Tall Tails: Animal Legends and Real Science for Kids

Four Fireflies Media
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Why does the tortoise have a cracked shell? Why does the bear have a short tail? On Tall Tails, storyteller Wren shares animal origin legends from cultures around the world, and his friend Dr. Moss, a very excited biologist with a magnifying glass named Gerald, keeps jumping in with the real science. Two stories, one big question, and a whole lot of interrupting. For curious kids ages 5 to 12 and the grown-ups who listen along. Tall Tails is made by a family using AI voices and AI writing tools, and every episode is fact-checked. © 2026 720 Connections LLC

Episodes

  1. 5d ago

    Ep 6 | Buzz Off: Why Does the Mosquito Buzz in Your Ear?

    Why does the mosquito buzz in your ear? Wren tells two mosquito stories, one from Kazakhstan and one from the Igbo people of Nigeria, and Dr. Moss (and Gerald) dig into the real science. In the Kazakh story, a giant serpent named Aidahar sends Mosquito to find out whose blood is the sweetest, and a brave little swallow has to stop him from telling. In the Igbo story, Mosquito asks Ear to marry him, and Ear's answer still bugs him today. Then we find out that only girl mosquitoes drink blood, why a mosquito's "bite" is really six tiny needles, how that buzz comes from wings beating hundreds of times a second, how mosquitoes sing love duets, why she follows your breath, and why some people really are mosquito magnets. 0:00 Cold open 0:50 Welcome to Tall Tails 1:41 Tale One: The Serpent, the Mosquito and the Swallow (Kazakhstan) 7:57 Where in the World? 9:02 Tale Two: Mosquito and Ear (Igbo, Nigeria) 12:17 Tale or Tail? 16:48 Seriously Strange 17:37 Fact Frenzy! 18:54 Sign-off Where the stories come from: The Serpent, the Mosquito and the Swallow is a Kazakh folk tale, retold here in our own words with a few touches of our own. It is listed in Kazakh Folk Tales (volume 2, Alma-Ata, 1971) as "Why the Swallow's Tail Has Little Horns." Versions of the same story are told by many peoples from the Caucasus to Central Asia. Mosquito and Ear is an Igbo folk tale from southeastern Nigeria, retold here in our own words. Chinua Achebe tells it in a few lines in his novel Things Fall Apart (1958), where Okonkwo remembers his mother telling it. Many versions exist. How this show is made: Tall Tails is made by a family with four kids around the target age range of the show. The voices of Wren, Dr. Moss and every other character are generated with AI voice tools, and the scripts are written with help from AI and fact-checked before release. The animation is made with help from AI tools. Next time: why doesn't the jellyfish have any bones? Stay wild, and stay curious! © 2026 720 Connections LLC

  2. Oct 23

    Ep 5 | Earning Stripes: How Did the Tiger Get Its Stripes?

    How did the tiger get its stripes? Wren tells two tiger stories, one from Vietnam and one from Korea, and Dr. Moss (and Gerald) dig into the real science. In the Vietnamese story, a tiger asks a big water buffalo why it obeys a small farmer, and the farmer shows the tiger exactly what "wisdom" means. In the Korean story, a hungry tiger creeps up to a village house on a cold night and hears about something even scarier than a tiger: a dried persimmon. Then we find out that a tiger's skin is striped too, why bright orange works as camouflage when the deer can't see orange, whether water buffalo really have no top front teeth, and we meet the Amur tiger, which once lived in Korea. 0:00 Cold open 0:30 Welcome to Tall Tails 1:09 Tale One: The Farmer, the Water Buffalo and the Tiger (Vietnam) 6:54 Where in the World? 7:43 Tale Two: The Tiger and the Dried Persimmon (Korea) 12:59 Tale or Tail? 16:54 Seriously Strange 17:40 Fact Frenzy! 18:53 Sign-off Where the stories come from: The Farmer, the Water Buffalo and the Tiger is a Vietnamese folktale known across Vietnam, retold here in our own words. We follow the version in Huu Ngoc and Hoa Mai's collection of Vietnamese legends, The Peasant, the Buffalo and the Tiger: Vietnamese Legends and Tales (The Gioi Publishers, Hanoi, 1997). In Vietnam it is often told as Trí khôn của ta đây ("Here Is My Wisdom"). Many versions exist. The Tiger and the Dried Persimmon (Horangi-wa Gotgam) is a Korean folktale, retold here in our own words. We follow Janie Jaehyun Park's picture book The Tiger and the Dried Persimmon: A Korean Folk Tale (Groundwood Books, 2002), which she learned from her grandmother. How this show is made: Tall Tails is made by a family with four kids around the target age range of the show. The voices of Wren, Dr. Moss and every other character are generated with AI voice tools, and the scripts are written with help from AI and fact-checked before release. The animation is made with help from AI tools. Next time: why does the mosquito buzz in your ear? Stay wild, and stay curious! © 2026 720 Connections LLC

  3. Oct 17

    Ep 4 | Grounded: Why Can’t the Ostrich and the Emu Fly?

