The thrilling conclusion of all-things-emoji! Eggplants, peaches, jumping ska dudes, gray hearts, family emojis, what NOT to text your Southern Italian friends, yellow hands, red hair, the birth of the smiley face and how to celebrate World Emoji Day on July 17 with Emojipedia founder Jeremy Burge, designer Jennifer Daniel, and the world’s first emoji translator (and current Emojipedia editor-in-chief) Keith Broni. Listen to Part 1 first, of course. 📙 Emojipedia 🎉 #WorldEmojiDay 7/17/23 🍳 Emo...
Jul 12, 2023•1 hr 12 min•Ep. 331
Thumbs up? Thumbs down. Skulls of joy. And so many expressions of pain and comfort. This, my babies, is the -ology that sparked this whole podcast. Curiology means “writing with pictures” but will certified emoji experts agree that they are curiologists? Listen in for behind-the-scenes drama, origin stories, stats on usage, trends and global context with Emojipedia founder Jeremy Burge, designer Jennifer Daniel, and the world’s first emoji translator (and current Emojipedia editor-in-chief) Keit...
Jul 06, 2023•1 hr 18 min•Ep. 330
Grab your stuff and hop in our van full of weirdos to check out Boise Idaho’s finest attraction: a 580 acre preserve of land that is absolutely flush with raptors who could eat your eyeballs. We’re back with another field trip episode, this time visiting The Peregrine Fund’s World Center For Birds of Prey in Boise, Idaho. We got a tour from Vice President of the Peregrine Fund Dr. Chris McClure to meet so many birds including California Condors, Harpy Eagles, American Kestrels, Barred Owls, Bald...
Jun 29, 2023•1 hr 25 min•Ep. 329
ANNOUNCEMENT: SMOLOGIES NOW HAS ITS OWN FEED! SUBSCRIBE FOR NEW EPISODES EVERY THURSDAY. Subscribe to Smologies: https://pod.link/1746567248 Ahoy matey, we’ve we’ve brought ye another ensmol’d episode of Ologies (which just means cleaned of filth and cut for brevity) this time on: Shipwrecks. We get to talk with maritime archaeologist and wreck nerd Chanelle Zaphiropoulos about her experiences with Shipwrecks, treasure, carbon dating, admirals worth admiring, ancient technology recovered from th...
Jun 26, 2023•25 min•Ep. 328
Honeybees get all the attention, but native bees are the underbugs to root for. Photographer, author, and National Geographic Explorer Krystle Hickman shows us the wonders of indigenous bees through her lens focused on conservation of bees and their habitats. She covers their lifecycles, tunnels, turrets, fuzzy butts, frat house cuddling, and sexual dimorphism. We also chat about taxonomic fisticuffs, bee hotels, the mustard blight, monocultures, the teeniest livestock, and how to appreciate and...
Jun 22, 2023•1 hr 28 min•Ep. 327
They clap. They swim. They have dozens of eyes and 2 million babies. They are scallops. Pectinidologist Dr. Samantha Lynch climbs aboard to share stories of theft on the brackish seas, gossip about scallops vs. oysters, ponderings on Disney bras, months without Rs, bay scallops, sea scallops, filter feeders, shellfish volunteering, curious baby bivalves, seagrass, red tides, and free buffets. We also check in with James Beard Award-nominated chef Miles Thompson who offers cooking tips (with a fa...
Jun 14, 2023•1 hr 36 min•Ep. 326
ANNOUNCEMENT: SMOLOGIES NOW HAS ITS OWN FEED! SUBSCRIBE FOR NEW EPISODES EVERY THURSDAY. Subscribe to Smologies: https://pod.link/1746567248 Here we are with the smol (shorter, cleaner, kid-friendly) version of another Ologies classic, in this case: Mammals. You’re one. Your dog is one. So are giant rats. What do we have in common? I promise you’ll find out the answer from the incredible Southern Illinois University professor, researcher, science communicator and mammalogist Dr. Danielle N. Lee ...
