September 22, 2026 • 38 mins
Cheetahs are fast, endangered, and surprisingly multi-talented. Not only are they great vocalists, they’re also artistic muses, spokesmodels, and TikTok chefs (sort of). It’ll all make sense after Mango and producer Mary share nine facts about cheetahs—from their biology and behavior to their influence on art and culture.
- Listen to “Jambo Bwana” on YouTube
- Watch the original viral Ruuxa & Raina video on YouTube
- Learn more about the San Diego Zoo Safari Park
- Watch Goodboy Noah & Ayo Cheetah on TikTok
- Watch Fania All Stars in “Our Latin Thing” on YouTube
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Speaker 1 (00:14):
You're listening to Part-Time Genius, a production of Kaleidoscope and iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Guess what, Mango?
Speaker 1 (00:25):
What's up, Mary?
Speaker 2 (00:26):
I recently watched that Disney movie with a big cat
in the title. You know, the one that features a
song with the phrase Hakuna Matata.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
So obviously you're talking about Lion King here, right?
Speaker 2 (00:39):
The what? No, I'm sorry. I don't know that one.
I haven't heard of that.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
Is it good? No, no, no.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
I'm talking about the 1989 drama Cheetah. It's the story
of a family from California that moves to Kenya for
the dad's research job. And I'll be honest, it has
not aged well. There's a lot of casual racism, some
very awkward portrayals of local Kenyans.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
Oh, no.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
But the plot centers on the family's two teenagers, and
they befriend a boy from a nearby village, and they
discover a cheetah cub whose mom was killed by a poacher.
The kids name the cheetah Duma, and they decide to
raise it themselves, as you do. And then a guy
steals Duma to make her race greyhounds for money. There's
a rescue mission and then, of course, a big finale
(01:24):
where the family releases Duma back to the wild before
going home to L.A.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
I feel like you should have given me a spoiler
alert here because that's a lot of story.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
It's okay. I'm not actually suggesting that anyone go watch
this movie.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
Oh, good.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
But I do want everyone to check out a song
that is featured in its soundtrack. It's called Jambobwana, which
means hello, mister in Swahili. And it's actually one of
Kenya's most famous pop songs. It's been covered dozens of times,
but it was originally released in the early 1980s by
a band called Them Mushrooms. And it was an instant
(01:59):
hit in Africa. It sold over 200,000 copies. It's got
all the ingredients for a huge pop song. It's catchy.
It's easy to sing along to. And the lyrics are
these upbeat messages about how Kenya is a beautiful country
with no worries.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
Oh, no worries like Hakuna Matata. Exactly.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
And the song was adopted as an anthem for Kenya's
travel industry. Them Mushrooms went on to become one of
East Africa's most influential bands. They've been through lineup changes.
There was the untimely death of their original drummer, but
they are still together and they're still making music all
these decades later, which is so cool.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
You know, you don't hear that often.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
But despite the tune's massive success in Africa, Most Western
audiences did not learn the phrase hakuna matata until 1994,
thanks to this movie that you just told me about
called The Lion King. I'll put that on my to-watch list.
The songwriters Elton John and Tim Rice have said that
they came across the saying in a book of Swahili phrases,
(02:56):
which is really interesting to me, because if they had
seen cheetah, not only would they have already known what
it meant, they would have known that it makes a
great song hook.
Speaker 1 (03:06):
They also.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
would have learned about the very real problem of cheetah-human conflict.
According to the African Wildlife Foundation, people endanger cheetahs in
myriad ways. There's poaching, which is what happened to Duma's
mother in the movie, but also conflicts with farmers, which
I hadn't known about. Basically, as cheetahs' habitat gets developed,
there's less wild prey for them to hunt, and that
(03:30):
forces them to attack livestock in order to survive, and
that prompts farmers to go out and shoot them.
Speaker 3 (03:36):
Sure.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
So even though Cheetah was not a great movie, it
did get one thing really correct. Cheetahs are at risk
because of us. And today, conservation experts estimate there are
only about 6,500 adult cheetahs left in the wild.
Speaker 1 (03:52):
Wow. 6,500. You know, it's funny that number because I
just learned this week that there are around 6,600 exoplanets
that we know. It's weird to think that there are
as many external planets as there are cheetahs.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
In the world. One cheetah per planet. But, you know,
I don't know. I would like to keep the cheetahs
here on Earth.
Speaker 1 (04:11):
I know. Well, I am glad that we are celebrating
this rare and special cat today with nine facts about
cheetahs and this surprisingly deep mark that they've made on
art and culture over the years. I'm really excited to
dive in. So let's do it. We'll be right back.
(04:49):
Hey there, podcast listeners. Welcome to Part-Time Genius. I'm Mangesh Hatikadur.
And as you know, Will Pearson is not a fan
of cats. He says that a lot. So he is
sitting this episode out. And instead, I'm joined by our
very pro-cat producer, very cat positive, Mary Philip Sandy. And
(05:10):
over there in the booth wearing his favorite cheetah print
leggings paired with a cheetah print jacket, it is our
pal and producer, Dylan Fagan.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
Ready for fashion week, as always. But, you know, I
have always wondered what the difference is between cheetah and
leopard print.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
So hold on a second, because, yeah, Dylan is taking
off his jacket. And would you look at that? It
is reversible. He's got leopard print on the inside. For
the listeners at home, the cheetah print side features solid
black spots on a tan background. And the leopard print
looks more like almost like these rosettes. They're like kind
(05:48):
of these irregular black rings with a lighter center.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
That's great. I love fashion that's educational.
Speaker 1 (05:56):
I love that you don't love fashion. You love educational fashion.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
You've seen how I dress.
Speaker 1 (06:03):
Well, I'm glad we're starting with cheetahs appearances because that's
actually how they got their name. So the word cheetah
comes from Hindi, which is cheetah. And in turn, it
was derived from a Sanskrit word, chitra, which means embellished
or spotted. I actually find the cheetah's Indian roots fascinating
because these days, cheetahs are obviously associated with Africa, which
(06:26):
is where the vast majority of them survive. There are
only a few dozen Asiatic cheetahs left in central Iran.
They're considered the world's most endangered big cat. But once
upon a time, cheetahs roamed across the subcontinent and they
were beloved by nobility. There's this one Mughal ruler who
reportedly kept a thousand of them in a stable. And
(06:50):
unlike lions and tigers, cheetahs actually played this really specific
role in India. They were used for coursing. which is
basically a practice where predators are trained to track and
hunt other animals.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
So hang on, people went hunting with tame cheetahs like
the way you might use a hunting dog?
Speaker 1 (07:06):
Yeah, it's incredible, right? There are written references and they
go back to the 10th century where they describe the
use of these trained cheetahs to hunt deer and antelope.
Muslim and Hindu rulers both did this, as did tribes
who relied on wild game for food. Now, things changed
in the 19th century when the British started hunting cheetahs
for sport and Pretty soon, Indian elites took up the
(07:28):
hobby as well. So by the mid-20th century, there were
no cheetahs left in India. Now, luckily, they were a
major source of inspiration for artists, so we do have
plenty of paintings to remember them by. In fact, in 2025,
a painting depicting a family of cheetahs reclining in the
grass sold at auction for over £ 10 million today. It
(07:48):
was made in the late 1500s by an artist named Buswan,
and it set the record for a classical Indian art
sale at Christie's in London.
Speaker 3 (07:57):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
Well, the plight of the Asian cheetah is a good
reminder of just how important conservation is. And one place
that does a lot for that is the San Diego
Zoo Safari Park. And in 2016, one of its cheetahs
became an internet sensation. His name is Ruxa, and he
was born with a leg deformity that required surgery. On
top of that, Ruxa didn't have siblings, so his caretakers
(08:21):
introduced him to a companion dog named Reina. And videos
of these unlikely friends went viral. One of them currently
has over 24 million views on YouTube.
Speaker 1 (08:32):
People love two different species of animals hanging out, right?
Speaker 2 (08:36):
Oh, it's the best.
Speaker 1 (08:36):
Especially when one's a predator. Like, it feels like, oh,
this alligator and this swan are best friends.
Speaker 2 (08:42):
They're best friends, and they'll definitely never eat each other.
Speaker 1 (08:45):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
But in this case, it really was sweet. And Raina
kept Rooks' company as he recovered from surgery and went
through this rehabilitation process. And it's just incredible if you
go watch the footage of them together. I'll link it
in the show notes. But it's like they don't even
realize how different they are. They're just having so much fun.
Speaker 1 (09:04):
I love that.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
So it's been a few years since the pair took
the internet by storm. So I was curious to know
how things were going now. So I reached out to
the San Diego Zoo for an update. The bad news
is this. Unfortunately, Raina died from cancer in 2020. But
before her death, Ruxa's care team introduced him to a
new pup named Ray. And this allowed him to spend
(09:25):
time with both dogs, all three of them as a trio.
And that eased the transition after Raina died. The good
news is that since then, Ruxa has been doing great.
He's 12 years old. And the zoo told me that
is actually geriatric for a cheetah. So they monitor his
health really closely. But by all measures, he's thriving. He
and Ray share a habitat. They play together. And I
(09:47):
love this. They actually have a job. They participate in
educational programs that help zoo visitors learn about cheetah conservation
and the important role that dogs can play in combating
wildlife trafficking.
