Saurologist and professional lizard scientist Earyn McGee visits Alie to go on a little lizard hunt, then they hunker down to chat about everything from tiny chameleons to drooling dragons, venomous thiccbois, legless lizards, geckos’ antigravity grip, festering dragon mouths, gila monster sightings, close encounters with lions, tangles of snoozy lizards, virgin births, and blood shooting from eyeballs. We also discuss Earyn’s wildly popular #FindThatLizard Twitter game and she gives us all some...
Aug 06, 2019•1 hr 8 min•Ep. 100
Is it weird to have different handwritings? How do you forge ancient documents? What pen should you use to write checks? Who is the greediest person in American history? Forensic document examiner Sylvia Kessler met up with Alie in the back of a Nebraska office store to chat about penmanship, ransom notes, court cases, self-expression, and we *very* lightly touch on the fringe -ology that uses handwriting to analyze personalities and how Barnum knew best when it comes to carnival "magic."More ab...
Jul 31, 2019•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 99
Will changing your sunscreen save coral reefs? What even IS a coral? Where do they grow and what do they eat and why are they so pretty? Is it reefs or reeves? The wonderful and charming coral biologist and cnidariologist Shayle Matsuda of the Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology/UH Mānoa takes time out of his busy schedule during a coral spawning event to chat about how magical and beautiful coral can be and why reef health is important. Also: whether or not "Finding Nemo" got coral right, making...
Jul 25, 2019•1 hr 23 min•Ep. 98
It lives under your sink and may have saved your life but… WHAT THE FUNK IS BLEACH? Hot off of a beaker-laden lab tour, Alie chats with Dr. Evan Rumberger, a bleach scientist, about his work, his history, what bleach IS, what it turns into, and how to appreciate this household staple. Also: what exactly is in swimming pools and how to tie-dye shirts when you’re goth. This was part of a partnership with Clorox, but Alie thought the chemistry was cool enough to share with Ologites.For more bleach ...
Jul 16, 2019•56 min•Ep. 97
Have you ever read every word of The U.S. Constitution? You don't have to, because ol' Dadward here is about to read it into your ears and give little sidenotes to make sure we both understand it. This episode is a follow up to Nomology with law professor Franita Tolson, so start there for the basics and learn why knowing your rights and using your voice can change the future. Follow Franita Tolson at Twitter.com/ProfTolson and read more about her work here .More links at alieward.com/ologies/no...
Jul 10, 2019•1 hr 23 min•Ep. 96
If you've never read The Constitution, you're like most of us. What does it even say?! Most Americans aren't law scholars, which is why we sat down with a Dean of USC's Gould School of Law, Professor Franita Tolson, to have her give us the crib sheet on the most important document in the free world. What's up with the amendments? What are the articles? What does it mean to be an American? What rights do we have? How did we get them and how do we keep them? We also discuss what it was like having...
Jul 02, 2019•1 hr 30 min•Ep. 95
Log cabins, woodsy getaways, A-frame cuties, cottages, tiny homes, lake houses: WE GET INTO IT. World famous Minnesota architect, author, professional cabinologist and human delight Dale Mulfinger sits down to discuss everything from what makes a cabin a cabin, to why we bond better surrounded by wood, Scandinavian hygge-ness, where to situate windows, cabin history, horror flicks and vacation activities. Alie sits there starry-eyed and stammers a bunch because she's so excited.More on Dale Mulf...
Jun 25, 2019•1 hr•Ep. 94
Lyme Disease! Powassan virus! That Lonestar tick meat allergy! Paralysis ticks! Acarology taught us all about the eight-legged villains that aim for our crevices, but Disease Ecologist Dr. Andrea Swei offers a deep dive under the skin to learn more about what nasties a tick can give us. We chat a whole bunch about Lyme Disease: its prevalence, testing, treatment, which animals carry it, “chronic Lyme” vs. post-treatment Lyme. We also cover how lizards might harbor a helpful protein, two Ukrainia...
Jun 18, 2019•1 hr 15 min•Ep. 93
What IS an island? How do birds and plants and mammals GET there? Why do we like going to islands? Dr. Andy Kraemer studies how life populates and survives on hunks of remote rock and chats all about the Galapagos Islands -- where he does his research. We address the smallest island in the world, the largest, some bananas biological adaptations, Darwin's finchy mistakes, some nude people and a Baroness who got caught up in a homicide scandal, and shrinking skeletons. Also: pirates and prison isl...
Jun 11, 2019•50 min•Ep. 92
Ticks: They’re tiny. They’re thirsty. They’re drooling vectors of various illnesses and they want nothing more than to cuddle up to your darkest crevices. In the episode, learn how to remove a tick, if you should spray your yard and with what, how landscaping affects tick exposure, why Lyme Disease is spreading, the Lone Star Tick rolling into town, how to protect your pets and why the CC ruined poppyseed muffins. Acarologist, medical entomologist and tick expert Dr. Neeta Pardanani Connally cha...
