Dogs doing science. With their faces. As a follow-up to last weeks Ethnocynology episode about humans domesticating wolves, we chat with conservation biologist and Eco-odorologist Kayla Fratt (and her working dog Barley) about how trained animals help scientists. Sit and stay to learn how rescue dogs can get their dog-torate degrees, which rewards work when training, dogs on a boat, dogs in the jungle, wolves in the sea, why noses are wet, how your sense of smell is trash, the price of a police ...
Jan 22, 2025•1 hr 4 min•Transcript available on Metacast Ancient dogs! Domestic wolves! Anthropology! Archaeology! Its all Ethnocynology: when humans and dogs started living and working together. The wonderful and iconic David Ian Howe is an educator and professional archaeologist whose focus is canines and people. So lets curl up and be cute like dogs as we listen about breed histories, what evidence we have for doggies being friends, how wolves tamed themselves, why our relationships with canines make us what we are, talking dogs, if its fair it ask...
Jan 15, 2025•1 hr 14 min•Transcript available on Metacast As wildfires burn across L.A. and my neighborhood evacuates we thought it would be a good time to encore these Fire Ecology episodes so I can literally catch my breath. 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. After the break, co-host of the podcast Good Fire Dr. Amy Christianson...
Jan 10, 2025•3 hr 37 min•Transcript available on Metacast HAPPINESS RESEARCH, straight up. What is happiness? How do our circumstances affect happiness? Why is the word gratitude kinda cringey? What can we do to feel better? Should we feel guilty for feeling happy? When is positivity toxic? In this encore of an episode favorite, Yale cognitive scientist, Eudemonologist, and host of The Happiness Lab podcast Dr. Laurie Santos chats about how scientists measure human happiness and what their research has shown helps achieve it, even during the worst of t...
Dec 31, 2024•1 hr 13 min•Transcript available on Metacast The time is right to revisit cabins: Log cabins, woodsy getaways, A-frame cuties, cottages, tiny homes, lake houses. WE GET INTO IT, including 2024 updates. 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 an...
Dec 24, 2024•1 hr 2 min•Transcript available on Metacast Orange teeth! Vanilla butts! Architecture with twigs! Olde-timey joke books? Field naturalist, conservationist, wildlife tracker and beaver believer Rob Rich works with the National Wildlife Federations coordination of the Montana Beaver Working Group and answers all of our Castorological questions about: baby beavers, tooth tools, lodges, dams, the sound of water, the slap of a tail, who eats beaver and why, beavers in peril, in folklore, in smut books, in your neighborhood and in your dreams f...
Dec 18, 2024•1 hr 25 min•Transcript available on Metacast Remembering names! Preventing dementia! Photographic memories! Weed! Goldfish! Its the thrilling conclusion of Mnemonology with Dr. Michael Yassa, the Director of UC Irvines Center for the Neurobiology of Learning and Memory. We talk long vs. short term memories, how smells can pack a wallop of emotions, prosopagnosia (facial blindness), the fog of new parenthood, Alzheimer's and other causes of dementia, and tips to keep your brain in tip-top shape. Lets make some mems. Listen to Part 1 here Fo...
Dec 11, 2024•1 hr 4 min•Transcript available on Metacast How are memories made? Where are they stored? Where do they go? What was I just talking about? Neurobiologist, professor, researcher, and Director of UC Irvines Center for the Neurobiology of Learning and Memory, Dr. Michael Yassa, joins us for a two-parter deep diving into our memories. Get to know the cells that run your life while he also busts flim-flam, and talks about movie myths, aging and memory loss, childbirth amnesia, what happens when you cram for a test, hormones and memory, that th...
Dec 04, 2024•1 hr 15 min•Transcript available on Metacast Vaping and vein health! Covid and clots! Easy bruising! Movie blood! Spider veins! Free socks! The heroic vascular surgeon Dr. Sheila Blumberg of NYU Langone Health let me ask her one million questions about how blood gets from point A to B all day. She explains the difference between arteries, veins, capillaries, and vessels and we cover everything from fainting to teenage movie tropes, how to tie a tourniquet, atherosclerosis, aneurysms, stents and why your leg is asleep right now. View Dr. Bl...
Nov 27, 2024•1 hr 18 min•Transcript available on Metacast What even IS a breadfruit? How do you cook it? Why have Pacific Islanders grown it for so long? Can it solve world hunger? And what does it have to do with an infamous 18th century mutiny on the high seas? Pack your bags and hop aboard for not one but two island excursions to learn all about this rev-'ulu-tionary tropical staple. We start on a breezy Catalina Island dock to hear about the ethnobotany and ecobiology of breadfruit from Dr. Noa Kekuewa Lincoln before making our way to a farm tucked...
Nov 25, 2024•37 min•Transcript available on Metacast Thorny leaves! Embarrassing imports! Basket gossip! Making cool stuff from invasive vines! Renowned weaver and teacher, James C. Bamba, connected more deeply with his Mariana Island heritage through weaving and shares how you know when plant fiber is ready, the anatomy of a coconut tree, how to look a gift basket in the mouth, the baskets that he cherishes the most, how to design with your mind, what he thinks about when hes weaving, basket jokes he hates the most, and when learning another cult...