Jun 13, 2023•24 min•Ep. 325
Once again: the world is on fire. As wildfires burn across Canada and their smoke pours down the continent, we thought it would be a good time to encore these Fire Ecology episodes. First, Dr. Gavin Jones brings the heat talking about what fire is, how hot it burns, fire trends, tinderboxes, lots and lots of forest fire flim-flam, tolerant wombats, Angelina Jolie movies, cunning pine cones, thick bark, Indigenous fire stewardship and more. Then, join co-host of the podcast Good Fire, Dr. Amy Chr...
Jun 08, 2023•2 hr 23 min•Ep. 324
What’s the difference between Southern cooking and “soul food?” Is there a correct type of mac and cheese? And whose business is it what you eat? (Hint: no one’s). Culinary historian, scholar of African American life and culture critic Dr. Psyche Williams-Forson is a professor at University of Maryland College Park and department chair in the Department of American Studies. She also authored the books “Eating While Black: Food Shaming and Race in America” and “Building Houses out of Chicken Legs...
May 31, 2023•1 hr 13 min•Ep. 323
Jump in, we’re going to the Valley to talk to cool, funny screenwriters about ... Artificial intelligence-drafted scripts! Trillion-dollar companies pretending they’re broke! Emmy-nominated writers with side hustles! Teamster bosses dropping mics! What an exciting time to gossip about Hollywood… labor unions! Listen, we all love watching our Programs and laughing, learning and loving. But things are getting WEIRD behind the scenes, and the Writers Guild of America is on strike, showing up in pic...
May 26, 2023•1 hr 8 min•Ep. 322
It’s 2-for-1! Ticks AND Lyme: together in one helpful, disgusting, gossipy, empowering episode. This pair of episodes is about tiny, thirsty ticks and the diseases they spit into you is wall to wall wisdom from Dr. Neeta Pardanani Connally of the West Connecticut State University Tick Lab and Dr. Andrea Swei of SFSU’s Swei Lab cover 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 i...
May 17, 2023•2 hr 33 min•Ep. 321
Invisibility cloaks. Transparent frogs. Stealth bombers. Gorilla mischief. Theoretical optical physicist and Invisible Photologist Dr. Greg Gbur joins Alie to chat about light, illusions, secret technology, science fiction inspiration, terrible camouflage, great movies, historical mishaps, and even a few great household life hacks – and why you should go read a book on your porch. Perhaps his book, Invisibility: The History and Science of How Not To Be Seen. Visit Dr. Greg Gbur’s blogs, Skulls i...
May 10, 2023•1 hr 20 min•Ep. 320
How do our bodies build our bodies? What does a stem cell look like? How do they know what to do? What diseases could stem cells cure? And why is Canada such a hot place for research? Dr. Samantha Yammine – known by many as Science Sam – is a stem cell biologist and science communicator and takes us back to the discovery of stem cells, chats ethical questions, spotting scams, cloning, gene-edited babies, helping your body heal faster and what advancements are being made, albeit by slowly growing...
May 03, 2023•1 hr 20 min•Ep. 319
ANNOUNCEMENT: SMOLOGIES NOW HAS ITS OWN FEED! SUBSCRIBE FOR NEW EPISODES EVERY THURSDAY. Subscribe to Smologies: https://pod.link/1746567248 This shorter, kid-safe edit of the classic Herpetology episode features frilly gills, frog tornadoes, legless lizards, and reasons to appreciate snakes. Also, why you shouldn’t kiss one. Dr. David Steen is a beloved herpetologist and wildlife conservationist and his answers are full of facts and flim-flam busters. Dr. David Steen’s website , Twitter & I...
May 01, 2023•20 min•Ep. 318
Wow. It gets weirder. Military dolphins, dolphins on drugs, sensory deprivation, deciphering dolphin language, the search for alien life, and more with the affable and knowledgeable Delphinologist Dr. Justin Gregg. Should you cuddle a dolphin? Can one kill you? Should you hire dolphins as midwives? Why do they follow boats? And what’s Drake got to do with it? Start with Delphinology Part 1 here , or wherever you get podcasts. Visit Dr. Justin Gregg’s website and follow him on Instagram , Twitter...
