Octomom

Summary

Radiolab Episode Summary: "Octomom"

Podcast Information:

• Title: Radiolab
• Host/Author: WNYC Studios
• Description: Radiolab explores deep questions through investigative journalism, weaving through diverse topics with innovative sound design. Hosted by Lulu Miller and Latif Nasser.
• Episode: Octomom

---

Introduction: A Story of Perseverance

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."

Discovery of Octomom: The Deep Sea Exploration Begins

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."

Observing Octomom: A Mother's Vigil

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."

The Life Cycle of Octopuses: Insights from Yan Wong

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 Mystery of Octomom's Extended Brooding

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."

Scientific Theories: How Octomom Survives

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."

The Emotional Toll and Scientific Witnessing

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."

The Climactic Moment: Octomom's Final Days

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."

Reflections: Parallels Between Octomom and Human Experiences

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."

Conclusion: Insights and Takeaways

"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."

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Notable Quotes with Timestamps

• 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."
• Yan Wong [14:02]: "It's just a totally bizarre thing... sounds like magic."
• 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."
• Annie McEwen [33:29]: "We're all trying to protect our jellybeans in a way... it can feel frightening and lonely and dark."

---

Key Insights and Discussions

• Extended Brooding: Octomom's four and a half-year brooding period is unprecedented and challenges existing scientific understanding of octopus biology.
• Neurological Adaptation: The hypothesis that optic glands sustain Octomom during brooding offers a glimpse into the complex adaptability of octopus brains.
• Emotional Connection: The research team's emotional investment underscores the profound impact of witnessing such natural phenomena.
• Human Parallels: The narrative draws meaningful comparisons between Octomom's dedication and human experiences of sacrifice and protection.

Conclusion

"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.

Transcript

[Latif Nasser]

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[WNYC Studios]

Listener supported WNYC Studios.

[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.

[Latif Nasser]

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[Jon Favreau]

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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.