Speaker 1 (09:59):
Wow. do dogs play a role in combating trafficking?
Speaker 2 (10:03):
So you know how there are, like, in airports, there
are drug-sniffing dogs? It's very much the same idea, right?
So dogs can be trained to detect signs of poaching
and animal trafficking, and they'll patrol seaports, airports, things like that.
In the case of cheetahs, cubs get stolen from their
mothers and sold on the black market as pets. And
(10:24):
people will pay up to $ 1 million for them. So
this is very lucrative.
Speaker 1 (10:29):
You know, that's crazy, though. Like, I always imagine that
when you go through an airport, the dog is sniffing
for cocaine, but it might be sniffing for a cheetah
in my backpack. It could be. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
If you have a cheetah and cocaine in your backpack,
you could be in big trouble. It is. But I
just think this is so great because in addition to
their heartwarming friendship, Ray and Ruxa are raising awareness of
these issues. And I know all of that is really,
really important. But there is one last thing. I just
couldn't stop thinking about what it would feel like to
(11:01):
pat a cheetah. I mean, they look really soft, but
obviously this is not something I can go test for myself.
So I just asked the experts at the San Diego
Zoo Safari Park. And I will read you their response verbatim. Quote,
according to the wildlife specialists who care for him daily,
Ruxa is very soft. They often describe his coat as
(11:21):
feeling similar to that of a long-haired German shepherd. You
heard it here first, folks.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
That is a huge scoop. I never would have guessed that.
I would have imagined that they had, you know, much shorter,
coarser hair. No. That's fascinating.
Speaker 2 (11:36):
No. So if you've ever patted a long-haired German shepherd,
you know what it's like to pat a cheetah.
Speaker 1 (11:41):
I am going to chase a cheetah down and try
to make it happen. So in the wild, cheetahs obviously
eat a wide variety of smaller animals. Now, this includes birds, rabbits,
several antelope species, including gazelles. There's one cheetah who is
better known for culinary creations like banana bread and apple pie.
(12:02):
And his name is Cheetah. Along with his human sidekick,
a musician named Noah Moranis, aka Good Boy Noah, he
makes musical cooking videos. Now, I found these videos a
few years ago, and to be honest, I was so
delighted by them. And part of my excitement about this episode,
in addition to talking about animals, which, you know, I
(12:25):
obviously love, was being able to talk about these genius videos.
Each clip follows the same format. Noah sings about a
food he'd like to make, and then Cheetah slides in
with this smooth, sometimes profanity-laced rap that gives the step-by-step recipe.
It is incredible. Here's an example.
Speaker 2 (12:45):
Hey yo Cheetah, what's up?
Speaker 1 (12:47):
I really wanna make some focaccia And I was wondering
if you wanna help me.
Speaker 3 (12:53):
Out Yeah I gotcha, pour some warm water in a
big bowl With some sugar, yeast, salt, and olive oil
Throw it, mix it up, and let it get foamy,
homie Throw in some flour and then you fold it
slowly Okay.
Speaker 1 (13:07):
I'll mix it up, is it time for us to
bake it in the mud? Now, Cheetah, or as he's
sometimes known, Ayo Cheetah, burst onto the scene in 2022
with an omelet recipe. Noah told the online food publication
Taste that he's always dreamed of a music career, but
found the demands of self-promotion really frustrating. Making cooking videos
(13:27):
with Cheetah turned out to be this creative outlet that
he needed. So it actually launched him to fame. Noah
now has 2.5 million followers on TikTok and another 1.5
million on Instagram. Justin Bieber and Snoop Dogg are both fans.
And last year, Noah and Cheetah released their first cookbook.
Speaker 2 (13:47):
And since you have not mentioned this yet, I think
we should be clear this is a Cheetah puppet we're
talking about.
Speaker 1 (13:53):
Maybe. So for one thing, Noah has maintained that Cheetah
is a real live creative partner, not a puppet, although
I grant it, he does look like a puppet. The
bigger question is, if you take a closer look, Is
it really a cheetah's coat?
Speaker 2 (14:08):
Oh, look at that. No, look at those. He has,
what did you call them? The rosettes, right?
Speaker 1 (14:12):
Yeah, leopard spots. That's exactly right. They've got the lighter
centers and not the solid black spots. You know, I
reach out to Noah's management to ask about cheetahs' true
identity and And we never heard back. So it's a mystery. Cheetah, A.O.
Cheetah could be a con man. I don't know.
Speaker 2 (14:30):
It's a cover up. That's why they didn't want to
get back to you because they knew you were on
to them.
Speaker 1 (14:35):
It's a real Don Draper situation. He's got a very
different background. All I know for sure is that every
time Noah and Cheetah pop up in my feed, they
crack me up so much. And they also give me
plenty of recipe ideas. We have to take a quick break.
But when we come back, unusual Cheetah sounds and a
nightclub that changed music history. Don't go anywhere. So Welcome
(15:11):
back to Part-Time Genius, where we're celebrating cheetahs in the
wild and in culture. Before we get back into it,
just a reminder, our hotline number is 302-405-5925, my beloved Delaware.
Leave us a message with any questions you have for us,
or just let us know if there's an episode you
enjoyed recently. We love hearing from you.
Speaker 2 (15:33):
If you've ever petted a cheetah, I want to hear
about that.
Speaker 1 (15:36):
Yes. First-hand reports of real-life cheetah experiences would be great.
You know, I pet a baby white tiger once.
Speaker 2 (15:43):
How have I known you this long and you have not,
how did you not lead with that years ago? What's
going on?
Speaker 1 (15:49):
How? So my parents took us to Disney World when
I was in like third grade and my uncle and
aunt were visiting from India. And so they took us
all there. And my For some reason, my parents like
didn't just take us to Disney. They took us to
some of these other theme parks that were around as well.
So like there was this place called Cypress Gardens. And
when we were there, my dad got bitten by a
(16:12):
fire ant and he never knew he was allergic to
fire ants. Like he sort of like flared up and
they rushed him off in an emergency room and like
the whole big allergy thing.
Speaker 2 (16:20):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:21):
And my uncle and aunt were there and the people
at Cypress Gardens were walking by and they just had
these baby white tigers and we just got to like
Shanta and I got to pet them through like this
little cage they had.
Speaker 2 (16:32):
It's like, we're so sorry your father's been rushed to
the hospital.
Speaker 1 (16:34):
Here's a tiger. Basically.
Speaker 2 (16:38):
I'm not a child psychologist, but I think that is
a great strategy, actually.
Speaker 1 (16:42):
It's a good distraction.
Speaker 2 (16:44):
Well, speaking of distractions, we are returning to one of
our favorite distractions on this show, which is cartoons, specifically
a 1980s icon, Chitara from Thundercats.
Speaker 1 (16:56):
You know, I haven't thought about that show since, I
don't know, maybe the 80s. I know it's a classic,
but it feels like a throwback.
Speaker 2 (17:05):
Yeah, well, it is definitely a throwback. But Thundercats actually
taught kids some useful information about cheetahs. In the show,
one of Cheetara's superpowers is her speed, which makes sense
because obviously... Cheetahs are the world's fastest land animal. They've
been clocked running over 70 miles an hour. But all
that incredible speed comes with a catch as we learn
in this scene where Chitara races Lion-O as part of
(17:28):
his trials to become the next Lord of the Thundercats. One, two, three, go!
Speaker 3 (17:42):
Not fair!
Speaker 1 (17:43):
We know Lion-O can't beat her like that! That may
not be true. What does he mean? Chitara is fast,
but her super speed lasts for less than two miles.
And they've got five to go!
Speaker 2 (18:02):
So cheetahs are sprinters. They're not marathoners. They're built for
really short bursts of intense speed, the kind you need
to overtake prey. And a lot of their power actually
comes from their respiratory and circulatory systems. They have oversized
nostrils and sinuses that can supply them with extra oxygen.
And while they're sprinting, they can take up to 150
(18:22):
breaths per minute. Just think about that.
Speaker 1 (18:27):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (18:28):
These adaptations are what allow them to go from zero
to 60 miles per hour in under three seconds, but
they cannot sustain that pace for long, as Lion-O discovers
when he beats Chitara to the finish line. Of course,
Thundercats isn't totally true to life. Chitara is racing... I know,
you'll be shocked to learn. Cheetah is racing in a
(18:48):
pair of tall orange boots. Actual cheetahs have hard paw
pads and non-retractable claws that boost their speed by giving
them traction on any kind of surface.
Speaker 1 (18:59):
Oh, non-retractable. But when you talk about boots, they feel
like just hard paw pads for feet, right?
Speaker 2 (19:05):
That is another point for the wildlife biology team at
Thundercats HQ.
Speaker 1 (19:10):
Well, speaking of overtaking prey, did you know cheetahs typically
hunt at dawn and dusk? And that is because in
the wild, they share terrain with lions and leopards. And
because they're competing for the same prey, different species hunt
at different times. Leopards and lions hunt late at night,
so cheetahs venture out around the edges of the day.