Apr 26, 2023•55 min•Ep. 317
Giant brains! Communication mysteries! Infamous sensuality! Dolphins are here to blow your relatively tiny mind with their squeaks, clicks, cliques, history, lore, zany evolutionary path, psychedelic experiences, and so much more. Learn why some dolphins are pink, why NASA poured cash into groovy research, what it’s like to touch a dolphin, if they can learn to speak English, their mating strategies, captivity, and the researchers that made our culture obsessed with them. Also: how a screensaver...
Apr 19, 2023•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 316
Come check out my butt with me! 1 in 16 people in the U.S. will have colon cancer, and 0 in 16 want to talk about getting a camera up your guts to check things out. I am one of them, but after losing loved ones to colon cancer – and staring down the barrel of my first-ever colonoscope — I recorded tips, tricks, taste tests, foggy drug hazes, bar room advice, and finally my surprising results. It may save a life. Possibly yours. Find out more about colorectal cancer here More episode sources and ...
Apr 13, 2023•37 min•Ep. 315
We’re back for Part 2! If you missed Part 1, start there for the chicken basics and then come back for the weird stuff like chickens eating chickens, why chickens bother laying unfertilized eggs, rooster gossip, fairy eggs, nest abominations, bird grief, beak accessories, soft burbling chicken sounds, spicy chicken feed, safe corners of the internet, multicolored eggs and the big questions: SHOULD YOU GET A CHICKEN OR WHAT. We help you decide. See Tove on her 2023 book tour! Buy Tove’s book: Und...
Apr 05, 2023•46 min•Ep. 314
Yes, Chickenology is a real word. And we have questions. Such as: should you get a chicken?! Chicken-haver and author of “Under the Henfluence” Tove Danovich stops in to recall how her casual backyard chicken experiment turned into an obsession, a lifestyle, and then a book. We chat about junglefowl, chicken competitions, egg prices, chicken statues, bird personalities, coop logistics, avian flus, shell hues, earlobes, live chicken cams, and more on this Part 1. Stay tuned next week as we addres...
Mar 29, 2023•1 hr 16 min•Ep. 313
ANNOUNCEMENT: SMOLOGIES NOW HAS ITS OWN FEED! SUBSCRIBE FOR NEW EPISODES EVERY THURSDAY. Subscribe to Smologies: https://pod.link/1746567248 A G-rated, kid-safe Smologies edit all about getting your Zzzzzs. Neurologist and somnologist Dr. W. Chris Winter is an expert on sleep, and since his first interview, he’s released a book called “The Rested Child” all about sleep and kiddos! So parents, kids and anybody else can dive in to learn about different sleep stages, what sleep does to the brain, i...
Mar 28, 2023•29 min•Ep. 312
What’s inside that boarded up house? Should you explore an abandoned mall? A vacant factory? And how much of an old house ends up in a landfill? The founder of Domicology, Dr. Rex LaMore of Michigan State University’s Center for Community and Economic Development, is an expert on these things and answers any possible question you might have, from ghost towns to hidden house notes, arson, recycling wood, stealing metal and how to leave a better housing situation for future generations. Also: whal...
Mar 23, 2023•1 hr 25 min•Ep. 311
Ahh, Daylight Savings Time: does it mess up your brain? What time should you go to bed? Are you sleeping enough? Is shift work really that bad? How dark is dark enough? The wonderful and hilarious Dr. Katherine Hatcher got her PhD in hormones, sleep cycles and circadian rhythms, and helps Alie dissect her terrible sleep habits. We also chat about a tiny magical area in our brains that acts as your body's Big Ben. By the end of the episode, you'll be in footie pajamas eager to change your whole l...
Mar 14, 2023•1 hr 17 min•Ep. 310
ANNOUNCEMENT: SMOLOGIES NOW HAS ITS OWN FEED! SUBSCRIBE FOR NEW EPISODES EVERY THURSDAY. Subscribe to Smologies: https://pod.link/1746567248 Ichthyology is not easy to say, but fish are easy to love. Dr. Chris Thacker will get you so thrilled to stare into a pond or look up pictures of silvery sea serpent-looking fish friends. Hilariously charming fish expert and LA County Natural History Museum Curator of Ichthyology, Dr. Thacker took Alie to a basement full of several million jars of fish to c...
