In this episode, Kirsten sits down with Dr. Alister Clay, an engineer at Bosch with a fascinating journey into psychology and nature. Alister shares how his personal experiences led him to pursue a degree in psychology and focus on how humans connect to nature. They delve into the Biophilia Hypothesis, which suggests that humans have an innate need to connect with nature, and how this connection impacts well-being. Through the lens of psychology, Alister explores how fostering a deeper relations...
Sep 17, 2024•31 min•Ep. 31
In this episode of 2 Million Blossoms, host Dr. Kirsten Traynor sits down with Dr. Anke Dietzsch from the Institute for Bee Protection at the Julius Kühn Institute, Germany's Federal Research Centre for Cultivated Plants. Anke discusses her extensive research on the effects of pesticides on bee health, focusing on both honey bees and native wild bees. She discusses the challenges of conducting field experiments across various habitats in Germany and highlights the importance of using diverse mon...
Jul 10, 2024•45 min•Ep. 30
In this episode, host Dr. Kirsten Traynor welcomes bee scientist Dr. Mazi Sanda from Cameroon. Dr. Sanda, who currently resides in Germany as part of the PLAN4BEE project, shares his journey into the world of bees, starting from his childhood fascination with insects to his professional research at the University of Ngaoundere. He provides a captivating overview of beekeeping traditions in Cameroon, discussing the prevalent use of traditional woven hives and the gradual shift towards modern Keny...
May 29, 2024•31 min•Ep. 29
In this episode of 2 Million Blossoms, host Dr. Kirsten Traynor is joined by Dr. Marla Spivak, a renowned bee scientist and MacArthur Genius Award recipient. Together, they delve into the pivotal changes in beekeeping ushered in by the Varroa mite's arrival and explore the ongoing challenges it poses. Dr. Spivak shares insights from her decades of experience, particularly on the impact of Varroa on bee health and the subsequent adaptations in beekeeping practices. The conversation also covers in...
Apr 24, 2024•36 min•Ep. 28
In this captivating episode of 2 Million Blossoms, host Dr. Kirsten Traynor sits down with Dr. David Peck, Director of Research and Education at Betterbee, to explore the intricate world of bees and the persistent challenge posed by varroa mites. Peck shares insights from his groundbreaking research, including his astonishing discovery of varroa mites' ability to jump onto honeybees from flowers , showcasing the agility and adaptability of these parasites. This discussion delves into varroa mite...
Mar 14, 2024•21 min•Ep. 27
In this episode of 2 Million Blossoms, host Dr. Kirsten Traynor sits down with Flemming Vejsnæs, a bee biologist and beekeeper from Denmark, to delve into bees and beekeeping in Denmark. Drawing on their long-standing friendship and Flemming's extensive experience, they explore the evolution of beekeeping, emphasizing the importance of global collaboration and knowledge exchange in overcoming challenges like the varroa mite and the small hive beetle. Flemming shares his journey from a budding bi...
Feb 19, 2024•43 min•Ep. 26
Welcome back to the 2 Million Blossoms Podcast! In this special relaunch episode, host Kirsten Traynor sits down with Jeff Ott from the Beekeeping Today Podcast . They delve into Kirsten's recent adventures in Germany and the fascinating honey bee research she's been involved in. During the tumultuous times of the Covid pandemic, Kirsten seized an exciting opportunity to advance her research in apiculture and moved to Germany. Now based at the University of Hohenheim in Baden-Württemberg, she se...
Jan 08, 2024•19 min•Ep. 25
Adrian Fisher has been investigating the impacts of fungicides on honey bee health. Fungicides are often considered bee safe, because they don’t outright kill adult bees. But Adrian has found some troubling sub-lethal effects, especially on honey bee lifespan. In today’s show we chat about how Pristine, a common pesticide used in almonds leads to precocious foraging and shorter-lived bees. We also delve into his earlier research where he investigated how varroacide residues in beeswax reduce the...
Sep 11, 2022•26 min•Ep. 24
Have you ever wondered what goes on in the mind of a bee? How they perceive the world and learn to understand the landscape? On today’s episode, Kirsten talks with noted neurobiologist and bee scientist Lars Chittka from the University of London, whose new book The Mind of a Bee is a fascinating exploration of how bees think. They delve into how the barren landscape outside Berlin let him manipulate the landscape and see that bees could count. Bees are fast learners and can gleam details about h...
Jun 29, 2022•35 min•Ep. 23
Today’s episode features Jess Vickruck, a wild bee scientist working in New Brunswick in Canada. In addition to converting the sunny spots in her garden into bee habitat, she studies competition in wild bee communities. She’s studied carpenter bees in detail, finding that when nest sites become rare, competition drives females to share nests. But there’s a unique catch. They preferentially select unrelated females. She also investigates the important role that grasslands play in maintaining the ...
