
A mile under the ocean, we get to watch an octopus perform a heroic act of heart and determination. First aired back in 2020, this episode follows the story of an octopus living one mile under the ocean as she performs a heroic act of heart and determination. In 2007, Bruce Robison’s robot submarine stumbled across an octopus settling in to brood her eggs. It seemed like a small moment. But as he went back to visit her, month after month, what began as a simple act of motherhood became a heroic feat that has never been equaled by any known species on Earth. This episode was reported and produced by Annie McEwen. Special thanks to Kim Fulton-Bennett and Rob Sherlock at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute. Support Radiolab today at Radiolab.org/donate. If you need more ocean in your life, check out the incredible Monterey Bay Aquarium live cams (especially the jellies!): www.montereybayaquarium.org/animals/live-cams Here’s a pic of Octomom sitting on her eggs, No...
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Latif Nasser
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WNYC Studios
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Latif Nasser
Hey, it's Latif. I would like to pull up from the watery depths a story of perseverance. It's a story of focus. It's a story of one little creature fighting. Fighting to the extreme extent of every fiber of its being for the future of its progeny. Part of the thing I love about it is it's so far from anything you're reading about otherwise in the news. It feels almost like it's as far as you can get on planet Earth from your own personal drama. And it helps remind you how much more is out there that has nothing to do with you. That's Octomom, originally broadcast in 2020, but just as timeless as ever today. Hope you enjoy.
WNYC Studios
Wait. You're listening. All right.
Jad Abumrad
Okay.
WNYC Studios
All right.
Jad Abumrad
You're listening to Radio Lab Radio from wnyc. Rewind.
Annie McEwen
Hey, I'm Jad Abumrad. This is radiolab and Danny McEwen. Yes, well, what do you got for me?
Jad Abumrad
Well, first of all, Robert, let me just get the levels on you.
Robert
Okay, I'm here.
Jad Abumrad
We've got Robert. Robert, maybe you can tell I'm sitting.
Robert
In on this one with Annie.
Jad Abumrad
Just as many of you know, he retired from Radiolab not too long ago, but I brought him out of retirement and back into the studio to sit in with me on this interview.
Robert
We just sometimes pile on when it looks like it's going to be a candy fun thing to do.
Jad Abumrad
And second of all, I have a hero and a story that I don't know, I just feel like it's exactly the kind of story that we all need right now at this moment.
Annie McEwen
Okay, let's go.
Jad Abumrad
Okay, so let's start with our main character.
WNYC Studios
Excuse me.
Annie McEwen
This is our hero.
WNYC Studios
Oh, no, no, no, no.
Jad Abumrad
Well, our main storyteller, I guess.
WNYC Studios
My name is Bruce Robison. Reaching out to you from Kazu in Monterey, California, at California State University, Monterey Bay.
Annie McEwen
Whoa.
Robert
Oh, you got it all in there.
Jad Abumrad
Hey, no, that was very well done. So Bruce is a deep sea explorer.
WNYC Studios
I'm a Southern California beach kid who just kept going out deeper and deeper.
Jad Abumrad
These days, he works at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute. And basically, he and his team, they'll go out on a boat with a little remote sub that they drop into the water with a camera and see what they can see.
WNYC Studios
It's really exciting because there are all of these cool animals.
Robert
I'm just curious, like, did you just go out onto the ocean and then look down?
WNYC Studios
Oh. Or did.
Robert
How does it begin, this story?
WNYC Studios
Well, one day.
Jad Abumrad
This is back in April of 2007.
WNYC Studios
We're on a ship called Western Flyer.
Jad Abumrad
They're on one of their runs checking out sea life, and they're just off the coast over this giant underwater canyon, the Monterey Canyon, Pretty much the same.
WNYC Studios
Scale and scope as the Grand Canyon in Arizona.
Annie McEwen
There's an underwater Grand Canyon in Monterey Bay.
Jad Abumrad
That's right.
Annie McEwen
Wow.
Jad Abumrad
And on this day, Bruce and his team drop their little robot sub down into the water a little less than a mile down, which doesn't seem like a lot, but imagine going down the length of the Empire State Building and then going go down another Empire State Building.
Annie McEwen
Oh, my God.
Jad Abumrad
And then go down another Empire State Building and then go down, like, maybe a few more floors, like maybe 10 more floors of that Empire State Building.
