This episode was originally recorded several years ago and I never got around to editing and posting it - but we're getting back into the swing of things and I didn't want to let this one molder away in the vault! A short episode on hematophagy (blood-eating) as a strategy in arthropods, and especially a curious little spider, Evarcha culicivora, which is a specialist on mosquitoes. 

Sources, further reading, and a transcript are available at our website here: https://asabpodcast.com/?p=5615 

The show is on Bluesky @ASABpod, Charles @chwallace, Tessa @tessafisher.  

Our intro music is by Nicole Petkovich. 

If you're trans and/or non-binary in science and would like to appear as a guest, please fill out our interest form: https://forms.gle/L16Z2D1amcc4xjyx5 

Thank you for listening! 

We're back from hiatus and talking about several updates in space news from the time we were gone - specifically, Arizona naming Pluto its state planet, the status on phosphine in Venus's atmosphere, and water on Mars. 

Sources, further reading, and a transcript are available at our website here: https://asabpodcast.com/2025/02/18/episode-63-several-space-updates/ 

The show is on Bluesky @ASABpod, Tessa @tessafisher.  

Our intro music is by Nicole Petkovich. 

If you're trans and/or non-binary in science and would like to appear as a guest, please fill out our interest form: https://forms.gle/deQLoL4iYG6v1Qfq9 

Thank you for listening! 

In this the first episode of Trans Medicine March - the one month of the year where this podcast is specifically and explicitly about being trans, and specifically aspects of medical transition - we begin with a consideration of how time in space affects the human body in general, and how being someone who has medically transitioned might interact with that. Also NASA: Send Tessa to space already. 

Sources, further reading, and a transcript are available at our website here: https://asabpodcast.com/2023/03/14/episode-62/

The show is on Twitter (for now) @ASABpod,Tessa @spacermase. 

Our intro music is by Nicole Petkovich. 

If you're trans and/or non-binary in science and would like to appear as a guest, please fill out our interest form: https://forms.gle/deQLoL4iYG6v1Qfq9 

Thank you for listening! 

In this episode which is definitely right on time for Valentine's Day, Charles tells Tessa about a paper he read on the fruitless gene (originally identified in Drosophila melanogaster, the "laboratory fruit fly") and its possible control over the courtship behavior in Blattella germanica, the "German cockroach," another classic model organism. Tangents of variable length include how crucial genitals are to entomology, the placement of cockroaches in the insect family tree, and how cockroaches never get their due respect. 

Show notes and a transcript are available for the episode on our website: https://asabpodcast.com/2023/02/20/episode-61/

The show is on Twitter (for now) @ASABpod,Tessa @spacermase. 

Our intro music is by Nicole Petkovich. 

If you're trans and/or non-binary in science and would like to appear as a guest, please fill out our interest form: https://forms.gle/deQLoL4iYG6v1Qfq9 

Thank you for listening! 

On this episode we're joined by PhD student Jackson Reyna to talk about his love of chemistry and specifically fire. Some topics include organometallics, practical applications of chemical research, what is fire, and whether and under what conditions we'd all be willing to participate in experimental medicine. 

A transcript and show notes are available on our website at: https://asabpodcast.com/2023/02/07/episode-60/

Jackson can be found online on his Twitter, YouTube channel, and Instagram.

The show is on Twitter (for now) @ASABpod,Tessa @spacermase. 

Our intro music is by Nicole Petkovich. 

If you're trans and/or non-binary in science and would like to appear as a guest, please fill out our interest form: https://forms.gle/deQLoL4iYG6v1Qfq9 

Thank you for listening! 

In this episode, the two of us share several different interesting topics we've read about recently, including the timing of the meteor that killed the dinosaurs, the first fossil cockroach found with its sperm, the use of ultrasound as contraception for mammals, extremely dangerous theoretical rockets, and unethical animal experimentation in the American mid-twentieth-century. Warning for animal abuse (or at least dubiously ethical animal experimentation). 

A transcript and show notes for this episode are available on our website here: https://asabpodcast.com/2023/01/06/episode-59/

The show is on Twitter (for now) @ASABpod,Tessa @spacermase. 

Our intro music is by Nicole Petkovich. 

If you're trans and/or non-binary in science and would like to appear as a guest, please fill out our interest form: https://forms.gle/deQLoL4iYG6v1Qfq9 

In this episode, we address what happens to all the insects when it's cold out - where do they go? how do they survive? how do you survive freezing temperatures? Including the elusive grylloblattids, freeze tolerant cockroaches, Alaskan stoneflies, and even some butterflies. 

A transcript and show notes for this episode are available on our website here: https://asabpodcast.com/2022/11/28/episode-58/

The show is on Twitter (for now) @ASABpod, Charles @cockroacharles, and Tessa @spacermase. 

Our intro music is by Nicole Petkovich. 

If you're trans and/or non-binary in science and would like to appear as a guest, please fill out our interest form: https://forms.gle/deQLoL4iYG6v1Qfq9 

Thank you for listening!

In this episode - recorded almost 18 months ago but still great - we talk to our first and only cis (?) guest: Rose Eveleth, the creator, writer, producer, and host of the podcast Flash Forward (in Charles's estimation, the greatest podcast of all time). We talk about the process behind making Flash Forward, the episodes which we feel speak particularly to The Trans Experience, Rose's attitude towards their gender, the most outrageous guest interview Flash Forward ever had, and the classic question of whether Rose would put their brain in a robot body. 

Flash Forward is coming to a close at the end of this year, but there's a back catalog of seven and a half years of episodes to listen to, and they're all bangers. Rose also worked on a series for Netflix released earlier this year, The Future Of, and the Flash Forward book was released not long before we recorded this episode in 2021. 

A transcript and show notes for this episode are available on our website here: https://asabpodcast.com/2022/11/05/episode-57/

The show is on Twitter @ASABpod, Charles @cockroacharles, and Tessa @spacermase. 

Our intro music is by Nicole Petkovich. 

Thank you for listening!

It's Nona time baby!!!!!! 

A transcript and show notes are available on our website here: https://asabpodcast.com/2022/09/19/episode-56/

The show is on Twitter @ASABpod, Charles @cockroacharles, and Tessa @spacermase. 

Our intro music is by Nicole Petkovich. 

Thank you for listening!

In anticipation of the release of the third entry in the Locked Tomb quartet by Tamsyn Muir (Nona the Ninth, out 13 September), we're re-releasing our conversation with friend of the pod Erin on the first two books: Gideon the Ninth and Harrow the Ninth. Spoilers, like a lot of them. 

Our episode on Nona the Ninth will be released a week from now, so get reading! 

A transcript of this episode is available on our website here: https://asabpodcast.com/2020/10/31/episode-12/ 

The show is on Twitter @ASABpod, Charles @cockroacharles, and Tessa @spacermase. 

Our intro music is by Nicole Petkovich. 

Thank you for listening!