Vintage Toys, Teeth

The Magic and Value of Vintage Toys (Originally aired December 14, 2018) Guest: Joel Magee, America's Toy Scout (toyscout.com) Toys are meant to be played with and cherished, but some people buy toys they never intend to open. Some of those unopened toys end up being sold for thousands of dollars. A toy is just something to entertain a child, so what makes old ones worth so much money? Is it only the unopened toys that are valuable? If you want to get into collecting them, where would you begin?   Your Teeth Are Time Capsules. Here’s What They Say Guest: Tanya M. Smith, Associate Professor, Australian Research Centre for Human Evolution, Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia; Author of “The Tales Teeth Tell” We pay to have them scraped, filled and pulled. We obsess over their whiteness. When we’re little, we wiggle and twist them so the Tooth Fairy will visit. But did you know your teeth are time capsules? Every day of your childhood is etched into the crowns and roots of your first molars. Tanya Smith has been crucial to our understanding of how this works. She’s spent her entire career decoding “The Tales Teeth Tell,” which is, incidentally, the name of her new book.