Annie McEwen
That's. That makes me a little bit dizzy.
WNYC Studios
The darkness is overwhelming. You can look up and say, well, maybe the surface is up that way. But the last little photons have given up. And yet it is punctuated by sparkles and twinkles and flashes all around. The majority of animals that live there make their own light. And you can hear scritches and squeaks and thumps around you.
Jad Abumrad
Right. Oh, Bruce, I'm noticing that your chair is rather vocal. It seems like it's squeaking unless That's Robert. Is that you, Robert?
Robert
That's my imitation of a ship at sea.
Jad Abumrad
It's not quite working for me. It sounds a lot like.
Robert
No, no, it's his fault, it's not mine. You're rocking.
WNYC Studios
Well, I'll try not.
Robert
Yeah.
Jad Abumrad
Anyway, they're down there in the darkness and they flick on this little headlight and sweeping this cone of light around in front of. We see the silty seafloor, a few rocky outcrops. When into that cone of light wanders.
WNYC Studios
An octopus moving towards the rock across.
Jad Abumrad
The seafloor, our hero using her arms to sort of pull and glide and roll herself along.
WNYC Studios
She was kind of purpley gray, dark mottled. There was a crescent shaped scar on one arm and a circular scar elsewhere.
Jad Abumrad
Cool. Like tattoos.
WNYC Studios
Yeah.
Robert
Well, just so sense of size. Can you fit her on your lap or could you wear her as a hat?
WNYC Studios
Okay. The mantle, the roundy part, was as big as a healthy cantaloupe.
Robert
Oh, how long are the tentacles?
WNYC Studios
Foot and a half long. They're very stretchy.
Robert
Ooh, okay.
WNYC Studios
Anyway, about a month later we went back and got.
Robert
A month later, you see an animal heading towards a rock and you don't wait to see if she gets there. Cause would that take too long or. Why did.
WNYC Studios
We weren't really focused on that. It was just an observation.
Robert
Oh, okay.
Jad Abumrad
Anyway, when they went back in the robot sub a month later, that same.
WNYC Studios
Octopus was up on a vertical face on the rock, sitting on a clutch.
Jad Abumrad
Of eggs, her body covering the eggs, each of her arms curled in a.
WNYC Studios
Little spiral, tucked into position.
Robert
How many babies was she sitting on?
WNYC Studios
160.
Robert
Are they jellybean sized or.
WNYC Studios
Yeah, that's a good approximation.
Jad Abumrad
And Bruce and his team were like, oh, this is great.
WNYC Studios
We know within about a month when the eggs were laid, and they'd often.
Jad Abumrad
Wondered, like, how long does it take for octopus eggs to hatch?
Robert
Does science not know about the brooding period of octopuses?
WNYC Studios
Not deepwater ones. Oh.
Jad Abumrad
Which was a totally different species of octopus and could have a totally different way of doing things for all they knew.
WNYC Studios
We know so little about life in the deep sea that something like this can be very illuminating.
Robert
Did you have a name for her other than like 1006B?
WNYC Studios
We just called her Octomom.
Robert
Octomom.
Jad Abumrad
Beautiful. So whenever they were out at sea and had time in their schedule, they'd toss in the robot sub, drop down.
WNYC Studios
And have a look at Octomom.
Jad Abumrad
They drop down in May, and there she is, a little figure huddled on the Rock. A month or so later, there she is again, sitting on her eggs and warding off predators, crabs and shrimps on.
WNYC Studios
The rock who would have loved to chow down on her eggs.
Robert
So let's say I'm a crab and I see some lady sitting on 160 babies. So I figure my odds are pretty good that I can scarf at least six of them.
WNYC Studios
Not a chance. Oh, she is vigilant and relentless.
Robert
Couldn't I bite her?
WNYC Studios
Nope.
Robert
Or what about.
WNYC Studios
Nope?
Robert
Nope.
Jad Abumrad
Yeah, what happens if a crab bites her?
Robert
Yeah. Or pinces her?
WNYC Studios
She would squeeze the heck out of it.
Robert
Okay.
Jad Abumrad
Couple months after that, they're zooming in towards the ro. And oh, there she is cleaning the eggs with an arm like la la la la la.
WNYC Studios
And you can see the baby octopus inside the egg after a while.
Jad Abumrad
Next visit, still there. Couple months after that. Oh, there she is. Same old spot. Ah, October still there.
