On todays episode of Modern Notion Daily, we talk with guest Caitlin OConnell, author of Elephant Don: The Politics of a Pachyderm Posse (University of Chicago Press, April 2015). OConnell shares her observations from 20 years of research on male African elephants, and comes to the conclusion that theyre not unlike the Mafia (hence, the elephant Don). We all practice the tongue twister that MIT students have deemed the hardest, and we tell the story of the man who ate a Cessna 150. Plus, artists and scientists grapple with how to represent dark matter.

Music this hour:

People Are Strange by The Doors

“Elle va au Japon” by Nic Bommarito, from the album A Quiet Age

2.2.05 by BOPD, from the album 2005 Stayin Alive InstruMentals