Nov 20, 2024•1 hr 7 min•Transcript available on Metacast Exhaustion! Numbness! Anger! Youre stressed out. I get it. Lets fix it. I cornered one of the worlds experts on Ergopathology, scholar and author Dr. Kandi Wiens, to ask about the causes of burnout, warning signs, what professions are more at risk, how to recover from burnout and prevent it in the future, which was the focus of her book, Burnout Immunity. We also chat about neurodiversity, hockey mascots, childhood trauma, how do you tell your boss you're burned the F out, grit, and guilt. Also,...
Nov 13, 2024•1 hr 7 min•Transcript available on Metacast Theyre acrobatic fliers with long bodies and veined wings and their babies breathe through their butts: dragonflies. Lets get into the difference between a damselfly and dragonfly, how fast they dart around,how big they were in the age of the dinosaurs, sci-fi aviation inspiration, mating choreography, attracting them to your yard (maybe to eat them) and lots more with scholar, American Museum of Natural History curator, and dragonfly expert: Dr. Jessica Ware. Visit Dr. Wares website and follow ...
Nov 06, 2024•1 hr 14 min•Transcript available on Metacast Folks, come with me. Were hanging out under some train tracks late at night in Philadelphia doing street art. As the promised companion piece to our wonderful Modern Toichographology episode on murals and street art, this Field Trip takes us to where the action happens, chatting with several muralists as they work on their 17-foot paintings lining Front Street. Youll meet UNAPXLXGETIQ, El Toro, and Iris Barbee Pendergrass a.k.a. These Pink Lips, Donna Grace Kroh, and Mr. Scoot and learn about th...
Oct 30, 2024•34 min•Transcript available on Metacast Licorice opinions! War chocolate! Candy corn origins, circus peanut secrets, the sourest sourballs, and your great aunts purse. Stay until the very end for the biggest shocked laugh I have ever had on this show. The incredibly charming author, journalist, candy historian, and Confectiologist Susan Benjamin chats about everything from apothecary origin stories, ethnobotany, having horehound on hand, the warheads that could save you, vegan candy controversy, sugar sources from beets to corn, Turki...
Oct 23, 2024•2 hr 47 min•Transcript available on Metacast Coffin engravings! Archaeology ethics! Linen wrappings! Repatriation! Sexy hippos! Were back with more mummies in this Part 2 with the wonderful Drs. Salima Ikram & Kara Cooneywho chat about animal mummies, eating mummified remains, plant resins, the debate over human sacrifice, coffin reuse, Egyptian tourism, the worst temple gift shop in history, and what happens if youre late to your own funeral. Also: is all religion magic? Lets get into it. More Spooktober episodes Visit Dr. Cooneys website...
Oct 17, 2024•1 hr•Transcript available on Metacast Linen wrapping. Expensive resins. Sarcophagi. Preserving for eternity or until someone raids their tomb. Its a brand-new Spooktober episode with not one but two guests: Dr. Salima Ikram is a professor of Egyptology and expert on mummification of both people and animals, and is joined by veteran guest from the Egyptology episode, professor and author Dr. Kara Cooney. The two chat about mummification techniques, how food studies lead into the pyramids, controversy over the word mummy, whiffing the...
Oct 09, 2024•52 min•Transcript available on Metacast Lets kick off Spooktober with RATS: They love pizza. They invade taquerias at midnight. They scurry. They cuddle. They outsmart. They inspire movies that inspire musicals. Proving that not just woodsy megafauna can be charismatic, rats have lives we would never suspect. Globally-lauded Urban Rodentologist Dr. Robert Corrigan, or Bobby if you like, has been studying these animals in their big-city ecosystem for decades and he is a wonder-filled joy. Learn about rats origin story, the difference b...
Oct 02, 2024•1 hr 19 min•Transcript available on Metacast Murals! Frescos! Graffiti! Street art! Philadelphia is the birthplace of graffiti and the mural capital of the world so we sit down with city historian, journalist, curator, and Toichographologist Conrad Benner to chat about public vs. private art, cultural movements, commissioned vs. um un-commissioned murals, how mural topics are chosen, how much it costs to make a mural, where to get that money, vandalism and murals and the fine line between, and how everything you do is art. Let Phillys hist...
Sep 26, 2024•1 hr 19 min•Transcript available on Metacast Smaller than you can imagine. Potato-shaped. Mysterious. Romantic. And tough enough to survive the vacuum of space or decades of desiccation. Join professor and confirmed Tardigradologist Dr. Paul Bartels to saunter into a microscopic wonderland of bizarrely long naps, foreign genomes, moon landings, glow-in-the-dark moss piglets, cryptobiosis, kitten claws, knife mouths, balloon butts, spiders on Mars, splicing tardigrade DNA into ours, debunking flim-flam and the friends living in your gutters...
