do you pass? Now let me ask you something a little more specific. How many meters

exactly is it to your closest supermarket? What cardinal direction is it in exactly?

Unless you're a robot, those last questions probably stumped you.

It turns out that while we're perhaps the top of the food chain,

relative to other animals, we don't have the most sophisticated sense of direction.

Who does? Bats. Such a vilified creature,

together with sharks and spiders, bats have been amongst the most disparaged animals in the

entire kingdom for as far as back as stories and villains go. But really, when you think about it,

they're not all that bad, and they might have the answers to a few questions about navigation. Dr. Yossi Yovale is the head of the bat lab for neuroecology

at Tel Aviv University, and he joins us today to talk about bats and how they get to the supermarket.

This podcast is made in collaboration with the Jewish Journal.

How does our head work?

Like we, when we're going to the supermarket, how do we get there?

...