Jun 05, 2019•1 hr 21 min•Ep. 91
What happens to the brain under extreme stress? Why do past traumas haunt us? What kind of therapies work for veterans? And what can we do in day-to-day life to be more resilient to adverse experiences? Traumatologist and social worker Dr. Nicholas Barr has studied PTSD in veterans and homeless youth and explains how traumas affect the rest of our lives and how to bounce back by getting a little help. Also: great resources for lower-cost therapy and what you can do to support loved ones who have...
May 28, 2019•1 hr 28 min•Ep. 90
Why do we bone? Why should we have kids? When should we have kids? Crickets might answer all these questions. Dr. Amy Worthington of Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska studies "life history tradeoffs:" when to allocate resources to reproduction versus preserving your own health. Whether you're an insect ghosting a buster mate or a millennial waiting to have kids until the economy gets better, you may learn a thing or two about whether having kids is worth it.Follow Dr. Amy Worthington at Tw...
May 21, 2019•49 min•Ep. 89
Announcement: BILL NYE HAS A PODCAST. And Alie's his first guest. Bill Nye’s on a mission to change the world, one phone call at a time and yer ol’ Dadward VonPodcast is first in the chair helping field questions. Yes she is freaking out about this and yes you should listen. In “Science Rules!," he tackles the curliest questions on just about anything in the universe with his signature knowledge and affability. And Alie shares her strategies for science communication. Take a listen to the previe...
May 16, 2019•11 min
Mushrooms! Psilocybin! Humungous fungus! Black mold! Foraging! The incredibly charming and warm Dr. Tom Volk, world-renown mushroom expert, welcomes Alie into his office to dive deep into the underground world of fungal enthusiasts and touch on pathogens and medicinal therapies. Dr. Volk himself is a heart transplant patient, and shares how his life has been changed since a donor saved it. Also: Alie holds his old heart in her hands.Dr. Tom Volk's awesome fungus website This week's donations wer...
May 14, 2019•1 hr 16 min•Ep. 88
Toaaaaads! Friend or foe? Dive into a toad hollow with bufologist and charming human Priya Nanjappa, who is a wealth of knowledge and a font of affection for toads. Which toads are the biggest, the most poisonous, the history of the cane toad, toad licking, orgies with pythons, mating calls, evolution, wart film flam, witch myths , toad abodes and more. This episode will change the way you crouch down and shake hands with your tiny backyard grumpa.Follow Priya at www.twitter.com/toadallypriya or...
May 07, 2019•1 hr 9 min•Ep. 87
THAT'S RIGHT IT'S A MINISOHDA FROM MINNESOHDA. On the last stop of a six-state Midwest tour interviewing -ologists for future episodes, your ol' Dadward Von Podcast was going to serve up a re-run this week. HOWEVER, I love you all too much and instead I recorded a solo episode in my rental car of the best travel tips I've amassed from the last decade of being on the road. How to pack, what to pack, ideas for mini-trips that don't cost a lot, airport etiquette, cheap flight strategies, why first ...
Apr 30, 2019•21 min•Ep. 86
"Addiction doesn't have to be a bummer!," quoth addictionologist Erin Parisi, who has some uplifting and hopeful tales from her professional life. But content warning: it's definitely not a day in the park. Tune in for some info on alcohol dependence, smoking, opiates, behavioral addictions, how addiction can futz with your reward systems, some sobering statistics, what we can learn from rat parties, how childhood experiences can set the stage for substance dependence later, how many people are ...
Apr 23, 2019•1 hr 33 min•Ep. 85
Hagfish: these floppy hot dogs of the deep sea deserve our undying respect. Tim Winegard is a professional hagfishologist (YES IT'S A WORD) at Chapman University, and he dishes on the world's slimiest treasures. Prepare to hear about swift escapes, spellbinding clots of slime, patchy backstories, aphrodisiacs, outlasting extinction events, why you don't always need a spine, eating your way out of a dead whale, and -- like a slippery messiah -- turning water to slime. Also Alie confronts her fear...
Apr 16, 2019•1 hr 14 min•Ep. 84
Scorpions: the victims of undue shade. If you've ever wanted to impress a date with weird facts THIS IS THE EPISODE FOR YOU. A handful of people on planet Earth have a PhD in scorpions and Dr. Lauren Esposito is one of them. She spills the beans on how venom works, what's up with the blacklight glow effect, how dangerous they *really* are, what all the movies get wrong, the best names for scorpions, where she's traveled to look under rocks, where a scorpion's butt is, if scorpions dance or make ...
Apr 09, 2019•1 hr 11 min•Ep. 83
After last week's heavy episode, Alie takes a little break with a Field Trip to one of her favorite places, the Natural History Museum of LA County. Hop in her pocket to hear about singing trees, hungry harpy eagles, architectural antelopes, crows that know your car, a pelt vault, sea serpents, willow huts, why Alie started loitering around in a vest, her personal list of must-see hidden exhibits, "Secrets from the Vault," her new live series for First Fridays in April and June, plus excerpts fr...