(19:31):
And this way, they avoid competition, but also the midday heat. Now,
there is one cheetah that was 100% nocturnal. I am
not talking about cheetahs in Africa. I'm talking about the
Cheetah Nightclub, which opened in Midtown Manhattan in 1966. The
New York Times documented its opening, and it was an
(19:52):
incredible scene. The entire place was upholstered in fake fur,
which I'm not sure felt like a German shepherd, but
it was fake fur. And the place had a capacity
of 2,000 people, which Sounds like insanity to me, but
it was the biggest club in the city. The main
dance floor was lit by 3,000 multicolored light bulbs. And
(20:13):
there was even a clothing boutique so club goers could
go and buy new outfits. But one thing you could
not buy was a cocktail. Cheetah did not serve liquor,
just beer, wine, soda, and oddly enough, hot dogs.
Speaker 2 (20:27):
I'm trying to decide if this sounds exhausting or awesome.
I guess maybe both.
Speaker 1 (20:33):
To me, it just sounds claustrophobic. But I did want
to check out what was being sold in that boutique,
so I looked it up. Here are just a few
items that were on sale there. Mini skirts and mini
mini skirts. Silver dungarees. Also, one particular popular outfit was
abstract houndstooth tights. a fencer-style tunic, and a matching cap.
(20:55):
It was priced at $ 20.
Speaker 2 (20:56):
Oh, man. Man, we don't do it like that anymore.
Speaker 1 (20:59):
I know, but the thing is, like, people loved the
clothes so much that they actually had to expand the
coat check into a pants and shirt check so that
people could change into their new clothes and have somewhere
to stash the ones they came in wearing, which is
just amazing to me. So Cheetah was definitely a scene,
but what set Cheetah apart from other nightclubs of the
era was its impact on music, specifically New York salsa.
(21:21):
The connection to salsa actually came thanks to a New
York record label called Fania, which was founded by the
Juilliard-trained Dominican musician Johnny Pacheco. People have referred to Fania
as the Latin Motown, and that just kind of gives
you a sense of the significance of it. Anyway, Fania
had a roster of incredible musicians who created a pan-Latin
sound with a wide range of Afro-Caribbean and South American influences.
(21:45):
It was music to dance to, and Fania artists started
booking regular gigs at Cheetah. The club actually became the
place to experience the music that became known as salsa.
And then, on this one hot August night in 1971...
Fania gathered over a dozen artists to play this sold-out
show under the moniker Fania All-Stars. Johnny Pacheco also hired
(22:08):
a filmmaker to record the event for posterity. According to
some sources, he envisioned it as almost a Latin Woodstock,
and the lineup was legendary. It included this great trombonist
and civil rights activist, Willie Colon, vocalists Cheo Feliciano and
Bobby Cruz, and percussionist Ray Barreto, amongst others.
Speaker 2 (22:28):
Were people just standing there eating hot dogs while this
historic performance went down?
Speaker 1 (22:32):
I mean, drinking soda, too. But that night became the
centerpiece of this documentary film. It's called Our Latin Thing.
It blends footage of the performances with scenes of the
Puerto Rican community in the Lower East Side. It's actually
available on YouTube. We're going to put a link in
the show notes. It is worth checking out. It's kind
of this remarkable slice of New York and Latin music history.
(22:54):
And it's all thanks to a cheetah.
Speaker 2 (22:57):
Oh, that sounds great. I can't wait to see that. Okay,
so for my next fact, let's turn our attention to
cheetahs in the ancient visual arts. The earliest known portraits
of cheetahs are in cave paintings in France, and they're
approximately 32,000 years old. A little closer to home, ancient
Egyptians believed that cheetahs carried the spirits of pharaohs when
(23:18):
they died. So there's a lot of cheetah art in
Egyptian tombs. Most famously, King Tut's tomb has a statue
depicting the king riding on a cheetah's back. There's an
interesting shift by the time we get to ancient Greece.
As you mentioned earlier, cheetahs are unique among big cats
because people tamed them and trained them for hunting. And
that does seem to have been true at different times
(23:39):
across different cultures and eras. Among Greek nobility, they were
treated like pets. Wealthy young men back then couldn't make
TikToks flaunting their wealth. So instead, they commissioned vases depicting
themselves indulging in leisure activities like lounging around and playing
musical instruments, often with a pet cheetah by their side.
Speaker 1 (24:00):
I love that you're calling vases the TikTok of ancient Greece.
Speaker 2 (24:06):
I mean, they were flexing. This is what it was.
They were just flexing on the haters through a vase.
And lucky for us, some of the vases survived, and
so we know this. But according to historians, there is
one big problem with studying big cats in ancient art.
they can be hard to tell apart. Sometimes it is
impossible to determine if an artist was trying to represent
(24:29):
a cheetah, a lion, a leopard, or some completely imaginary hybrid.
Speaker 1 (24:33):
I mean, the other thing is, it's not like every
artist was setting out to do this 100% accurate scientific drawing, right? Oh, right.
Speaker 2 (24:40):
But on top of that, historically, some languages lacked words
to distinguish between big cat species the way we do now.
There might have just been one word to encompass a
different big cats. So artists from those cultures wouldn't necessarily
see the need to make it clear that what they
were depicting was a cheetah, not a leopard in the
way that we know it today.
Speaker 1 (25:00):
So in other words, Good Boy Noah's leopard-cheetah confusion is
actually part of this long artistic tradition.
Speaker 2 (25:07):
Oh, absolutely. Yes. Rapping about baked goods is a new innovation.
Speaker 1 (25:12):
That was his twist.
Speaker 3 (25:13):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (25:15):
So one thing I was curious about is the sounds
that Cheetos make aside from rapping. It turns out they
have unique vocal repertoires. They can purr, but they cannot roar.
Speaker 3 (25:26):
So.
Speaker 1 (25:26):
You know, for tigers, lions, and leopards, it's the other
way around. Of course, now that you've found out how
soft cheetahs are, I imagine, you know, how nice it
might be to pat one while it purrs.
Speaker 2 (25:36):
Oh, I think that would be really relaxing as long
as the cheetah was not hungry. So wait, is there
a reason why cheetahs know how to purr but not roar?
Speaker 1 (25:45):
I mean, it's not a skill issue. It's actually their anatomy.
So lions and tigers have this ligament in their voice
box that stretches when they vocalize. And it creates this
loud roar that can be heard across the savannah. Actually,
back when we started Part-Time Genius, I lived in Atlanta,
and we lived maybe like a half mile or a
mile from the zoo in Grant Park there. And They
(26:07):
had lions, and you could actually hear them roaring faintly
at night.
Speaker 2 (26:10):
From your house?
Speaker 1 (26:11):
Yeah, yeah, from our porch. You could hear it. Oh, wow.
I loved it. But cheetahs, like house cats, have a
small bone in their voice box instead. And so when
they make certain vocalizations, the bone vibrates, creating a purr.
That said, among cats of all sizes, cheetahs are actually
known for being super creative vocalists. In addition to purring
(26:34):
and hissing and growling, They can also chirp, trill, yip,
and chir.
Speaker 2 (26:40):
You are making those words up.
Speaker 1 (26:43):
I wish I was, but no, it's true. In fact,
here's a clip from the Toronto Zoo featuring an adult
cheetah named Bakari demonstrating all that yipping and chirping.
Speaker 2 (27:11):
Okay that is the most adorable sound i think i've
ever heard a vicious predator make um but you know
mango this whole episode we've been connecting our real cheetah
facts to cheetah cultural facts so how can you do
it with this one.
Speaker 1 (27:24):
Thought you'd never ask. When it comes to cheetah vocalists,
no one beats the Cheetah Girls. Okay, I'm listening. So
glad we pulled this fact. This was created by author
Deborah Gregory and launched to stardom via the hit Disney
musical series. For those who, like us, are just a
little too old to have watched the movies when they
(27:45):
came out, the Cheetah Girls are four friends who become
a singing group, launching them on a journey to stay
true to themselves and their friendships. You know, it's not
the most complex plot, but the thing is, this franchise
was the first multi-ethnic girl group to come out of
the Disney factory. And not only has it celebrated racial
and cultural diversity, the film and its sequels tackled real
(28:06):
issues like navigating class differences and growing up in foster care. Plus,
everyone involved can actually sing. Now, Cheetah Girl fans have
a lot to be excited about these days because the
fourth film started shooting in Cape Town this summer. The
story is about a talent competition to discover the next
great African girl group. So who knows? Maybe we'll see
(28:27):
some actual cheetahs in the mix.
Speaker 2 (28:29):
At the very least, they could sample some of those
yips and churs for their record, right?
Speaker 3 (28:33):
Yeah, totally.
Speaker 2 (28:34):
Okay, for our final fact of the day, I'm going
to tell you about the most famous fictional cheetah of all.
I am referring, of course, to Chester Cheetah, whose grinning
face appears on every bag of Cheetos. Are you a
big Cheetos fan, Mango?
Speaker 1 (28:47):
I am, though I think I used to like Chester
the Cheetah more. I remember in the late 2000s, they
made him a little creepier. Do you remember this?
Speaker 2 (28:55):
Yeah, he took a dark turn, right?
Speaker 1 (28:56):
Yeah, he became almost like this devil on people's shoulder,
encouraging them to do mischievous, random acts of Cheetos. One
was like, I think someone was snoring and he encourages
them to put like a Cheeto up this guy's nose.
I'm less into that iteration than like the cartoon Joe
Cool version that used to exist. But I'm not sure
if you know this, but at the very first Mental
(29:17):
Floss Party when Will and I were in college and
we debuted our first edition of the magazine, we wanted
to have a wine and cheese party, but You know,
we were in college. We barely had money for a magazine.