WNYC Studios
You bet.
Jad Abumrad
November.
WNYC Studios
Yes.
Jad Abumrad
Curled around her babies, cleaning them, protecting them. And it's now been around like six months, something like that. And Bruce and his team start to notice that she was changing.
WNYC Studios
She became very pale. She clearly lost weight. And you could see over time that her eyes began to get cloudy. I say the human counterpart might be cataracts.
Jad Abumrad
And according to Bruce, for an octopus, this is normal.
WNYC Studios
Most octopuses that we know about do not feed while they're brooding at all. At all.
Annie McEwen
Oh, she's. She's stuck to the rock with her jelly beans that entire time?
Jad Abumrad
Yeah, she hasn't moved.
Robert
So. So that would mean that she was starving.
Jad Abumrad
Yes, and not just starving, but starving to death.
Yan Wong
Octopus moms die after they reproduce.
Jad Abumrad
Who is this?
Yan Wong
Oh, this is Yan.
Jad Abumrad
I know.
Yan Wong
I was like, I'll talk to whatever voice is coming through the headphones.
Jad Abumrad
So. Yan Wong.
Yan Wong
I'm an evolutionary neuroscientist.
Jad Abumrad
She's a postdoc at Princeton, but She did her PhD research on reproduction and death in the octopus. Now, she studied a shallow water species of octopus, which tend to have a very short life.
Yan Wong
It typically only lives for a year.
Annie McEwen
Really?
Jad Abumrad
Yeah.
Annie McEwen
That's it for an octopus.
Jad Abumrad
I know. Isn't that crazy?
Annie McEwen
That seems. I mean, there's all the. All the attention they get is being these brainy creatures.
Jad Abumrad
I know.
Annie McEwen
And to think they're so ephemeral.
Jad Abumrad
Now, the deep sea species like Octomom probably live a little longer than that. We don't actually know exactly how long. But Yan told me that all octopuses have a sort of similar life story. Like when you're a kid, you're just Growing.
Yan Wong
So you're just eating everything.
Jad Abumrad
Then you hit puberty, you gotta find a mate that won't eat you. Apparently. That's a big risk. And when you do finally find that.
Yan Wong
Mate, the male octopus reaches with one of its arms into the mantle.
Jad Abumrad
The big balloony part of his body.
Yan Wong
Reaches in there and removes a sperm.
Jad Abumrad
Packet and he tucks it inside the female's mantle. Here you go. And that's it. That's their sex. Which sounded a little dry to me.
Sy Montgomery
Well, I once was describing this on a train, a commuter train, to a friend of mine, and I suddenly noticed the train was completely silent.
Robert
So in a porn like way, or.
Sy Montgomery
In a horror, like in a total porn like way? In a very cute way.
Jad Abumrad
This is Sy Montgomery. She's the author of the Soul of an Octopus, as Well as like 29 other books about animals. And one Valentine's Day at the Seattle Aquarium, she got to see Octosex.
Sy Montgomery
Let's see, the male might have been up in the corner.
Jad Abumrad
Teeny digression here.
Sy Montgomery
And the female came out of the one tank and entered this tank and crawled towards him. As soon as he realized. My love has arrived, they both turned bright red and they flew into each other's arms and they covered each other with their suckers. Sixteen arms going on. And they're all very fast. But they stay together for a while afterwards, sometimes hours. I mean, it was very romantic. The male often wrapped around the female, and frequently they both turn white, which is the color of a relaxed octopus. So that's when they're having this cigarette, huh?
Jad Abumrad
Anyway, we can't know if that's what Octomom experienced. She has a different species after all. But what we do know is that once she used that sperm, that was the beginning of the end of her life.
Yan Wong
The female can essentially decide when she wants to fertilize her eggs. Cause once she lays them, you know she's not gonna move them.
Jad Abumrad
So, yeah, she has to go do all of her favorite things one last time before she switches over.
Yan Wong
Her last hurrah. Her Rumspringa. Yeah.
Jad Abumrad
But when she decides the time is right, she'll find a safe spot and lay her eggs.
Yan Wong
Then, as the eggs are about to hatch, she dies.
Jad Abumrad
Now, the shallow water species of octopus that Yan studies, this sitting and taking care of your eggs phase, it doesn't last that long. Only about a month. But with Octomom, since they knew virtually nothing about the species, the question was, how long would it go? How long would she sit on those eggs not eating slowly Dying.