Sep 18, 2024•1 hr 15 min•Transcript available on Metacast Give yourself a hug and take a deep breath and lets chat with renowned Suicidologist Dr. DeQuincy Meiffren-Lzine. He is an absolute wonder and helps us understand the risk factors for suicide, prevention strategies, socio-economic factors, gender statistics, LGBTQ+ suicide prevention, what happens if you call a hotline, thoughts on hospitalization, how to support loved ones who have ideation, mourning those lost, learning to take care of yourself and your mental health and how living through the...
Sep 11, 2024•2 hr 59 min•Transcript available on Metacast When did coffee get into our mouths? Whos right when it comes to the best coffee? Whats the most ethical way to enjoy it? What about the cats that eat the beans? How will climate change affect your morning coffee? Peter Giuliano is the executive director of the Coffee Science Foundation explains folk stories behind coffee, what makes beans taste the way they do, why cold brew and nitro feel like rocket fuel, shade-grown coffee, roasting chemistry, flimflam, atmospheric pressure, dead espresso, a...
Sep 03, 2024•2 hr 33 min•Transcript available on Metacast A very special encore in memory of our favorite Museologist, Ronnie Cline. In this 2018 episode, we talked about the life and work of a great dude and a good pal who passed away this morning. On the agenda of his legendary episode: Museums! Mummies! Paintings! Hot dogs! Alie sits down with her dear internet friend and museologist Ronnie Cline, who manages 30,000 artifacts over 22 California State Park Museums. Get the hot gossip about behind-the-scenes museum life, vintage ghosts, following your...
Aug 28, 2024•1 hr•Transcript available on Metacast Caves! Caverns! Grottos! Crystals! Let's get down and dirty with Speleology with explorer, researcher, professor, and paleoclimatologist Dr. Gina Moseley. She shares what its like to spend a week straight in a cave, safety tips, climate research breakthroughs, and the deepest and darkest caves. Also: stalactites, stalagmites, cave clouds, show caves, who counts as a spelunker, what ancient climate science can tell us about our current sticky situation, cave diving, cave rescues, creepy caves, ga...
Aug 21, 2024•1 hr 12 min•Transcript available on Metacast Forks on teeth. Lip smacking. Metal on metal. (Dont worry, there are no sonic examples of triggers in this episode!) Why do some of us haaaate certain noises and other folks cannot comprehend how a sound could be so irritating? Lets meet in the middle with a professional Misophonologist, clinical psychologist, and Oxford University research fellow Dr. Jane Gregory. Dr. Gregory not only has misophonia, but has propelled research and public awareness of the condition. We lob so many questions to l...
Aug 14, 2024•1 hr 13 min•Transcript available on Metacast What exactly is fun? How will you know when youre having it? Do introverts have special alone fun? Is it okay to seek fun in bleak times? Catherine Price is an award-winning journalist and author who spent years researching the science of fun for her book The Power of Fun: How to Feel Alive Again. She let me lob many questions at her including: adult vs. childhood fun, whats the difference between happiness and laughter and fun, what does fun do to your actual meat body, how can you have more of...
Aug 07, 2024•1 hr 28 min•Transcript available on Metacast Its an updated mega-encore of one of my favorite episodes with 2024 research to learn: How many genders are there? How do you know if youre queer? Is sexual orientation biological, and if so, how? The amazing neuroscientist and endocrinology researcher Dr. Daniel Pfau joins to share their path in academia finding the perfect research, understanding their own genderqueer identity, what animals in nature exhibit queer behavior, how hormones affect our moods, the variation of gender expression, que...
Jul 31, 2024•2 hr 3 min•Transcript available on Metacast Feathery gills! Adorable smiles! Cultural icons! Habitat ecology! And superhuman limb regeneration? Its an entire episode on axolotls. You either love these aquatic salamanders, or youve never heard of them. Clap your tiny slimy hands for Ambystomologist Dr. Jessica Whited of Harvard Medical Schools Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology who raises and studies these beautiful creatures including the biomedical marvels being discovered. Also discussed: their narrow niche, the ecology movement to save...
Jul 24, 2024•1 hr 28 min•Transcript available on Metacast Part 2 is here! Its wall to wall listener questions about magic mushrooms, LSD, ayahuasca ceremonies, set and setting, how mushrooms go stale, decriminalization, strains and potencies, placebos, the Stoned Ape Theory, neurodivergence, tripping in an MRI, recent F.D.A. hearings, astrophysics and psychedelics, and how to be a good trip sitter with a professor of psychiatry at the UCLA School of Medicine and co-editor of the Handbook of Medical Hallucinogens , Dr. Charlie Grob. Also: the safest way...
Jul 17, 2024•1 hr 7 min•Transcript available on Metacast Magic mushrooms, LSD, ayahuasca ceremonies, DMT, ketamine: take a trip into the science and research of hallucinogens. Renowned psychiatry professor and psychedelics researcher Dr. Charles Grob of Harbor-UCLA Medical Center sits down to talk about ethnobotanical origins of psychedelics, how much LSD is too much LSD, what juices are squirting in the brain when you're tripping out, who should NOT take psychedelics, talking to dead people, antidepressants and mushrooms, the murky history of psyched...
Jul 11, 2024•1 hr 8 min•Transcript available on Metacast 