So we paired it back. And instead of wine and cheese,
we did Cheetos and grape soda. Oh, that's classy. Yeah,
very classy. But we served the Cheetos on toothpicks to
keep it fancier and make sure your fingers didn't get orange.
(29:41):
But what about you? Are you a Cheetos fan? Do
you like the curls or the puffs or cheese balls? Yeah.
Speaker 2 (29:46):
So, you know, as much as Will likes sweets, I
have a salt problem. Salty snacks. That's my downfall. I
do like Cheetos. I eat them with chopsticks.
Speaker 1 (29:55):
Do you really? I was curious about that.
Speaker 3 (29:56):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (29:57):
Oh, yeah.
Speaker 2 (29:58):
No, it's great. You don't ever have to get your
fingers grubby. You can just eat them right out of
the bag with chopsticks. Or, you know, you could be appropriate,
I guess, and put them in a little serving bowl. And, yeah,
highly recommend. I prefer the originals. My kid likes the puffs.
I like the originals because they're saltier.
Speaker 1 (30:13):
I like the puffs, too. I think... I remember, like,
really liking the Planters cheese balls, which are a different thing. Oh, yeah.
And then I discovered the Puffs, and I think the
two felt more akin than the harder pearls.
Speaker 2 (30:26):
Man, this is making me hungry. I know what I'm
having for lunch. But, you know, Chester is so iconic,
and he has been around for so long, it may
shock you to learn that he was not the first
Cheetos mascot.
Speaker 1 (30:38):
What?
Speaker 3 (30:38):
Really?
Speaker 1 (30:39):
That's right. No. No.
Speaker 2 (30:40):
He was a later development. The very first Cheetos mascot
was the Cheetos Mouse, who debuted in the early 1970s.
And this mouse never had a name, at least as
far as we know. He wore a gray suit and
a necktie, and he spoke in a very proper British accent,
which sounds completely off-brand for an American junk food. But,
you know, the more I thought about it, the more
it makes sense, because back then— The snack's tagline was
(31:03):
the cheese that goes crunch. So they were really trying
to emphasize the idea that Cheetos was somehow made with
real cheese or reflecting real cheese. And so maybe the
Frito-Lay marketing team just figured consumers would connect this upper
crust British critter with the idea of a good, sharp.
English cheddar. And I guess you and Will were picking
(31:24):
up on that subconsciously when you served your Cheetos at
your launch party, right?
Speaker 1 (31:28):
Clearly, it was purely for like cultural and historic reasons
and nothing about like how little money we had.
Speaker 2 (31:33):
Many decades later, people realize how savvy that move was.
But for whatever reason, the Cheetos mouse was phased out
at the end of the 70s. And in 1986, Chester
Cheetah burst onto the scene. And unlike his predecessor, he
was much more American and He wore shades. He spoke
in a cool, swaggy rhyme. And he was voiced by
the actor Joel Murray, who came up through the Chicago
(31:55):
improv scene at Second City. You may know his older brother, Bill.
Speaker 1 (31:59):
As in, like, Bill Murray?
Speaker 2 (32:01):
Mm-hmm.
Speaker 3 (32:02):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (32:02):
The Bill Murray.
Speaker 1 (32:04):
Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2 (32:04):
He's made some great movies. Very talented. But if you
ask me, Joel is the real star in that family.
And to say he made Chester a hit would be
a massive understatement. People just went crazy for this character.
He was so popular that in the early 1990s, The
Fox Network actually made plans for a Saturday morning cartoon
series called Yo! It's the Chester Cheetah Show.
Speaker 1 (32:24):
I feel like I would have watched that. How come
I don't remember it?
Speaker 2 (32:28):
Well, because it never happened. Concerned parents groups in the
Center for Science in the Public Interest got together and
protested the cartoon. saying it would violate FCC rules against
keeping programming and commercial content separate. I mean, it's so
quaint to think about.
Speaker 1 (32:43):
I know. I mean, and like gummy bears never had
that problem for whatever reason. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (32:50):
But, you know, the pressure worked. The show never aired.
I would love to know if there was a pilot,
if there was a script, like anything.
Speaker 1 (32:57):
If anybody out there knows, please.
Speaker 2 (32:59):
Get in touch. Email us. But luckily for Chester fans
and for Frida Leigh, Video games didn't have the same
regulation as TV. And so in 1992, a Chester Cheetah
game was released for Genesis and Super Nintendo and then
put out subsequent editions.
Speaker 1 (33:15):
Yeah, of course. I mean, like you had that Noid
game from Domino's and like there are other examples of this.
Speaker 2 (33:21):
Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1 (33:22):
Exactly.
Speaker 2 (33:23):
All these years later, Chester has proven himself to be
one of the most enduring spokes animals in the supermarket.
But here's the thing. Cheetahs, like other cats, including your
house cat, they're obligate carnivores. That means that unlike carnivores
whose ancestors also ate plants, like, for example, dogs, there's
some evidence that dogs' ancestors could have eaten some plants
(33:44):
as well. Cats have only ever eaten meat, and that's
because their bodies need several amino acids that are unique
to animal protein, and they actually have a hard time
metabolizing a lot of carbohydrates, which begs the question, since
Chester is a cheetah, Should he eat Cheetos?
Speaker 1 (34:01):
That's a good question.
Speaker 2 (34:04):
Well, and luckily for me, I'd already been in touch
with the good folks at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park,
asking them really, you know, heart-hitting journalistic questions like, what
does it feel like to pat a cheetah? So I
decided to ask them, and their response was swift. Quote, no,
it would not be appropriate to feed a cheetah a
Cheeto as it would not meet the nutritional or welfare
(34:24):
needs for this species.
Speaker 1 (34:27):
I love this investigative series, and I can't wait for
you to look into whether toucans should eat Froot Loops.
But I'm curious, could a cheetah eat a Cheeto as
a treat?
Speaker 2 (34:39):
Not even one Cheeto as a treat.
Speaker 3 (34:41):
No.
Speaker 2 (34:42):
Well, so here's the thing, right? In the wild, a
cheetah is not going to encounter Cheetos. And what the
folks in San Diego explained is that in zoos and
conservation centers, there are actually animal nutritionists on staff who
work very hard to formulate whole diets based on comprehensive
nutritional needs, animals' digestive systems, but also their natural feeding behaviors,
(35:03):
and more. If you think about it, a cheetah needs
to hunt. You can't really chase a cheetah. And this
is all holistically. It's a huge part of keeping animals
safe and healthy. So the bottom line is there is
no context in which it would be okay for a
real-life cheetah to eat Cheetos. And so sorry, real-life cheetahs,
you're going to have to find something else.
Speaker 1 (35:23):
Well, it probably makes sense because, like, they probably couldn't
work the chopsticks anyway. Yeah, right.
Speaker 2 (35:28):
Cheetah's notoriously bad with chopsticks, and science has not figured
out a way to help them with that yet. But,
you know, congratulations to you, Mango, because I think you
deserve today's trophy for introducing me to my new favorite
TikTok account and the word chur.
Speaker 1 (35:44):
Well, I'll take it. I do think... Anyone out there
who isn't worried about expletives should go listen to the
Good Boy Noah cheetah recipes because they're so delightful. I
also want to make sure to thank the wildlife experts
at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park who took time
out of their busy days to answer our ridiculous questions
(36:05):
about cheetos and cheetah softness. If you like the show...
please do leave us a nice rating and review. We
read them. We also read everything that comes into Instagram
and Blue Sky. We're at Part-Time Genius. We will be
back next week with another new episode. But in the meantime,
from Will, Dylan, Gabe, Mary, and myself, thank you so
(36:26):
much for listening. Part-time Genius is a production of Kaleidoscope
and iHeartRadio. It is hosted by my good pal, Will Pearson,
who I've known for almost three decades now. That is
(36:49):
insane to me. I'm the other co-host, Mange Shatikular, a.k.a. Mango.
Our producer is Mary Phillips Sandy. She's actually a super producer.
I'm going to fix that in post. Our writer is
Gabe Luzier, who I've also known for like a decade
at this point, maybe more. Dylan Fagan is in the booth.
He is always dressed up, always cheering us on, and
(37:11):
always ready to hit record and then mix the show after.
He does a great job. I also want to shout
out the executive producers from iHeart, my good pals Katrina
Norvell and Allie Perry. We have social media support from
Calypso Rawless. If you like our videos, that is all
Calypso's handiwork. For more podcasts from Kaleidoscope and iHeartRadio, visit
(37:32):
the iHeartRadio app. Apple Podcasts or tune in wherever you
listen to your favorite shows. That's it from us here
at Part-Time Genius. Thank you so much for listening. You know, Mary,
you said that dogs used to eat plants. Our dog, Lupini,
who was a little overweight and very cute and furry,
(37:57):
would jump into our vegetable patch in Delaware and eat asparagus. Asparagus.
So we had to monitor the fence of the patch
to make sure Lupini didn't jump in.
Speaker 2 (38:12):
Oh, wow. And this was the dog who ate the
cheese slices too, right?
Speaker 1 (38:16):
Yeah, cheese slices, asparagus, also like tomatoes. Yeah, yeah. Very cosmopolitan.