Robert
How often are you visiting her? Every month or two or every three months?
WNYC Studios
No, no, it was. There wasn't a regular pattern. This was sort of bootleg science. We were out there doing other things that we were supposed to do as part of our project up in the water column. And if we had a little extra dive time, we'd sneak down and check.
Jad Abumrad
Her out, which they did month after month after month after month, if you keep counting.
Annie McEwen
How far does it go?
Jad Abumrad
Well, let's say year one.
Annie McEwen
Year.
Jad Abumrad
Yeah.
Annie McEwen
Oh, wow.
Jad Abumrad
Year one, they drop down. She's looking pretty rough. And there are all these crabs crawling around. And they're scientists, but they're also kind of having a hard time watching this octopus suffer, for lack of a better word.
WNYC Studios
And one of the things that we tried was we went down once and broke a couple legs off a crab with a robot.
Jad Abumrad
With the robot, yeah.
WNYC Studios
We have manipulator arms. We can do all kinds of neat stuff. So we broke off a couple of crab legs and offered them to her. She wouldn't have anything to do with it. We tried that, oh, two, three times.
Jad Abumrad
And one time in year two, Year two, they drop down and they see that she is being circled by crabs.
WNYC Studios
Looking as though they were trying to mass an attack, if you will.
Jad Abumrad
Like, how many?
WNYC Studios
Three or four.
Jad Abumrad
She's very weak at this point, and these crabs are circling her like you imagine with pitchforks, like around a witch at a stake or something. Back, you devils. And Bruce and his team are like, oh, my God, what? What's gonna happen? You know, could this be the end?
WNYC Studios
And all right, so we couldn't hang around. And, oh, man, you are not the kind of people.
Robert
We would not hire you if we were following somebody who was under attack by a group of crabs who had drawn a circle of death around her and said, no one shall pass. We would not go back upstairs. We would stay.
WNYC Studios
We had other things on our agenda.
Annie McEwen
Oh, come on. They just heard they grabbed a crab last time. Just like, shoo them away with the arms.
Jad Abumrad
That's what I know. But they would come right back. I mean, they can't guard her, but.
Annie McEwen
They leave her there in the dark being circled by crabs.
Yan Wong
Ugh.
WNYC Studios
That was at the beginning of a week long trip.
Jad Abumrad
So they're out at sea doing their research, and all the while they're thinking, what happened to Octomom and the crabs?
WNYC Studios
So on our way back home, we thought, let's go check. Let's see how things are.
Jad Abumrad
They drop in the sub, they drop down, they drop down, down, down, down, down, down. Biting their nails as we try to.
WNYC Studios
Find our way into the rock. And we're searching, searching, searching.
Jad Abumrad
And then there, a white blob in the darkness.
WNYC Studios
It's like, okay, good, there she is. There she is still there.
Jad Abumrad
And there are no crabs around her.
WNYC Studios
Anymore, but there were crab parts all over the sea floor below her.
Robert
So she killed them.
WNYC Studios
Yes.
Jad Abumrad
So she has, in her weakened state, torn them apart with her arm.
WNYC Studios
All the folks on the ship and the pilots were all going, yay.
Jad Abumrad
So you left for a week. And during that time she fought like the battle of her life.
WNYC Studios
That's right.
Robert
Missed the whole thing.
Jad Abumrad
And they are counting the eggs every single time. And she is still at 160.
WNYC Studios
We never saw any evidence that anybody had picked off one of the eggs.
Robert
Not a one.
WNYC Studios
Nope.
Annie McEwen
This is heroic.
Jad Abumrad
It is heroic. She was wasting away and would eventually have to die. But it would have to be timed right with the hatching of the babies because if she were to lose her grip and drift off of the eggs, then a crab could come and just, you know, have a huge brunch. I mean, there was this tension of her holding on until they were ready.
WNYC Studios
Yes.
Robert
Well, doesn't it seem to you like there's like people like, you know, say I'm going to be dying tonight, but I'm going to wait for Johnny to come home, you know, and then Johnny bursts through the door and say, look and exchange a glance. And then poof, Mommy dies. It sort of feels a little bit like that.
Jad Abumrad
Let's move on to year three.
WNYC Studios
What?
Jad Abumrad
She's still bears. Yeah.