May 24, 2022•33 min•Ep. 22
In this episode, podcast host Kirsten Traynor reflects on what are the characteristics of a great scientist and the mentors, who have helped her succeed in her own career. She discusses some of her early failures, how she questions her own place in science, how women face certain biases, and why she is once again switching jobs. Additionally, she digs into a recent paper on pesticide residues in urban and suburban environments. To read the Twitter moment mentioned in the episode, where a male an...
Mar 28, 2022•25 min•Ep. 21
In this episode, Kirsten talks with Monika Maeckle. Monika runs the Texas Butterfly Ranch, which is more a state-of-mind than a physical place. She is a writer, Master Gardener, pollinator enthusiast and has tagged countless Monarchs that pass through the famous Texas funnel on their journey south. Monika and Kirsten chat about the migratory path of monarchs, how their incredible journey turned into an inspiration during the Covid pandemic, and how we can all improve the plight of these beautifu...
Feb 25, 2022•31 min•Ep. 20
Fran Mahoney is crazy about elephants. And to help protect elephants, she’s enlisted the help of over 144 honey bee colonies. In Tanzania, elephants face massive poaching threats. Subsistence farmers often turn in elephants to poachers, because they fear the hungry mammals will destroy their crops. Fran Mahoney founded Wild Survivors to create sustainable solutions to human-elephant conflict. In today’s show, learn more about her creative solution using honey bees that is turning farmers into el...
Dec 28, 2021•38 min•Ep. 19
In this episode, I speak with Dr. Elke Genersch a microbiologist from the Institute for Bee Research in Hohen Neuendorf outside Berlin, Germany. She switched from cancer research into honey bee diseases about 20 years ago and has made a name for herself investigating how American Foulbrood and Deformed Wing Virus function. We delve into the details of this bacterial disease and how varroa mites have allowed viruses to change, using the current Corona pandemic to help explain parallels. So, if yo...
Dec 14, 2021•55 min•Ep. 18
Dear Listeners: As you may know, I launched my print magazine 2 Million Blossoms with exuberance and crazy enthusiasm. Since I first dreamt up the magazine in 2019, I have produced two years of magazines, four issues in 2020 and another four issues in 2021. All together over 800 pages entirely about pollinators. Many late nights after I stopped working on my “real job”, the one that pays my bills, I spent countless hours to hone, smooth, and delineate the content of 2 Million Blossoms . My goal ...
Nov 12, 2021•11 min•Ep. 17
Have you ever wondered about the bee biodiversity in other countries? In this episode, meet Dr. Michael Orr, Assistant Professor at the Institute of Zoology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing, where he has worked for the last three years. Michael is a taxonomist and ecologist, who has studied the aggregations of the sandstone excavating bee, the tiny Anthophora pueblo . Listen as Kirsten talks with Michael and learn why these bees spend so much time and energy to create nest holes in ...
Oct 30, 2021•44 min•Ep. 16
In this episode, Kirsten chats with Cindy Moore, owner of Sweet Cindy’s Honey Farm, a commercial beekeeping operation in upstate New York and Florida. She runs bees with her husband on the east coast and they ship out bees to California for almond pollination. She’s sweet, sassy, and makes commercial beekeeping look glamourous. On this episode we chat about how her not-yet-husband lured her away from a farm stand to help work bees, the effort and care she puts into marketing her products, and th...
Oct 07, 2021•23 min•Ep. 15
Meet botanical artist and scientific illustrator Erin E. Hunter, who splits her time between her own fine art paintings that capture the magic of the natural world and technical illustrations for the academic science journal Annual Reviews. She’s been quite successful, snagging a few artist-in-residency stays at our National Parks. One of her most enjoyable subjects to draw are pollinators on their favorite plants and so of course, we chatted at length about how she became dazzled by these flowe...
Sep 10, 2021•31 min•Ep. 14
Thank you so much for downloading this episode – our 13th. While some people are superstitious about such numbers, we’re here to celebrate this “luckiest” of episodes. It’s hard to know when you start a new journey, where it will lead. In this episode, I talk about what we’ve learned so far, some of the beauty we’ve seen and the challenges that lay ahead. Climate change is arguably the biggest – impacting everyone and everything on the planet. From you and me, to the tightly woven relationship b...
Aug 20, 2021•13 min•Ep. 13
Tufts University PhD student Nicholas Dorian, who is a frequent contributor to 2 Million Blossoms , is always on the search for bees in urban spaces. His research focuses on cellophane bees, but he’s a well-rounded naturalist and ecologist. He helped found the Tufts Pollinator Initiative , which turned the university campus into a Xerces Bee Campus . You can find his fabulous photos and interesting posts on social media, where he tweets and shares under the name ' bee searcher' (Twitter @bee_sea...