Apr 02, 2019•36 min•Ep. 82
In a world saturated with CSI spinoffs and true crime documentaries, we look at a criminology subset focusing not on the pathology of the killers, but on the victims of crime: their experiences, vulnerability, survival rates, statistics, trauma, and recovery. In the least goofy episode to date, the brilliant and warm professional victimologist Dr. Callie Rennison of the University of Colorado chats about resources, historical changes of perspective, gender's role in victimization and how people ...
Mar 26, 2019•1 hr 32 min•Ep. 81
ALIENS! EXTRATERRESTRIALS! MARTIANS! Let's. Get. Into. It. The phenomenal Dr. Kevin Peter Hand of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory dishes on the oceans of distant moons, methane rivers, E.T., ice crusts, what might be out there, the timeline of possibly finding them, ghosts, aliens, dark matter, if we should fear making contact with intergalactic beings, if the government is hiding alien secrets, how finding extraterrestrial microbes would change the way we see life on this here tiny blue dot in...
Mar 19, 2019•1 hr 24 min•Ep. 80
Video games! Tabletop games! IRL role-play gaming! The ... lottery? Dr. Jane McGonigal is a video game developer, TED speaker, bestselling author and total badass with a deep knowledge of how games -- and especially video games -- can motivate, soothe and connect us. We talk about everything from Monopoly to dance offs, Fortnite, vintage Atari, VR, the challenge of Dark Souls, the sweetness of League of Legends, how Tetris can get you through rough times and the health issue that caused Dr. McGo...
Mar 12, 2019•1 hr 17 min•Ep. 79
The brilliant and dazzling Helen Zaltzman, host of The Allusionist podcast and person who technically for a living researches the origins of language and thus is an etymologist, visits Alie's apartment to chat about various word origins, gender in language, the Bible a.k.a. The Oxford English Dictionary, origins of the filthiest slang, emoji decoding, mediocrity, step parents, babies wearing glasses, Greek kimonos, the romance of languages and the fundamental truth that language is always changi...
Mar 05, 2019•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 78
This episode, and Dr. Shane Campbell-Staton, are a true joy. The UCLA professor, host of the Biology of Superheroes Podcast and Thermophysiologist talks about big animals vs. little ones, lizard storms, dinosaur blood, hibernating bears, why you sweat in your sleep, antifreeze frogs, miracle hamsters, why different people run at very different temperatures, how comic books influence the way he sees science, learning how his brain works and some time management hacks that he uses as a professor a...
Feb 26, 2019•1 hr 24 min•Ep. 77
WHO ARE WE? Personality researcher & psychology professor Dr. Simine Vazire dishes about introverts, extroverts, self-esteem, sociopaths, neuroticism, conscientiousness, Buzzfeed quizzes, yearbook inscriptions, trusting people, screwing up your kids, acting like your parents, changing personality traits through therapy or medication and astrology being put to the test. Also, Alie finds out what kind of dog she is. Dr. Simine Vazire on Twitter This week's donation was made to improvingpsych.o...
Feb 19, 2019•1 hr 17 min•Ep. 76
Love! Romance! Intimate relationships! Marriage! Divorce! Remarriage! Clowns! This episode has it all. The wonderfully warm Dr. Benjamin Karney of the UCLA Marriage lab has been studying romance and intimate relationships for 20 years and sits down to chat about being single and the mechanisms behind finding a partner, what behaviors foster intimacy, why some couples stay together vs. splitting up, some bananas proposals, wedding budgets, how parenting affects marriage, historical problems with ...
Feb 12, 2019•1 hr 35 min•Ep. 75
How long can we live? How much of aging is genetics vs. environment? What does oral hygiene have to do with brain health? What causes Alzheimer’s? How do turtles and naked mole rats live so long? Are there any proven strategies for living a longer life? What's up with whiskey and eggs? World-renowned aging expert and biogerontologist Dr. Caleb "Tuck" Finch takes a quick break from his prolific research at USC to answer Alie's sometimes stupid questions about everything from molecules to movies. ...
Feb 05, 2019•52 min•Ep. 74
If you think you like sea turtles, get ready to become wildly obsessed with them. Cheloniologist Dr. Camryn Allen met up with Alie on a tropical island (ok, in a hotel room on a tropical island) to chat about flipper slappings, turtle rodeos, nesting BBs, current surfing, endangered statuses, field work, sleeping under water, world records, boopable noses, male:female ratios, mind-boggling navigation, what you can do to help them, and the many mysteries that still remain. Take a deep dive into t...
Jan 29, 2019•1 hr 25 min•Ep. 73
What's a tortoise? What's a turtle? Why do they live so dang long? What's up with their junk? Wildlife biologist and testudinologist Amanda Hipps studies gopher tortoises and dishes about turtle nomenclature, cliques, dicks, behavior, burrows, evolution, habitats and more. If you don't dig tortoises yet, you're about to fall deep into a turtle tunnel in love with them.Follow Amanda Hipps on Instagram or Twitter This week's donation was made to AlongsideWildlifeFoundation.org Sponsor link: www.th...
Jan 22, 2019•1 hr 14 min•Ep. 72