Annie McEwen
This is.
Jad Abumrad
I know. She's getting worse.
Annie McEwen
This is horrible and amazing at the same time.
Yan Wong
I know.
Jad Abumrad
She has not eaten anything. They are like aghast. She is just like this titan. Year four. We move on to year four. Like, it's just like unbelievable time. Let me give you a sense of like, what is happening. So 2007, that's when they saw her. Boris Yeltsin dies. First iPhone released for sale in the USA. Big moments. 2008, the economy crashes. Obama is elected. Like these huge things are happening right up right upstairs from her. She's just still doing that same thing. 2009, Usain Bolt breaks the world record for the 100 meter dash.
Annie McEwen
Bitcoin. I think bitcoin happened somewhere in there.
Jad Abumrad
Bitcoin. Okay. 2009, Michael Jackson dies. 2010, those Chilean miners are rescued after 69 days. Oh, if you remember that they're chopped underground.
Annie McEwen
Worse. Wow.
Jad Abumrad
Haiti has a huge earthquake. The Worst they ever had in 200 years. 2011. We're moving on to 2011 now. The Arab Spring.
Annie McEwen
Oh my God.
Jad Abumrad
Same sex marriage is legalized in New York State. Amy Winehouse, Steve Jobs, and Osama Bin Laden all die.
Annie McEwen
All the while, Octomom has been sitting there withering, but killing crabs that come for her babies.
Jad Abumrad
Like, not eating but somehow remaining vigilant.
Annie McEwen
Just seems so crazy to me. Like, why would. Why would evolution make an animal that needs to gestate her babies that long?
Jad Abumrad
Well, we don't know. Bruce and Yan both said that maybe it's because it's so cold down there that everything happens more slowly. Or maybe you need super developed babies because it's such a harsh environment, but basically it's still a mystery. Like, they don't even know if Octomom is like this crazy freak of nature or if she's ordinary. Like, she's the only octopus of this species that anyone has ever watched do this.
Annie McEwen
Huh.
Jad Abumrad
But my question was, how? How can she survive this? Like, how can she just sit there not eating for four years and not just, like, just die?
Yan Wong
It's just a totally bizarre thing, right?
Jad Abumrad
It sounds like magic. Lucky for us, this is exactly what Yan studied for her PhD. So when we come back from a quick break together with Yan, we're going to find out how she does it and how far she can go.
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Annie McEwen
Now Jad, Radiolab back with Annie McEwan and Octomom.
Jad Abumrad
So before the break, we had landed on the very simple question of how how does Octomom manage to stay alive and defend her eggs? Not moving, no food for over four years, Right?
Yan Wong
So we just didn't know.
Jad Abumrad
Well, Jan says the answer lies in a very peculiar fact about the octopus's brain, which helps her pull off these last few deeply essential beats of her life.
Yan Wong
If we were to think about the nervous system as, say, like an orchestra.
Jad Abumrad
To understand how this works, Yan says you can think of all the different parts of the octopus brain as different sections in an orchestra.
Yan Wong
You know, like the brass is going to take care of, like, vision or something like that, or, you know, the strings are taking care of motor functions and things like that.
Jad Abumrad
Maybe the bases regulating heartbeat, the woodwinds taking care of memory. And as she swims along living her octopus life, the whole orchestra is playing. All the instruments doing their job. But as she lays her eggs.
Yan Wong
There'S a shift, a shutting down of processes that are normally functioning to keep the body going.
Jad Abumrad
Every instrument in that orchestra starts to.
Yan Wong
Hush, everybody going quiet.
Jad Abumrad
Except there's this one section of the orchestra.
Yan Wong
Yeah, the optic glands. These are like two really tiny. They're kind of the size of, you know, a grain of rice.
Jad Abumrad
They sit right between her eyes.
Yan Wong
They have their solo at this point.
Jad Abumrad
And would that be the opera singer or. Who is that? Who is everyone quieting to hear?
Yan Wong
Well, let me think about this. It would not be, you know, a very common instrument. It's not a huge part of the brain, so it wouldn't really be a string. I don't think it would be like a wind instrument. Or maybe it would be a weird one, you know, like a bassoon or something like that one where there's just one or two in a full orchestra.