Mar 14, 2023•22 min•Ep. 309
Why an episode on Detroit?! It’s got a great story. Standalone, this episode is a fascinating look at a metropolis that swelled and thrived during the auto boom, then declined, and is navigating a rocky rebirth of sorts. Aaron Foley was Detroit’s first official City Storyteller and wrote the book “How to Live In Detroit Without Being a Jackass.” I’ve wanted to have him on Ologies for five years, and we finally sat down to talk about MoTown, car culture, square pizza, $1000 houses, gentrification...
Mar 08, 2023•1 hr•Ep. 308
I’m at the airport and there are hundreds of brain scientists everywhere. So I swallowed my dignity/anxiety and approached strangers about the neuroscience they do. The result is a bushel of info on cravings, sleep, consciousness, addiction, dopamine, monogamy, Ozempic, toxins in your brain and so much more with: Georgia Kirkpatrick, Isabella Montana, Dr. Marissa Co, Chancey Garrett, Noah Millman, Pique Choi, Dr. Barbara Sorg and Elizabeth Plunk. Oops, we just made a bunch of new friends. All th...
Mar 02, 2023•58 min•Ep. 307
Chemical spills, historical disasters, water quality, airborne toxic events, clear gasses, White Noise, dead fish, dark clouds, chemistry tests, trench coats, PFAS, phthalates, and the Ohio train derailment that plumed vinyl chloride into the skies of a small Ohio town. The lovely and informative Environmental Toxicologist Dr. Kimberly K. Garrett works at the intersection of chemical safety, public health and environmental justice — and she has cool science tattoos. Also: should I burn incense a...
Feb 22, 2023•1 hr 19 min•Ep. 306
Skin color! Hair texture! Biological anthropology! The incredibly informed and infectiously funny Dr. Tina Lasisi joins to chat sunscreen, ashiness, redheads, light skin, dark skin, in-between skin, beards, UVAs, UVBs, shower habits, cultural colloquialisms, vitiligo, melasma, medical math, ocher, freckles and more. Dr. Lasisi is about to become your new favorite science communication and internet friend. Also: sunscreen, people. Follow Dr. Tina Lasisi on Instagram , TikTok , and Twitter Visit D...
Feb 16, 2023•1 hr 32 min•Ep. 305
It’s invisible. It’s mysterious. It’s all around us – and no one knows what it is. Let’s have a fun existential crisis by pondering Dark Matter! The world’s most affable and endearing theoretical particle physicist, Dr. Flip Tanedo of UC Riverside, makes the Large Hadron Collider, Higgs bosons, and neutrinos make sense. Also: Star Trek, space ghosts, vintage insults, supernovas and more. You’ll leave with a newfound wonder and the desire to read physics journals for the secrets of life. Follow D...
Feb 08, 2023•1 hr 16 min•Ep. 304
Part 2 is here! Pull up a seat for singing techniques, baby talk, baritones, whistle notes, stroke recovery, vibrato, Julie Andrews, crying jags, throat singing, accents and much more with your new favorite Laryngologist, Dr. Ronda Alexander. We just… we love her so much. Listen to Laryngology Part 1 here Follow Dr. Alexander on Instagram and Twitter A donation went to Myeloma.org and to the Laryngology Education Foundation Health Equity Grant via this link More episode sources and links Other e...
Feb 01, 2023•55 min•Ep. 303
Voices! Singing! Anxiety busters! Breathing! The absolutely magnetic, charismatic Laryngologist and surgeon Dr. Ronda Alexander makes her long-awaited Ologies debut to chat about why we sound the way we do, hormones and voices, Elvis accents, opera singing, kid voices, turning back time vocally, coughing, sleep apnea, acid reflux, vocal fry, Mariah and more in this stellar two-parter. Come back next week when we answer so many burning questions. Follow Dr. Alexander on Instagram and Twitter A do...
Jan 25, 2023•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 302