Speaker 2 (38:21):
I was a bit puzzled by that. My cat Buckley
used to love eating spinach. He would go crazy if
you were like making a salad. He'd stand on his
hind legs and beg for the spinach. The vet was like,
I can't explain it. I've never seen this before in
my life. So I don't know. Maybe he was just weird.
But yeah, apparently it's just a different metabolism than other carnivores. Cats,
(38:44):
endlessly fascinating.
You're listening to Part-Time Genius, a production of Kaleidoscope and iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Guess what, Mango?
Speaker 1 (00:25):
What's up, Mary?
Speaker 2 (00:26):
I recently watched that Disney movie with a big cat
in the title. You know, the one that features a
song with the phrase Hakuna Matata.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
So obviously you're talking about Lion King here, right?
Speaker 2 (00:39):
The what? No, I'm sorry. I don't know that one.
I haven't heard of that.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
Is it good? No, no, no.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
I'm talking about the 1989 drama Cheetah. It's the story
of a family from California that moves to Kenya for
the dad's research job. And I'll be honest, it has
not aged well. There's a lot of casual racism, some
very awkward portrayals of local Kenyans.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
Oh, no.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
But the plot centers on the family's two teenagers, and
they befriend a boy from a nearby village, and they
discover a cheetah cub whose mom was killed by a poacher.
The kids name the cheetah Duma, and they decide to
raise it themselves, as you do. And then a guy
steals Duma to make her race greyhounds for money. There's
a rescue mission and then, of course, a big finale
(01:24):
where the family releases Duma back to the wild before
going home to L.A.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
I feel like you should have given me a spoiler
alert here because that's a lot of story.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
It's okay. I'm not actually suggesting that anyone go watch
this movie.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
Oh, good.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
But I do want everyone to check out a song
that is featured in its soundtrack. It's called Jambobwana, which
means hello, mister in Swahili. And it's actually one of
Kenya's most famous pop songs. It's been covered dozens of times,
but it was originally released in the early 1980s by
a band called Them Mushrooms. And it was an instant
(01:59):
hit in Africa. It sold over 200,000 copies. It's got
all the ingredients for a huge pop song. It's catchy.
It's easy to sing along to. And the lyrics are
these upbeat messages about how Kenya is a beautiful country
with no worries.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
Oh, no worries like Hakuna Matata. Exactly.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
And the song was adopted as an anthem for Kenya's
travel industry. Them Mushrooms went on to become one of
East Africa's most influential bands. They've been through lineup changes.
There was the untimely death of their original drummer, but
they are still together and they're still making music all
these decades later, which is so cool.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
You know, you don't hear that often.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
But despite the tune's massive success in Africa, Most Western
audiences did not learn the phrase hakuna matata until 1994,
thanks to this movie that you just told me about
called The Lion King. I'll put that on my to-watch list.
The songwriters Elton John and Tim Rice have said that
they came across the saying in a book of Swahili phrases,
(02:56):
which is really interesting to me, because if they had
seen cheetah, not only would they have already known what
it meant, they would have known that it makes a
great song hook.
Speaker 1 (03:06):
They also.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
would have learned about the very real problem of cheetah-human conflict.
According to the African Wildlife Foundation, people endanger cheetahs in
myriad ways. There's poaching, which is what happened to Duma's
mother in the movie, but also conflicts with farmers, which
I hadn't known about. Basically, as cheetahs' habitat gets developed,
there's less wild prey for them to hunt, and that
(03:30):
forces them to attack livestock in order to survive, and
that prompts farmers to go out and shoot them.
Speaker 3 (03:36):
Sure.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
So even though Cheetah was not a great movie, it
did get one thing really correct. Cheetahs are at risk
because of us. And today, conservation experts estimate there are
only about 6,500 adult cheetahs left in the wild.
Speaker 1 (03:52):
Wow. 6,500. You know, it's funny that number because I
just learned this week that there are around 6,600 exoplanets
that we know. It's weird to think that there are
as many external planets as there are cheetahs.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
In the world. One cheetah per planet. But, you know,
I don't know. I would like to keep the cheetahs
here on Earth.
Speaker 1 (04:11):
I know. Well, I am glad that we are celebrating
this rare and special cat today with nine facts about
cheetahs and this surprisingly deep mark that they've made on
art and culture over the years. I'm really excited to
dive in. So let's do it. We'll be right back.
(04:49):
Hey there, podcast listeners. Welcome to Part-Time Genius. I'm Mangesh Hatikadur.
And as you know, Will Pearson is not a fan
of cats. He says that a lot. So he is
sitting this episode out. And instead, I'm joined by our
very pro-cat producer, very cat positive, Mary Philip Sandy. And
(05:10):
over there in the booth wearing his favorite cheetah print
leggings paired with a cheetah print jacket, it is our
pal and producer, Dylan Fagan.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
Ready for fashion week, as always. But, you know, I
have always wondered what the difference is between cheetah and
leopard print.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
So hold on a second, because, yeah, Dylan is taking
off his jacket. And would you look at that? It
is reversible. He's got leopard print on the inside. For
the listeners at home, the cheetah print side features solid
black spots on a tan background. And the leopard print
looks more like almost like these rosettes. They're like kind
(05:48):
of these irregular black rings with a lighter center.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
That's great. I love fashion that's educational.
Speaker 1 (05:56):
I love that you don't love fashion. You love educational fashion.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
You've seen how I dress.
Speaker 1 (06:03):
Well, I'm glad we're starting with cheetahs appearances because that's
actually how they got their name. So the word cheetah
comes from Hindi, which is cheetah. And in turn, it
was derived from a Sanskrit word, chitra, which means embellished
or spotted. I actually find the cheetah's Indian roots fascinating
because these days, cheetahs are obviously associated with Africa, which
(06:26):
is where the vast majority of them survive. There are
only a few dozen Asiatic cheetahs left in central Iran.
They're considered the world's most endangered big cat. But once
upon a time, cheetahs roamed across the subcontinent and they
were beloved by nobility. There's this one Mughal ruler who
reportedly kept a thousand of them in a stable. And
(06:50):
unlike lions and tigers, cheetahs actually played this really specific
role in India. They were used for coursing. which is
basically a practice where predators are trained to track and
hunt other animals.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
So hang on, people went hunting with tame cheetahs like
the way you might use a hunting dog?
Speaker 1 (07:06):
Yeah, it's incredible, right? There are written references and they
go back to the 10th century where they describe the
use of these trained cheetahs to hunt deer and antelope.
Muslim and Hindu rulers both did this, as did tribes
who relied on wild game for food. Now, things changed
in the 19th century when the British started hunting cheetahs
for sport and Pretty soon, Indian elites took up the
(07:28):
hobby as well. So by the mid-20th century, there were
no cheetahs left in India. Now, luckily, they were a
major source of inspiration for artists, so we do have
plenty of paintings to remember them by. In fact, in 2025,
a painting depicting a family of cheetahs reclining in the
grass sold at auction for over £ 10 million today. It
(07:48):
was made in the late 1500s by an artist named Buswan,
and it set the record for a classical Indian art
sale at Christie's in London.
Speaker 3 (07:57):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
Well, the plight of the Asian cheetah is a good
reminder of just how important conservation is. And one place
that does a lot for that is the San Diego
Zoo Safari Park. And in 2016, one of its cheetahs
became an internet sensation. His name is Ruxa, and he
was born with a leg deformity that required surgery. On
top of that, Ruxa didn't have siblings, so his caretakers
(08:21):
introduced him to a companion dog named Reina. And videos
of these unlikely friends went viral. One of them currently
has over 24 million views on YouTube.
Speaker 1 (08:32):
People love two different species of animals hanging out, right?
Speaker 2 (08:36):
Oh, it's the best.
Speaker 1 (08:36):
Especially when one's a predator. Like, it feels like, oh,
this alligator and this swan are best friends.
Speaker 2 (08:42):
They're best friends, and they'll definitely never eat each other.
Speaker 1 (08:45):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
But in this case, it really was sweet. And Raina
kept Rooks' company as he recovered from surgery and went
through this rehabilitation process. And it's just incredible if you
go watch the footage of them together. I'll link it
in the show notes. But it's like they don't even
realize how different they are. They're just having so much fun.
Speaker 1 (09:04):
I love that.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
So it's been a few years since the pair took
the internet by storm. So I was curious to know
how things were going now. So I reached out to
the San Diego Zoo for an update. The bad news
is this. Unfortunately, Raina died from cancer in 2020. But
before her death, Ruxa's care team introduced him to a
new pup named Ray. And this allowed him to spend
(09:25):
time with both dogs, all three of them as a trio.
And that eased the transition after Raina died. The good
news is that since then, Ruxa has been doing great.
He's 12 years old. And the zoo told me that
is actually geriatric for a cheetah. So they monitor his
health really closely. But by all measures, he's thriving. He
and Ray share a habitat. They play together. And I
(09:47):
love this. They actually have a job. They participate in
educational programs that help zoo visitors learn about cheetah conservation
and the important role that dogs can play in combating
wildlife trafficking.
Speaker 1 (09:59):
Wow. do dogs play a role in combating trafficking?
Speaker 2 (10:03):
So you know how there are, like, in airports, there
are drug-sniffing dogs? It's very much the same idea, right?
So dogs can be trained to detect signs of poaching
and animal trafficking, and they'll patrol seaports, airports, things like that.
