Volcanoes. Trees. Drunk butterflies. Mars missions. Slug sex. Death. Beauty standards. Anxiety busters. Beer science. Bee drama. Take away a pocket full of science knowledge and charming, bizarre stories about what fuels these professional -ologists' obsessions. Humorist and science correspondent Alie Ward asks smart people stupid questions and the answers might change your life.
472 episodes transcribedAre you creepy? How would you know? What’s “creepy” as opposed to scary or eerie? We talk to the pioneer of this research, Serpopsychologist, Dr. Fran...
Storming the Bastille. Facing off with tanks. Canceling a streaming subscription. We’re talking protests, boycotts, insurrections, and demonstrations....
Pigs with human kidneys. Iron lungs. Bionic prostheses. And bendable genitals. Mary Roach is here, and Alie is freaking out. Over the last two decades...
Porcelain. Earthenware. China. Archaeology. Stoneware. Anthropology. Amphora. Throwing wheels. We got it all. Master potters, history aficionados and...
Neurons. Immune systems. MRIs. Weed gummies? One of the greats in neurology, Dr. Aaron Boster, takes time to chat all about Multiple Sclerosis, a neur...
YOU’RE NOT READY. But it’s time. Otters. Sea otters. River otters. Big beefy otters. Tiny otters. Giant river otters. Otters chasing you down the stre...
Train tracks. Split decisions. And a philosophy humdinger worth debating. Dr. Joshua Greene is a Harvard Psychology professor, neuroscientist, and *ac...
The info storm continues! Part 1 covered the anatomy of a cyclonic storm, the bizarre histories behind the category system, and where hurricanes come...
Hurricanes. Typhoons. Cyclones. Tropical storms. Tropical depressions. What does it all MEAAAN? Let’s dive in. Career meteorologists Dr. Kim Wood of t...
When were glasses invented? What happened back then if your horse stepped on them? How is the digital age changing adults’ and kids’ vision? The first...
Smell and culture. Scent descriptions in novels. Fragrances and class. Stink and stigmas. We cover it all. Scholar, author, and Literary Olfactologist...
This one’s all about lived experience: What's it like to have OCD? What’s the therapy all about? How do you support people with it? And how to accept...
Ruminations and reassurances. Checking and counting. Suffering and stigmas. It’s OCD, babes! OCD is now considered one of the most common psychiatric...
We’re back with molten hot cheese trivia in Part 2 with Fromologist Kyra James of OwnYourFunk.com. Part 1 covered the foundations and this week we add...
Soft. Hard. Fresh. Aged. Stinky. Illegal. Let’s talk cheese with Certified Cheese Professional (CCP) and Fromologist, Kyra James. We chat about propri...
Let’s light up your life and butt. World-renowned firefly expert Dr. Sara Lewis of Tufts University gives us some updates to her 2021 episode, sharing...
Fangs. Rattles. Misconceptions. Crawl out from under your rock for the angelic rattle of one of the world’s most maligned, misunderstood, gorgeous, my...
Farmed versus wild. Basement shrimp hustles. Mangrove drama. Anthropology. Animal welfare and plant-based diets. Climb aboard to meet UCSB’s super coo...
Have you ever read every word of The U.S. Constitution? You don't have to, because I read it with my mouth into your brain in this weird but vital epi...
Moonlit seaweeds. Dreamy underwater forests. Mounds of beach debris. Not plants. Let’s talk about where seaweed grows and whether or not it will save...
