Hey, everybody. Matty Sifai here. This week has somehow already been a very 2020 week.

Not great out there. So today we're bringing you one of the silliest episodes of shortwave

we've ever made from back in March. I promise it'll bring you some genuine science joy.

Which we can all use right now. We're back with a new episode on Wednesday. Oh, and if

you haven't already, remember to subscribe to or follow shortwave wherever you get your

podcasts. Okay, let's have fun. You're listening to shortwave from NPR. I don't know about you,

but watching prestige nature documentaries is my idea of a wild Friday night.

The scorching sun means many desert animals only come out at night. And there's a new one on Netflix,

narrated by the amazing Samarit Wiley called Night on Earth, where a little desert mouse,

a tiny grasshopper mouse comes face to face with a scorpion. Might want to steer clear.

This is in the Sonoran Desert. Well, the Sonoran Desert is in like

western New Mexico and sort of extends down into Sonora, Mexico. That's Lauren Esposito,

and the curator of Iraq, at the California Academy of Sciences. Scorpions, aka,

Arachnids, Team Scorpion all the way. Yeah, you see where this is going.

Hey Lauren. How's it going? Oh, I'm so excited. That's Ashley Roe. I'm an assistant professor in the

biology department at the University of Oklahoma. Ashley studies the grasshopper mouse, which is,

I believe this is the scientific term, adorable. They're sort of like, they look like Mickey Mouse,

they've these big ears, these big eyes, these long whiskers, and they just look really innocent and cute.

We absolutely had to get Ashley and Lauren together, so we could learn everything about

what happens next. Many animals try to avoid venomous scorpions. Everybody's got to eat, you know,

but not this little rubbing.

In a flash, the mouse attacks the scorpion. He's a scorpion eating specialist.

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