In the case of cheetahs, cubs get stolen from their
mothers and sold on the black market as pets. And
(10:24):
people will pay up to $ 1 million for them. So
this is very lucrative.
Speaker 1 (10:29):
You know, that's crazy, though. Like, I always imagine that
when you go through an airport, the dog is sniffing
for cocaine, but it might be sniffing for a cheetah
in my backpack. It could be. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
If you have a cheetah and cocaine in your backpack,
you could be in big trouble. It is. But I
just think this is so great because in addition to
their heartwarming friendship, Ray and Ruxa are raising awareness of
these issues. And I know all of that is really,
really important. But there is one last thing. I just
couldn't stop thinking about what it would feel like to
(11:01):
pat a cheetah. I mean, they look really soft, but
obviously this is not something I can go test for myself.
So I just asked the experts at the San Diego
Zoo Safari Park. And I will read you their response verbatim. Quote,
according to the wildlife specialists who care for him daily,
Ruxa is very soft. They often describe his coat as
(11:21):
feeling similar to that of a long-haired German shepherd. You
heard it here first, folks.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
That is a huge scoop. I never would have guessed that.
I would have imagined that they had, you know, much shorter,
coarser hair. No. That's fascinating.
Speaker 2 (11:36):
No. So if you've ever patted a long-haired German shepherd,
you know what it's like to pat a cheetah.
Speaker 1 (11:41):
I am going to chase a cheetah down and try
to make it happen. So in the wild, cheetahs obviously
eat a wide variety of smaller animals. Now, this includes birds, rabbits,
several antelope species, including gazelles. There's one cheetah who is
better known for culinary creations like banana bread and apple pie.
(12:02):
And his name is Cheetah. Along with his human sidekick,
a musician named Noah Moranis, aka Good Boy Noah, he
makes musical cooking videos. Now, I found these videos a
few years ago, and to be honest, I was so
delighted by them. And part of my excitement about this episode,
in addition to talking about animals, which, you know, I
(12:25):
obviously love, was being able to talk about these genius videos.
Each clip follows the same format. Noah sings about a
food he'd like to make, and then Cheetah slides in
with this smooth, sometimes profanity-laced rap that gives the step-by-step recipe.
It is incredible. Here's an example.
Speaker 2 (12:45):
Hey yo Cheetah, what's up?
Speaker 1 (12:47):
I really wanna make some focaccia And I was wondering
if you wanna help me.
Speaker 3 (12:53):
Out Yeah I gotcha, pour some warm water in a
big bowl With some sugar, yeast, salt, and olive oil
Throw it, mix it up, and let it get foamy,
homie Throw in some flour and then you fold it
slowly Okay.
Speaker 1 (13:07):
I'll mix it up, is it time for us to
bake it in the mud? Now, Cheetah, or as he's
sometimes known, Ayo Cheetah, burst onto the scene in 2022
with an omelet recipe. Noah told the online food publication
Taste that he's always dreamed of a music career, but
found the demands of self-promotion really frustrating. Making cooking videos
(13:27):
with Cheetah turned out to be this creative outlet that
he needed. So it actually launched him to fame. Noah
now has 2.5 million followers on TikTok and another 1.5
million on Instagram. Justin Bieber and Snoop Dogg are both fans.
And last year, Noah and Cheetah released their first cookbook.
Speaker 2 (13:47):
And since you have not mentioned this yet, I think
we should be clear this is a Cheetah puppet we're
talking about.
Speaker 1 (13:53):
Maybe. So for one thing, Noah has maintained that Cheetah
is a real live creative partner, not a puppet, although
I grant it, he does look like a puppet. The
bigger question is, if you take a closer look, Is
it really a cheetah's coat?
Speaker 2 (14:08):
Oh, look at that. No, look at those. He has,
what did you call them? The rosettes, right?
Speaker 1 (14:12):
Yeah, leopard spots. That's exactly right. They've got the lighter
centers and not the solid black spots. You know, I
reach out to Noah's management to ask about cheetahs' true
identity and And we never heard back. So it's a mystery. Cheetah, A.O.
Cheetah could be a con man. I don't know.
Speaker 2 (14:30):
It's a cover up. That's why they didn't want to
get back to you because they knew you were on
to them.
Speaker 1 (14:35):
It's a real Don Draper situation. He's got a very
different background. All I know for sure is that every
time Noah and Cheetah pop up in my feed, they
crack me up so much. And they also give me
plenty of recipe ideas. We have to take a quick break.
But when we come back, unusual Cheetah sounds and a
nightclub that changed music history. Don't go anywhere. So Welcome
(15:11):
back to Part-Time Genius, where we're celebrating cheetahs in the
wild and in culture. Before we get back into it,
just a reminder, our hotline number is 302-405-5925, my beloved Delaware.
Leave us a message with any questions you have for us,
or just let us know if there's an episode you
enjoyed recently. We love hearing from you.
Speaker 2 (15:33):
If you've ever petted a cheetah, I want to hear
about that.
Speaker 1 (15:36):
Yes. First-hand reports of real-life cheetah experiences would be great.
You know, I pet a baby white tiger once.
Speaker 2 (15:43):
How have I known you this long and you have not,
how did you not lead with that years ago? What's
going on?
Speaker 1 (15:49):
How? So my parents took us to Disney World when
I was in like third grade and my uncle and
aunt were visiting from India. And so they took us
all there. And my For some reason, my parents like
didn't just take us to Disney. They took us to
some of these other theme parks that were around as well.
So like there was this place called Cypress Gardens. And
when we were there, my dad got bitten by a
(16:12):
fire ant and he never knew he was allergic to
fire ants. Like he sort of like flared up and
they rushed him off in an emergency room and like
the whole big allergy thing.
Speaker 2 (16:20):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:21):
And my uncle and aunt were there and the people
at Cypress Gardens were walking by and they just had
these baby white tigers and we just got to like
Shanta and I got to pet them through like this
little cage they had.
Speaker 2 (16:32):
It's like, we're so sorry your father's been rushed to
the hospital.
Speaker 1 (16:34):
Here's a tiger. Basically.
Speaker 2 (16:38):
I'm not a child psychologist, but I think that is
a great strategy, actually.
Speaker 1 (16:42):
It's a good distraction.
Speaker 2 (16:44):
Well, speaking of distractions, we are returning to one of
our favorite distractions on this show, which is cartoons, specifically
a 1980s icon, Chitara from Thundercats.
Speaker 1 (16:56):
You know, I haven't thought about that show since, I
don't know, maybe the 80s. I know it's a classic,
but it feels like a throwback.
Speaker 2 (17:05):
Yeah, well, it is definitely a throwback. But Thundercats actually
taught kids some useful information about cheetahs. In the show,
one of Cheetara's superpowers is her speed, which makes sense
because obviously... Cheetahs are the world's fastest land animal. They've
been clocked running over 70 miles an hour. But all
that incredible speed comes with a catch as we learn
in this scene where Chitara races Lion-O as part of
(17:28):
his trials to become the next Lord of the Thundercats. One, two, three, go!
Speaker 3 (17:42):
Not fair!
Speaker 1 (17:43):
We know Lion-O can't beat her like that! That may
not be true. What does he mean? Chitara is fast,
but her super speed lasts for less than two miles.
And they've got five to go!
Speaker 2 (18:02):
So cheetahs are sprinters. They're not marathoners. They're built for
really short bursts of intense speed, the kind you need
to overtake prey. And a lot of their power actually
comes from their respiratory and circulatory systems. They have oversized
nostrils and sinuses that can supply them with extra oxygen.
And while they're sprinting, they can take up to 150
(18:22):
breaths per minute. Just think about that.
Speaker 1 (18:27):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (18:28):
These adaptations are what allow them to go from zero
to 60 miles per hour in under three seconds, but
they cannot sustain that pace for long, as Lion-O discovers
when he beats Chitara to the finish line. Of course,
Thundercats isn't totally true to life. Chitara is racing... I know,
you'll be shocked to learn. Cheetah is racing in a
(18:48):
pair of tall orange boots. Actual cheetahs have hard paw
pads and non-retractable claws that boost their speed by giving
them traction on any kind of surface.
Speaker 1 (18:59):
Oh, non-retractable. But when you talk about boots, they feel
like just hard paw pads for feet, right?
Speaker 2 (19:05):
That is another point for the wildlife biology team at
Thundercats HQ.
Speaker 1 (19:10):
Well, speaking of overtaking prey, did you know cheetahs typically
hunt at dawn and dusk? And that is because in
the wild, they share terrain with lions and leopards. And
because they're competing for the same prey, different species hunt
at different times. Leopards and lions hunt late at night,
so cheetahs venture out around the edges of the day.
(19:31):
And this way, they avoid competition, but also the midday heat. Now,
there is one cheetah that was 100% nocturnal. I am
not talking about cheetahs in Africa. I'm talking about the
Cheetah Nightclub, which opened in Midtown Manhattan in 1966. The
New York Times documented its opening, and it was an
(19:52):
incredible scene. The entire place was upholstered in fake fur,
which I'm not sure felt like a German shepherd, but
it was fake fur. And the place had a capacity
of 2,000 people, which Sounds like insanity to me, but
it was the biggest club in the city. The main
dance floor was lit by 3,000 multicolored light bulbs. And
(20:13):
there was even a clothing boutique so club goers could
go and buy new outfits. But one thing you could
not buy was a cocktail. Cheetah did not serve liquor,
just beer, wine, soda, and oddly enough, hot dogs.