Jad Abumrad
Okay, I like that. So as all the other parts of the nervous system begin to drop away, the bassoon, these tiny grains of rice have their moment. They're playing a very complicated chemical song that Yen is only just beginning to piece together. But she knows that part of the work they're doing is triggering a bunch of different chemicals.
Yan Wong
Things like steroids and it's insulin that enable it to stay alive without additional food intake.
Jad Abumrad
And so all the while, she's down there years and years, being visited again and again by this robot. On the outside, she looks like a very old lady. Pale skin, cataracts, flabby muscles, a little pale blob in the darkness, all alone. But on the inside, she's very much alive. Alive in this incredibly centered, focused world way year after year after year after year, she's playing her heart out. Bruce, I just wanna remind you about the chair thing. I am.
WNYC Studios
Oh, sorry.
Jad Abumrad
No, no problem. No problem.
WNYC Studios
All right, Dylan's offered me a better chair. Let's say a more silent chair. So let me pick up my butt out of this one.
Robert
Okay?
WNYC Studios
Move it over to another one. Thank you. Dylan.
Jad Abumrad
Did you have moments where you were, like, out buying eggs, bicycling, you know, cleaning the car, and just had this moment, like, oh, she's there. I know exactly where she is. She's doing her job. Like these little moments of, you Living your life and her just constantly working as a mother.
WNYC Studios
Yeah, I thought about her all the time.
Annie McEwen
Okay, so we are at year four or is that where we are?
Jad Abumrad
So we're at year four and a half.
WNYC Studios
Four and a half years.
Annie McEwen
Is that the world record for longest brooding period on planet Earth?
Jad Abumrad
Yeah, it is. Whoa.
WNYC Studios
We had been there a month before and she was still there, looking pretty haggard, I've got to say, but she was hanging in there. And then one day we drop down and we're flying in towards the rock.
Jad Abumrad
He's watching the screen up on the ship, just seeing darkness. Then there's the rocky outcrop, there's her spot.
WNYC Studios
And she wasn't there. We couldn't see her.
Annie McEwen
What does that mean? Does that mean we knew we were.
WNYC Studios
At the right place? We could see the patch on the rock and there were all of these tattered egg cases just in the spot where she had been.
Robert
Tattered egg cases means that the babies had been born.
WNYC Studios
Well, the first thing we did was search. Are there babies on the rock? Are the babies still here? Or did any of them survive? Or was it some sort of apocalyptic demise at the hands of all those hungry looking crabs?
Jad Abumrad
So they're frantically sort of searching around the rock, searching and searching and searching, and then they begin to see little babies that are her species. And they see a little baby here and a little baby there.
WNYC Studios
Little octopuses crawling around.
Robert
Oh.
WNYC Studios
They'D been feeding and growing. And it was pretty clear that they were hatchlings from that clutch of eggs that we had observed.
Jad Abumrad
Do they look like her? Like all the same old. There's the crescent, the crescent shape and.
WNYC Studios
Sadly, no. And they were quite a bit smaller, but it was clear they were the same species.
Jad Abumrad
And did you see her?
WNYC Studios
No. I'm certain that she had been consumed by some scavenger.
Annie McEwen
Oh, my God. But you just want to give her a moment just to see it.
Jad Abumrad
Yeah. Well, we kind of asked Bruce, like, can you help us imagine what that moment might have been like for her.
Robert
Since you don't know because you missed it as usual, the actual big moment.
WNYC Studios
I must have gone out for a hamburger or something.
Robert
Could you just, in your mind's eye, imagine the last moment here? Like, was she dusting the. Or were the eggs beginning to hatch or what?
WNYC Studios
We suspected she stayed there until the last one had hatched.
Jad Abumrad
You mean watching them?
WNYC Studios
Maybe not watching them, but feeling them, guarding them.
Jad Abumrad
Oh, my gosh, that's amazing.
WNYC Studios
They are devoted moms.
Jad Abumrad
So she would feel this activity that was new underneath her and then know that it was time to finally let go.
WNYC Studios
Right. Okay. Relax, Mom. It's over. You did. You did your job.
Jad Abumrad
So cool. It's like handing off the baton of life.
Annie McEwen
Yeah.
Yan Wong
Yeah.
Jad Abumrad
I love thinking about this story right now because we're all, like, kind of, I don't know, just needing to, like, hold on. There's this, like, sense of holding on.
Annie McEwen
Yeah.