    Why can't the ostrich and the emu fly? They're the two tallest birds in the world, and neither one can get off the ground. Wren tells two stories from opposite sides of the Indian Ocean, and Dr. Moss (and Gerald) dig into the real science. In the /Xam story from South Africa, a hunter catches an ostrich, but a whirlwind carries one of his feathers into a pool of water, and the ostrich comes back. In the Yuwaalaraay story from Australia, sly Goomblegubbon the bustard tricks Dinewan the emu into giving up her wings, so Dinewan plans a trick of her own. Then we find out why an ostrich feather is made for floating, not flying, why flightless birds gave up flying more than once, how emu dads hatch the eggs, and we meet the rare Somali ostrich, with its blue skin and its courtship dance. A heads-up for grown-ups: both stories have a short sad part. 0:00 Cold open0:37 Welcome to Tall Tails1:38 Tale One: The Ostrich Who Came Back (/Xam, South Africa)5:21 Where in the World?6:31 Tale Two: Dinewan the Emu and Goomblegubbon the Bustard (Yuwaalaraay, Australia)11:44 Tale or Tail?15:11 Meet the Somali Ostrich16:51 Seriously Strange17:41 Fact Frenzy!18:46 Sign-off Where the stories come from:The Ostrich Who Came Back is a /Xam (San) story from South Africa, retold in our own words from "The Resurrection of the Ostrich" (no. 20 in W. H. I. Bleek and L. C. Lloyd, Specimens of Bushman Folklore, 1911), told by a /Xam storyteller and written down in the 1870s and 1880s. The /Xam texts are held at the University of Cape Town and other Cape Town archives, and are on UNESCO's Memory of the World Register. The slash in /Xam stands for a click sound our voices can't make, so in the episode we say it plainly, "Kham."Dinewan the Emu and Goomblegubbon the Bustard is a story of the Euahlayi (Yuwaalaraay) people of the Narran River in northern New South Wales, written down by K. Langloh Parker in Australian Legendary Tales (1896) and retold here in our own words. "Dinewan" is Parker's spelling of the word for emu (today often written dhinawan). Parker's book reflects the attitudes of its time. Yuwaalaraay (Euahlayi) people and their language are still here today (yuwaalaraay.com). How this show is made: Tall Tails is made by a family with four kids around the target age range of the show. The voices of Wren, Dr. Moss and every other character are generated with AI voice tools, and the scripts are written with help from AI and fact-checked before release. The animation is made with help from AI tools. Next time: how did the tiger get its stripes? Stay wild, and stay curious! © 2026 720 Connections LLC

  4. Oct 10

    Ep 3 | Leggy: Why Do Spiders Have Such Skinny Legs?

    Why do spiders have such long, skinny legs? Wren tells a trickster tale and a myth about the greatest weaver who ever lived, and Dr. Moss (and Gerald) zoom in on the real spider. In the Anansi story from the Akan people of Ghana, Kwaku Anansi wants to eat at eight friends' houses without helping with a single chore, so he ties a thread to each of his eight legs. What could go wrong? In the ancient Greek myth told by the Roman poet Ovid, Arachne brags that she can out-weave the goddess Athena, and the contest changes her forever. Then we learn how spiders straighten their legs with no stretching muscles at all, why spider silk is so tough, and how some spiders fly without wings. 0:00 Cold open 0:34 Welcome to Tall Tails 1:12 Tale One: Anansi and the Eight Dinners (Akan, Ghana) 7:54 Where in the World? 8:54 Tale Two: Arachne and the Weaving Contest (ancient Greece) 14:10 Tale or Tail? 18:21 Seriously Strange 19:11 Fact Frenzy! 20:29 Sign-off Where the stories come from: Anansi stories come from the Akan people of Ghana and are told in many, many ways. Our version of how Anansi got his skinny legs follows a modern retelling by Farida Salifu. Arachne's story is best known from the Roman poet Ovid's Metamorphoses, written about two thousand years ago. Ovid calls the goddess Minerva, the Roman name for Athena. How this show is made: Tall Tails is made by a family with four kids around the target age range of the show. The voices of Wren, Dr. Moss and every other character are generated with AI voice tools, and the scripts are written with help from AI and fact-checked before release. The animation is made with help from AI tools. Next time: why can't the ostrich and the emu fly? Stay wild, and stay curious! © 2026 720 Connections LLC

  5. Oct 9

    Ep 2 | Fishing for Trouble: Why Does the Bear Have a Short Tail?