Aug 05, 2021•33 min•Ep. 12
Sarah Red-Laird is the founder of The Bee Girl Organization. You might know her from her fabulous and informative posts on social media. Or perhaps you’ve heard of her Kids for Bees program. But this dynamic woman has an endlessly curious mind and is a scientist at heart. Sarah has been working closely with the Department of Transportation in Oregon to help re-wild 200 acres and monitor the pollinators that show up. We had a chance to talk in-depth about her work with the DOT vernal pool restora...
Jul 22, 2021•49 min•Ep. 11
Richard Jones, an entomologist and writer who has penned a delightful and ridiculous volume of 100 limericks. A Natural History of Insects in 100 Limericks is illustrated by Richard’s son Calvin and right below the limerick is a wonderful paragraph introducing the subject’s quirky personality and biology. In this podcast, Kirsten talks with Richard about the different insects and their limericks. Richard explains how he uses the comical nature of limericks to help explain some of the quirky beha...
Jul 08, 2021•49 min•Ep. 10
Dr. Mark Winston wrote the definitive book on honey bee biology in 1987 and is a science communicator extraordinaire. His writings have appeared in the New York Times , Orion Magazine , and the Globe , and he’s a regular contributor to 2 Million Blossoms . He’s currently the Simon Fraser University Library Nonfiction Writer in Residence where he emphasizes the power of non-fiction writing to share knowledge. Listen and hear his bee origin story and why his book on honey bee biology has endured t...
Jun 24, 2021•34 min•Ep. 9
In this episode, Kirsten speaks with award-winning nature photographer Jake Mosher. If you’re a subscriber to the magazine, you’ve seen his stunning landscapes and detailed macro photography in our April and Autumn issues last year. Jake grew up in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont, right near the Quebec border. He spent his childhood immersed in nature, often taking off to fish, hunt and explore the great outdoors and develop his survival instinct. But the Vermont landscape was changing, and so ...
Jun 14, 2021•29 min•Ep. 8
Can you make a career out of studying butterflies? Kim Pegram from the Desert Botanical Gardens in Phoenix, AZ sure did. She fell in love with butterflies as a child and never let go. She’s an expert in butterfly coloration, which the butterflies form during the chrysalis stage via pigments and structural coloration—a specific way of layering cuticle to reflect light. Just like traffic signs catch our attention with bright colors, making them easy to spot, butterflies warn off predators with the...
May 27, 2021•29 min•Ep. 7
Jeff Ollerton is one of the leading experts on pollinators, which has culminated in his new book “Pollinators & Pollination.” In its pages, he delves deep into how plants manipulate, coax, and charm pollinators into spreading their genetic material. Listen as he explains how 87.5% of all flowering plants depend on pollination, how hummingbirds once existed in Europe, and how pollinators help create that caffeinated buzz from your morning coffee. Jeff tells us about how he created an urban po...
May 13, 2021•1 hr 11 min•Ep. 6
Award-winning author Heather Holm chats with 2 Million Blossoms about her new book on wasps, the drastic changes in our landscapes, and the importance of observing nature as a child. She’s an avid naturalist with a horticultural background. When she moved to Minnesota 18 years ago, she started exploring native landscapes and the transition between oak dominated forests and prairie. She got sucked into protecting pollinators because of the huge diversity she witnessed on these native plantings an...
Apr 29, 2021•38 min•Ep. 5
Shevaun Doherty is a botanical artist, who volunteered to help the All-Ireland Pollinator Plan and designed a bumble bee logo for them. Her accuracy, detail, and beautiful style of drawing led to the creation of a set of Irish postage stamps. And while the stamps feature four different native Irish bees, a garden bumble bee, the ashy mining bee, the tawny mining bee, and the heather bee, she managed to sneak a honey bee onto the minisheet first day cover. You can watch her paint a bumble bee on ...
Apr 14, 2021•43 min•Ep. 4
On today’s show, I chat with bumble bee scientist and author Dave Goulson about hairy-footed flower bees Anthophora plumipes , one of the first bees to emerge in spring, and how to make our gardens more friendly to pollinators. As humans we have a tidy streak that extends to our home gardens and our farm fields. But our tendency to chop away the dead and keep everything trim and orderly works against pollinator survival. We also discuss how his landmark letter in Science called for a re-evaluati...
Mar 30, 2021•45 min•Ep. 3
Dr. Kirsten Traynor introduces us to 2 Million Blossoms . First the quarterly publication of the same name and now this podcast. How did she get started with honey bees and how did this expand to cover all pollinators great and small? Why? Listen as Kirsten explains in her own words, why she is taking on spreading the message of protecting our pollinators and what direction she is going with her lineup of authors, illustrators and guests on the podcast. Learn more about the magazine and about pr...
Mar 30, 2021•21 min•Ep. 2