Jad Abumrad
And waiting and being patient and just, like, I don't know, having faith and that kind of thing. You know, just kind of, like, being still and holding on. That she is just, like, giving us such a great model for.
Annie McEwen
I mean, it's. You know what? Hold on one second. I have to just put an end to this madness.
Jad Abumrad
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Go for it.
Annie McEwen
Emile Tage, don't come in here. I'm working. Oh, my God. You know what I think about is the.
Jad Abumrad
What?
Annie McEwen
It's so interesting. This is like the. This is like the absolutely wrong soundtrack to the story that you're telling.
Jad Abumrad
Oh, the kids.
Annie McEwen
You're talking about a mother sort of lovingly suffering and then dying on behalf of her jellybeans. And I have these kids who are just, like, literally running around like savages right now because they're stir crazy. No. You know what I think? I think about it, like, it's so beautiful and heroic and poignant. But then I think about, like, she's not telling. Like, if you take the story away and you just imagine Herbert's experience, she's in the darkness for five years and, like, I wonder if she. I wonder. She has no conception of anything except that somehow the disconnect between the experience she's having and the story we're telling about it is everything that I need to think about right now. Because we're all trying to protect our jellybeans in a way. But then if you think about the experience of that, it can feel frightening and lonely and dark, you know? Thanks, Annie.
Jad Abumrad
You're welcome.
Annie McEwen
This story was reported and Produced by Annie McEwen with musical help from Alex Overington. Thanks to Kyle Wilson for playing the sexy saxophone for us. And a very big thank you to our bassoon player, Brad Balliet, who provided the soundtrack for Octomom's darkest hours and finest moment. And of course, thanks to Bruce.
Robert
Okay, well, we've kept you, so we.
Jad Abumrad
Should let you go. Thank you so much. I really appreciate it. Okay, again, I think we got everything, so.
Robert
I think we do.
Made in Cookware Advertisement
Yeah.
Jad Abumrad
Your squeaky chair and all. It was perfect, though.
Robert
Oh, you don't want to have him, like, rock on the chair a tiny bit. Oh, maybe you should.
Jad Abumrad
It might be in terms of mixing purposes.
WNYC Studios
All right, I'll. I'll wheel the other chair over and.
Robert
Yes. And then just doodle with your body.
Jad Abumrad
A little dance routine.
Annie McEwen
Oh, okay.
Jad Abumrad
Oh, yeah, go ahead.
WNYC Studios
Oh, I guess. Yeah, right.
Robert
So don't say anything. Just make squeaks.
WNYC Studios
Okay.
Jad Abumrad
Sort of reminds me about what she. She might hear under the water. Whales communicating.
Robert
Okay, that's fine.
Annie McEwen
I'm Jad Abumrad. Thanks for listening. Radiolab will be back with you next week.
WNYC Studios
Hi, I'm David and I'm from Baltimore, Maryland. Radiolab was created by Jad Abumrad and is edited by Soren Wheeler. Lulu Miller and Latif Nasser are our co hosts. Dylan Keefe is our director of sound design. Our staff includes Simon Adler, Jeremy Bloom, Becca Bressler, W. Harry Fortuna, David Gable, Maria Paz Gutierrez, Sindhu Nyanam Sambandan, Matt Kielty, Annie McEwen, Alex Neeson, Valentina Powers, Sara Khari, Sarah Sandbach, Arianne Wack, Pat Walters, and Molly Webster. Our fact checkers are Diane Kelly, Emily Krieger, and Natalie Middleton.
Jad Abumrad
Hi. This is Ellie from Cleveland, Ohio. Leadership support for Radiolab Science programming is provided by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation Science Sandbox Assignments Foundation Initiative and the John Templeton Foundation. Foundational support for Radiolab was provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.
Annie McEwen
You come to the New Yorker Radio.
Jad Abumrad
Hour for conversations that go deeper with people you really want to hear from.
Annie McEwen
Whether it's Bruce Springsteen or Questlove or.
Jad Abumrad
Olivia Rodrigo, Liz Cheney, where the godfather.
Annie McEwen
Of Artificial intelligence, Jeffrey Hinton, or some.
WNYC Studios
Of my extraordinarily well informed colleagues at the New Yorker.
Jad Abumrad
So join us every week on the.
Annie McEwen
New Yorker Radio Hour. Wherever you listen to podcasts.