    Why does the bear have such a stumpy little tail? Wren tells two stories from opposite sides of the ocean, and they turn out to be almost the same story. Dr. Moss (and Gerald) can't believe it. In the story from Norway, sly Fox shows up with a string of fish and tells hungry Bear exactly how he caught them: dangle your tail through a hole in the ice and wait. In the Haudenosaunee story, Bear has the longest, shiniest tail in the forest and won't stop showing it off, until Fox sets up the very same icy trick. Then we find out how big a bear's tail really is, how brown bears actually catch salmon, why some scientists say bears aren't true hibernators, and how a sleeping bear can go months without eating, drinking or going to the bathroom. 0:00 Cold open 0:46 Welcome to Tall Tails 1:19 Tale One: Why the Bear Is Stumpy-Tailed (Norway) 6:46 Where in the World? 7:41 Tale Two: How Bear Lost His Tail (Haudenosaunee) 14:23 Tale or Tail? 18:01 Seriously Strange 18:39 Fact Frenzy! 19:48 Sign-off Where the stories come from: Why the Bear Is Stumpy-Tailed was collected in Norway by Peter Christen Asbjørnsen and Jørgen Moe in the 1840s and translated into English by George Webbe Dasent. The old version is only a few sentences long, so Wren tells it the long way. How Bear Lost His Tail is a Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) story. We follow the version in Joseph Bruchac's book of Haudenosaunee stories. There are many versions, and other Native nations tell this story too. We encourage you to look for it told by Haudenosaunee storytellers themselves. For a version told by a Mohawk storyteller, see John Kahionhes Fadden's "How the Bear Lost His Tail." How this show is made: Tall Tails is made by a family with four kids around the target age range of the show. The voices of Wren, Dr. Moss and every other character are generated with AI voice tools, and the scripts are written with help from AI and fact-checked before release. The animation is made with help from AI tools. Next time: why do spiders have such skinny legs? Stay wild, and stay curious! © 2026 720 Connections LLC

  6. Oct 9

    Ep 1 | Shell Shocked: Why Does the Tortoise Have a Cracked Shell?

    Why does the tortoise have a shell that looks like somebody dropped it? Wren tells two old stories that answer that question, and Dr. Moss (and Gerald) explain what's really going on. In the Igbo story from southeastern Nigeria, clever, hungry Tortoise borrows feathers from the birds to get to a feast in the sky, and pays for his tricks on the way down. In the Cherokee story from the mountains of North Carolina, Terrapin outsmarts a pack of wolves and makes a splashy escape. Then we find out what a tortoise shell is made of, why a turtle can never crawl out of it, and how vets fix a broken one. 0:00 Cold open0:43 Welcome to Tall Tails1:17 Tale One: Tortoise and the Feast in the Sky (Igbo, Nigeria)7:43 Where in the World?8:35 Tale Two: The Terrapin's Escape from the Wolves (Cherokee, North Carolina)13:53 Tale or Tail?19:04 Seriously Strange19:46 Fact Frenzy!21:08 Sign-off Where the stories come from:Tortoise and the Feast in the Sky is a traditional Igbo folktale told in many versions. The version we follow is the one Chinua Achebe retells in his novel Things Fall Apart (1958).The Terrapin's Escape from the Wolves was recorded by James Mooney (1887-90) from Eastern Cherokee storytellers in western North Carolina, including Swimmer (Ayunini) and John Ax (Itagunahi), and published in Myths of the Cherokee (1900).These stories belong to the Igbo and Cherokee peoples. We tell them with respect and encourage you to look for versions told by Igbo and Cherokee storytellers themselves. A note on the animals: opossums (with an O) live only in the Americas, so the opossum in the Cherokee story is the North American kind. How this show is made: Tall Tails is made by a family with four kids around the target age range of the show. The voices of Wren, Dr. Moss and every other character are generated with AI voice tools, and the scripts are written with help from AI and fact-checked before release.The animation is made with help from AI tools. Next time: why does the bear have such a short tail? Stay wild, and stay curious! © 2026 720 Connections LLC

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Why does the tortoise have a cracked shell? Why does the bear have a short tail? On Tall Tails, storyteller Wren shares animal origin legends from cultures around the world, and his friend Dr. Moss, a very excited biologist with a magnifying glass named Gerald, keeps jumping in with the real science. Two stories, one big question, and a whole lot of interrupting. For curious kids ages 5 to 12 and the grown-ups who listen along. Tall Tails is made by a family using AI voices and AI writing tools, and every episode is fact-checked. © 2026 720 Connections LLC

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