Speaker 2 (20:27):
I'm trying to decide if this sounds exhausting or awesome.
I guess maybe both.
Speaker 1 (20:33):
To me, it just sounds claustrophobic. But I did want
to check out what was being sold in that boutique,
so I looked it up. Here are just a few
items that were on sale there. Mini skirts and mini
mini skirts. Silver dungarees. Also, one particular popular outfit was
abstract houndstooth tights. a fencer-style tunic, and a matching cap.
(20:55):
It was priced at $ 20.
Speaker 2 (20:56):
Oh, man. Man, we don't do it like that anymore.
Speaker 1 (20:59):
I know, but the thing is, like, people loved the
clothes so much that they actually had to expand the
coat check into a pants and shirt check so that
people could change into their new clothes and have somewhere
to stash the ones they came in wearing, which is
just amazing to me. So Cheetah was definitely a scene,
but what set Cheetah apart from other nightclubs of the
era was its impact on music, specifically New York salsa.
(21:21):
The connection to salsa actually came thanks to a New
York record label called Fania, which was founded by the
Juilliard-trained Dominican musician Johnny Pacheco. People have referred to Fania
as the Latin Motown, and that just kind of gives
you a sense of the significance of it. Anyway, Fania
had a roster of incredible musicians who created a pan-Latin
sound with a wide range of Afro-Caribbean and South American influences.
(21:45):
It was music to dance to, and Fania artists started
booking regular gigs at Cheetah. The club actually became the
place to experience the music that became known as salsa.
And then, on this one hot August night in 1971...
Fania gathered over a dozen artists to play this sold-out
show under the moniker Fania All-Stars. Johnny Pacheco also hired
(22:08):
a filmmaker to record the event for posterity. According to
some sources, he envisioned it as almost a Latin Woodstock,
and the lineup was legendary. It included this great trombonist
and civil rights activist, Willie Colon, vocalists Cheo Feliciano and
Bobby Cruz, and percussionist Ray Barreto, amongst others.
Speaker 2 (22:28):
Were people just standing there eating hot dogs while this
historic performance went down?
Speaker 1 (22:32):
I mean, drinking soda, too. But that night became the
centerpiece of this documentary film. It's called Our Latin Thing.
It blends footage of the performances with scenes of the
Puerto Rican community in the Lower East Side. It's actually
available on YouTube. We're going to put a link in
the show notes. It is worth checking out. It's kind
of this remarkable slice of New York and Latin music history.
(22:54):
And it's all thanks to a cheetah.
Speaker 2 (22:57):
Oh, that sounds great. I can't wait to see that. Okay,
so for my next fact, let's turn our attention to
cheetahs in the ancient visual arts. The earliest known portraits
of cheetahs are in cave paintings in France, and they're
approximately 32,000 years old. A little closer to home, ancient
Egyptians believed that cheetahs carried the spirits of pharaohs when
(23:18):
they died. So there's a lot of cheetah art in
Egyptian tombs. Most famously, King Tut's tomb has a statue
depicting the king riding on a cheetah's back. There's an
interesting shift by the time we get to ancient Greece.
As you mentioned earlier, cheetahs are unique among big cats
because people tamed them and trained them for hunting. And
that does seem to have been true at different times
(23:39):
across different cultures and eras. Among Greek nobility, they were
treated like pets. Wealthy young men back then couldn't make
TikToks flaunting their wealth. So instead, they commissioned vases depicting
themselves indulging in leisure activities like lounging around and playing
musical instruments, often with a pet cheetah by their side.
Speaker 1 (24:00):
I love that you're calling vases the TikTok of ancient Greece.
Speaker 2 (24:06):
I mean, they were flexing. This is what it was.
They were just flexing on the haters through a vase.
And lucky for us, some of the vases survived, and
so we know this. But according to historians, there is
one big problem with studying big cats in ancient art.
they can be hard to tell apart. Sometimes it is
impossible to determine if an artist was trying to represent
(24:29):
a cheetah, a lion, a leopard, or some completely imaginary hybrid.
Speaker 1 (24:33):
I mean, the other thing is, it's not like every
artist was setting out to do this 100% accurate scientific drawing, right? Oh, right.
Speaker 2 (24:40):
But on top of that, historically, some languages lacked words
to distinguish between big cat species the way we do now.
There might have just been one word to encompass a
different big cats. So artists from those cultures wouldn't necessarily
see the need to make it clear that what they
were depicting was a cheetah, not a leopard in the
way that we know it today.
Speaker 1 (25:00):
So in other words, Good Boy Noah's leopard-cheetah confusion is
actually part of this long artistic tradition.
Speaker 2 (25:07):
Oh, absolutely. Yes. Rapping about baked goods is a new innovation.
Speaker 1 (25:12):
That was his twist.
Speaker 3 (25:13):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (25:15):
So one thing I was curious about is the sounds
that Cheetos make aside from rapping. It turns out they
have unique vocal repertoires. They can purr, but they cannot roar.
Speaker 3 (25:26):
So.
Speaker 1 (25:26):
You know, for tigers, lions, and leopards, it's the other
way around. Of course, now that you've found out how
soft cheetahs are, I imagine, you know, how nice it
might be to pat one while it purrs.
Speaker 2 (25:36):
Oh, I think that would be really relaxing as long
as the cheetah was not hungry. So wait, is there
a reason why cheetahs know how to purr but not roar?
Speaker 1 (25:45):
I mean, it's not a skill issue. It's actually their anatomy.
So lions and tigers have this ligament in their voice
box that stretches when they vocalize. And it creates this
loud roar that can be heard across the savannah. Actually,
back when we started Part-Time Genius, I lived in Atlanta,
and we lived maybe like a half mile or a
mile from the zoo in Grant Park there. And They
(26:07):
had lions, and you could actually hear them roaring faintly
at night.
Speaker 2 (26:10):
From your house?
Speaker 1 (26:11):
Yeah, yeah, from our porch. You could hear it. Oh, wow.
I loved it. But cheetahs, like house cats, have a
small bone in their voice box instead. And so when
they make certain vocalizations, the bone vibrates, creating a purr.
That said, among cats of all sizes, cheetahs are actually
known for being super creative vocalists. In addition to purring
(26:34):
and hissing and growling, They can also chirp, trill, yip,
and chir.
Speaker 2 (26:40):
You are making those words up.
Speaker 1 (26:43):
I wish I was, but no, it's true. In fact,
here's a clip from the Toronto Zoo featuring an adult
cheetah named Bakari demonstrating all that yipping and chirping.
Speaker 2 (27:11):
Okay that is the most adorable sound i think i've
ever heard a vicious predator make um but you know
mango this whole episode we've been connecting our real cheetah
facts to cheetah cultural facts so how can you do
it with this one.
Speaker 1 (27:24):
Thought you'd never ask. When it comes to cheetah vocalists,
no one beats the Cheetah Girls. Okay, I'm listening. So
glad we pulled this fact. This was created by author
Deborah Gregory and launched to stardom via the hit Disney
musical series. For those who, like us, are just a
little too old to have watched the movies when they
(27:45):
came out, the Cheetah Girls are four friends who become
a singing group, launching them on a journey to stay
true to themselves and their friendships. You know, it's not
the most complex plot, but the thing is, this franchise
was the first multi-ethnic girl group to come out of
the Disney factory. And not only has it celebrated racial
and cultural diversity, the film and its sequels tackled real
(28:06):
issues like navigating class differences and growing up in foster care. Plus,
everyone involved can actually sing. Now, Cheetah Girl fans have
a lot to be excited about these days because the
fourth film started shooting in Cape Town this summer. The
story is about a talent competition to discover the next
great African girl group. So who knows? Maybe we'll see
(28:27):
some actual cheetahs in the mix.
Speaker 2 (28:29):
At the very least, they could sample some of those
yips and churs for their record, right?
Speaker 3 (28:33):
Yeah, totally.
Speaker 2 (28:34):
Okay, for our final fact of the day, I'm going
to tell you about the most famous fictional cheetah of all.
I am referring, of course, to Chester Cheetah, whose grinning
face appears on every bag of Cheetos. Are you a
big Cheetos fan, Mango?
Speaker 1 (28:47):
I am, though I think I used to like Chester
the Cheetah more. I remember in the late 2000s, they
made him a little creepier. Do you remember this?
Speaker 2 (28:55):
Yeah, he took a dark turn, right?
Speaker 1 (28:56):
Yeah, he became almost like this devil on people's shoulder,
encouraging them to do mischievous, random acts of Cheetos. One
was like, I think someone was snoring and he encourages
them to put like a Cheeto up this guy's nose.
I'm less into that iteration than like the cartoon Joe
Cool version that used to exist. But I'm not sure
if you know this, but at the very first Mental
(29:17):
Floss Party when Will and I were in college and
we debuted our first edition of the magazine, we wanted
to have a wine and cheese party, but You know,
we were in college. We barely had money for a magazine.
So we paired it back. And instead of wine and cheese,
we did Cheetos and grape soda. Oh, that's classy. Yeah,
very classy. But we served the Cheetos on toothpicks to
keep it fancier and make sure your fingers didn't get orange.
(29:41):
But what about you? Are you a Cheetos fan? Do
you like the curls or the puffs or cheese balls? Yeah.
