The world is made up of living and nonliving things that are all hanging out together in different configurations. The stuff that's hanging out together in Yellowstone — wolves and porcupines and Douglas firs and mayflies and geysers and snowstorms — are different than what you'd find in the Everglades between alligators and turkey vultures and sawgrass marsh and microorganisms. And just like with sports or the stock market or your family at Thanksgiving, there are rules of engagement between the stuff in the natural world — no matter what these elements are —  and the study of these rules of engagement is called ECOLOGY. And in this bonus episode, we sit down with our show's researcher Jesslyn Shields to get a crash course in this field of study that literally encompasses the entire world (and beyond).

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