Radiolab Episode Summary: "Octomom"
Podcast Information:
The episode opens with Latif Nasser setting the stage for a compelling narrative about an octopus affectionately dubbed "Octomom." He emphasizes the story's departure from typical news topics, highlighting its universal themes of perseverance and maternal dedication.
Latif Nasser [02:32]: "It's a story of one little creature fighting for the future of its progeny... reminds you how much more is out there that has nothing to do with you."
Bruce Robison, a deep-sea explorer from the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, becomes the story's focal point. In April 2007, Robison and his team embark on a mission aboard the ship Western Flyer to explore the Monterey Canyon, an underwater chasm akin to the Grand Canyon.
They deploy a remote submersible equipped with a camera to observe marine life. During one such dive, they encounter Octomom—an octopus exhibiting unusual brooding behavior.
Latif Nasser [03:35]: "My name is Bruce Robison... I'm a deep sea explorer."
Upon their initial observation, the team spots an octopus perched on a vertical rock holding a clutch of 160 eggs. Over subsequent dives, they witness Octomom's unwavering dedication to her offspring, despite the toll it takes on her health.
Jad Abumrad [06:42]: "There she is, a little figure huddled on the rock... using her arms to sort of pull and glide."
Yan Wong, an evolutionary neuroscientist, provides scientific context about octopus biology. She explains that most octopuses have a brief lifespan, typically around a year, with a life cycle marked by growth, reproduction, and death.
Yan Wong [11:00]: "All octopuses have a similar life story... when you finally find that mate..."
Wong delves into the rarity of Octomom's extended brooding period, which defies conventional understanding of octopus reproduction. Unlike shallow water species, where brooding lasts about a month, Octomom's behavior extends over four and a half years.
The team documents Octomom's deteriorating condition over years: she loses weight, her eyes become cloudy, and her body weakens as she continues to guard her eggs without feeding.
Yan Wong [14:02]: "It's just a totally bizarre thing... sounds like magic."
Efforts to aid Octomom, such as offering broken crab legs, prove futile as she remains steadfast in her maternal role, repelling predators with remarkable resilience.
Jad Abumrad [15:30]: "We broke off a couple of crab legs and offered them to her. She wouldn't have anything to do with it."
Yan Wong introduces a fascinating hypothesis to explain Octomom's survival. She likens the octopus's nervous system to an orchestra, where different brain regions handle various functions. As Octomom begins her brooding phase, most of her body's processes shut down, except for the optic glands.
Yan Wong [24:53]: "There’s a shift, a shutting down of processes that are normally functioning to keep the body going... the optic glands have their solo."
These optic glands produce chemicals like steroids and insulin that sustain Octomom, enabling her to survive without food for an extended period. This unique neurological adaptation allows her to maintain the energy required to defend her eggs until they hatch.
Yan Wong [27:28]: "They have their solo... triggering a bunch of different chemicals... enable it to stay alive without additional food intake."
As years pass, the research team grapples with witnessing Octomom's decline. Their emotional connection to her grows as they regularly check on her, observing her continued dedication despite her fading strength.
Annie McEwen [17:59]: "This is heroic... she'd have to die... it would have to be timed right with the hatching of the babies."
In year four and a half, the team returns to find Octomom missing. They discover tattered egg cases and numerous hatchlings, indicating that Octomom has fulfilled her maternal duty but has not survived the process. The hatchlings, now independent, roam the seabed, a testament to her sacrifice.
Jad Abumrad [31:35]: "Little octopuses crawling around... hatchlings from that clutch of eggs."
The hosts draw poignant parallels between Octomom's story and human experiences of perseverance, sacrifice, and protection of future generations. They reflect on the emotional and philosophical implications of witnessing such unwavering dedication.
Annie McEwen [33:29]: "We're all trying to protect our jellybeans in a way... it can feel frightening and lonely and dark."
"Octomom" serves as a profound exploration of maternal instinct, survival, and the mysteries of deep-sea life. Through storytelling and scientific inquiry, Radiolab unpacks the extraordinary life cycle of an octopus, offering listeners both scientific knowledge and emotional resonance.
Latif Nasser [01:36]: "Hope you enjoy."
"Octomom" is a deeply engaging episode that melds scientific exploration with emotional storytelling. It sheds light on the enigmatic life of a deep-sea octopus, offering listeners a narrative that is both educational and profoundly moving.