Speaker 2 (29:46):
So, you know, as much as Will likes sweets, I
have a salt problem. Salty snacks. That's my downfall. I
do like Cheetos. I eat them with chopsticks.
Speaker 1 (29:55):
Do you really? I was curious about that.
Speaker 3 (29:56):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (29:57):
Oh, yeah.
Speaker 2 (29:58):
No, it's great. You don't ever have to get your
fingers grubby. You can just eat them right out of
the bag with chopsticks. Or, you know, you could be appropriate,
I guess, and put them in a little serving bowl. And, yeah,
highly recommend. I prefer the originals. My kid likes the puffs.
I like the originals because they're saltier.
Speaker 1 (30:13):
I like the puffs, too. I think... I remember, like,
really liking the Planters cheese balls, which are a different thing. Oh, yeah.
And then I discovered the Puffs, and I think the
two felt more akin than the harder pearls.
Speaker 2 (30:26):
Man, this is making me hungry. I know what I'm
having for lunch. But, you know, Chester is so iconic,
and he has been around for so long, it may
shock you to learn that he was not the first
Cheetos mascot.
Speaker 1 (30:38):
What?
Speaker 3 (30:38):
Really?
Speaker 1 (30:39):
That's right. No. No.
Speaker 2 (30:40):
He was a later development. The very first Cheetos mascot
was the Cheetos Mouse, who debuted in the early 1970s.
And this mouse never had a name, at least as
far as we know. He wore a gray suit and
a necktie, and he spoke in a very proper British accent,
which sounds completely off-brand for an American junk food. But,
you know, the more I thought about it, the more
it makes sense, because back then— The snack's tagline was
(31:03):
the cheese that goes crunch. So they were really trying
to emphasize the idea that Cheetos was somehow made with
real cheese or reflecting real cheese. And so maybe the
Frito-Lay marketing team just figured consumers would connect this upper
crust British critter with the idea of a good, sharp.
English cheddar. And I guess you and Will were picking
(31:24):
up on that subconsciously when you served your Cheetos at
your launch party, right?
Speaker 1 (31:28):
Clearly, it was purely for like cultural and historic reasons
and nothing about like how little money we had.
Speaker 2 (31:33):
Many decades later, people realize how savvy that move was.
But for whatever reason, the Cheetos mouse was phased out
at the end of the 70s. And in 1986, Chester
Cheetah burst onto the scene. And unlike his predecessor, he
was much more American and He wore shades. He spoke
in a cool, swaggy rhyme. And he was voiced by
the actor Joel Murray, who came up through the Chicago
(31:55):
improv scene at Second City. You may know his older brother, Bill.
Speaker 1 (31:59):
As in, like, Bill Murray?
Speaker 2 (32:01):
Mm-hmm.
Speaker 3 (32:02):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (32:02):
The Bill Murray.
Speaker 1 (32:04):
Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2 (32:04):
He's made some great movies. Very talented. But if you
ask me, Joel is the real star in that family.
And to say he made Chester a hit would be
a massive understatement. People just went crazy for this character.
He was so popular that in the early 1990s, The
Fox Network actually made plans for a Saturday morning cartoon
series called Yo! It's the Chester Cheetah Show.
Speaker 1 (32:24):
I feel like I would have watched that. How come
I don't remember it?
Speaker 2 (32:28):
Well, because it never happened. Concerned parents groups in the
Center for Science in the Public Interest got together and
protested the cartoon. saying it would violate FCC rules against
keeping programming and commercial content separate. I mean, it's so
quaint to think about.
Speaker 1 (32:43):
I know. I mean, and like gummy bears never had
that problem for whatever reason. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (32:50):
But, you know, the pressure worked. The show never aired.
I would love to know if there was a pilot,
if there was a script, like anything.
Speaker 1 (32:57):
If anybody out there knows, please.
Speaker 2 (32:59):
Get in touch. Email us. But luckily for Chester fans
and for Frida Leigh, Video games didn't have the same
regulation as TV. And so in 1992, a Chester Cheetah
game was released for Genesis and Super Nintendo and then
put out subsequent editions.
Speaker 1 (33:15):
Yeah, of course. I mean, like you had that Noid
game from Domino's and like there are other examples of this.
Speaker 2 (33:21):
Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1 (33:22):
Exactly.
Speaker 2 (33:23):
All these years later, Chester has proven himself to be
one of the most enduring spokes animals in the supermarket.
But here's the thing. Cheetahs, like other cats, including your
house cat, they're obligate carnivores. That means that unlike carnivores
whose ancestors also ate plants, like, for example, dogs, there's
some evidence that dogs' ancestors could have eaten some plants
(33:44):
as well. Cats have only ever eaten meat, and that's
because their bodies need several amino acids that are unique
to animal protein, and they actually have a hard time
metabolizing a lot of carbohydrates, which begs the question, since
Chester is a cheetah, Should he eat Cheetos?
Speaker 1 (34:01):
That's a good question.
Speaker 2 (34:04):
Well, and luckily for me, I'd already been in touch
with the good folks at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park,
asking them really, you know, heart-hitting journalistic questions like, what
does it feel like to pat a cheetah? So I
decided to ask them, and their response was swift. Quote, no,
it would not be appropriate to feed a cheetah a
Cheeto as it would not meet the nutritional or welfare
(34:24):
needs for this species.
Speaker 1 (34:27):
I love this investigative series, and I can't wait for
you to look into whether toucans should eat Froot Loops.
But I'm curious, could a cheetah eat a Cheeto as
a treat?
Speaker 2 (34:39):
Not even one Cheeto as a treat.
Speaker 3 (34:41):
No.
Speaker 2 (34:42):
Well, so here's the thing, right? In the wild, a
cheetah is not going to encounter Cheetos. And what the
folks in San Diego explained is that in zoos and
conservation centers, there are actually animal nutritionists on staff who
work very hard to formulate whole diets based on comprehensive
nutritional needs, animals' digestive systems, but also their natural feeding behaviors,
(35:03):
and more. If you think about it, a cheetah needs
to hunt. You can't really chase a cheetah. And this
is all holistically. It's a huge part of keeping animals
safe and healthy. So the bottom line is there is
no context in which it would be okay for a
real-life cheetah to eat Cheetos. And so sorry, real-life cheetahs,
you're going to have to find something else.
Speaker 1 (35:23):
Well, it probably makes sense because, like, they probably couldn't
work the chopsticks anyway. Yeah, right.
Speaker 2 (35:28):
Cheetah's notoriously bad with chopsticks, and science has not figured
out a way to help them with that yet. But,
you know, congratulations to you, Mango, because I think you
deserve today's trophy for introducing me to my new favorite
TikTok account and the word chur.
Speaker 1 (35:44):
Well, I'll take it. I do think... Anyone out there
who isn't worried about expletives should go listen to the
Good Boy Noah cheetah recipes because they're so delightful. I
also want to make sure to thank the wildlife experts
at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park who took time
out of their busy days to answer our ridiculous questions
(36:05):
about cheetos and cheetah softness. If you like the show...
please do leave us a nice rating and review. We
read them. We also read everything that comes into Instagram
and Blue Sky. We're at Part-Time Genius. We will be
back next week with another new episode. But in the meantime,
from Will, Dylan, Gabe, Mary, and myself, thank you so
(36:26):
much for listening. Part-time Genius is a production of Kaleidoscope
and iHeartRadio. It is hosted by my good pal, Will Pearson,
who I've known for almost three decades now. That is
(36:49):
insane to me. I'm the other co-host, Mange Shatikular, a.k.a. Mango.
Our producer is Mary Phillips Sandy. She's actually a super producer.
I'm going to fix that in post. Our writer is
Gabe Luzier, who I've also known for like a decade
at this point, maybe more. Dylan Fagan is in the booth.
He is always dressed up, always cheering us on, and
(37:11):
always ready to hit record and then mix the show after.
He does a great job. I also want to shout
out the executive producers from iHeart, my good pals Katrina
Norvell and Allie Perry. We have social media support from
Calypso Rawless. If you like our videos, that is all
Calypso's handiwork. For more podcasts from Kaleidoscope and iHeartRadio, visit
(37:32):
the iHeartRadio app. Apple Podcasts or tune in wherever you
listen to your favorite shows. That's it from us here
at Part-Time Genius. Thank you so much for listening. You know, Mary,
you said that dogs used to eat plants. Our dog, Lupini,
who was a little overweight and very cute and furry,
(37:57):
would jump into our vegetable patch in Delaware and eat asparagus. Asparagus.
So we had to monitor the fence of the patch
to make sure Lupini didn't jump in.
Speaker 2 (38:12):
Oh, wow. And this was the dog who ate the
cheese slices too, right?
Speaker 1 (38:16):
Yeah, cheese slices, asparagus, also like tomatoes. Yeah, yeah. Very cosmopolitan.
Speaker 2 (38:21):
I was a bit puzzled by that. My cat Buckley
used to love eating spinach. He would go crazy if
you were like making a salad. He'd stand on his
hind legs and beg for the spinach. The vet was like,
I can't explain it. I've never seen this before in
my life. So I don't know. Maybe he was just weird.
But yeah, apparently it's just a different metabolism than other carnivores. Cats,
(38:44):
endlessly fascinating.
Part-Time Genius News
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Will Pearson
Mangesh Hattikudur
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