Sy Montgomery, an author and naturalist, shares the story of a color-changing creature many people assumed to be brainless who outsmarts his human captors. If you want a SPOILER of what the creature is, read on: It’s an octopus. We hear the story of one particularly devious octopus who lost a limb, was captured by humans, and then managed to make an escape from its aquarium tank—back into the ocean! The tale of “Inky” the octopus calls into question who we think of as intelligent (and kissable) in the animal kingdom.

Learn about the storytellers, listen to music, and dig deeper into the stories you hear on Terrestrials with activities you can do at home or in the classroom on our website, Terrestrialspodcast.org 

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Support for Terrestrials is provided by Science Sandbox, a Simons Foundation Initiative, and the Arthur Vining Davis Foundations.

More from Terrestrials 

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The Shovels: Dig Deeper

For each episode of Terrestrials, we provide a selection of activity sheets, drawing prompts, musical lessons, and more. We call them “shovels” because we hope they will help you (and your friends, family, students, neighbors, etc) dig more deeply into the world! You can do them at home, in the classroom, outside, or in the privacy of your own mind. We hope you enjoy!

If you want to share what you’ve made, ask an adult share it on social media using #TerrestrialsPodcast and make sure to tag @Radiolab

Draw -  Octopus brains are in their arms. What would happen if you got out of your head and let your limbs draw the world they saw? Listen to a very special drawing prompt created by artist Wendy Mac and the DrawTogether team to explore just that! 

Play 🎶 - Learn how to play the chords to the song “1800 Little Kisses!” Plus, the kindly Songbud has put together a video teaching you, yes you, how to play 1800 Little Kisses (and you get to see an insider glimpse of his office)!

Do - Get crafty with a fun activity sheet!  

This week’s storyteller is Sy Montgomery. Sy is an author, speaker, and naturalist who has published 31 books! She writes for adults and children, for print and broadcast, in America and overseas in an effort to reach as wide an audience as possible at what she considers a critical turning point in human history.

Want to keep learning? Check out these resources to learn about the brilliance that is the octopus:

Inky's Amazing Escape, a picture book by Sy Montgomery
“Deep Intellect,” a beautiful essay on octopus intelligence by Sy Montgomery
The Soul of an Octopus, Sy Montgomery’s science book all about octopuses
”Why The Octopus Brain is so Extraordinary,” a video by Claudio L. Guerra
”If Your Hands Could Smell, You’d be an Octopus,” a video by TEDEd

Terrestrials is a production of WNYC Studios, created by Lulu Miller. This episode is produced by Ana González, Alan Goffinski and Lulu Miller. Original Music by Alan Goffinski. Help from Suzie Lechtenberg, Sarah Sandbach, Natalia Ramirez, and Sarita Bhatt. Fact-check by Diane Kelley. Sound design by Mira Burt-Wintonick with additional engineering by Joe Plourde. Our storyteller this week is Sy Montgomery. Transcription by Caleb Codding.

Our advisors are Theanne Griffith, Aliyah Elijah, Dominique Shabazz, John Green, Liza Steinberg-Demby, Tara Welty, and Alice Wong.

Terrestrials is supported in part by Science Sandbox, an initiative of the Simons Foundation.

Have questions for us, badgers? Badger us away! Your parent/guardian should write to us along with you, so we know you have their permission, and for maybe even having your ideas mentioned on the show. Email terrestrials@wnyc.org.