Ellen jaws away about the great white shark. We discuss making our own planetary rings, performance-enhancing Speedos, how sharks sleep, the White Shark Café, IRL baby shark, and so much more.

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Happy MaxFunDrive! Right now is the best time to start a membership to support your favorite shows. Learn more and join at https://maximumfun.org/joinjustthezoo

It's MaxFunDrive. And here, for the first time, we give you an exclusive look (well, listen) at the craft of podcasting: presenting Casters on Casters.

In this episode, Teylor Smirl (Still Buffering) and Ellen Weatherford (Just the Zoo of Us) bond over the media they consumed that shaped who they are today, and how that media informs their perspectives on their shows. Plus, each host reveals their dream guest.

If this glamorous, in-depth journey into what makes your favorite hosts tick inspires you, support them by joining as a member at maximumfun.org/join.

Edited by Laura Swisher and Produced by Hannah Muroz for Maximum Fun.

Happy MaxFunDrive! Right now is the best time to start a membership to support your favorite shows. Learn more and join at https://maximumfun.org/joinjustthezoo

Join Ellen & special guest, co-founder and CEO of conservation organization Wildlife SOS Kartick Satyanarayan, for a review of Asian elephants. We discuss the harm caused by wildlife exploitation, how they protect animals by uplifting human communities, how education can help tourists make more ethical choices, and of course our guest shares some stories of what it’s like living and working alongside these beautiful giants. He’s got feel-good conservation success stories, workplace comedy, an adorable baby elephant, truly what more could you want from a podcast episode?

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Happy MaxFunDrive! Right now is the best time to start a membership to support your favorite shows. Learn more and join at https://maximumfun.org/joinjustthezoo

Follow Ellen down the jackrabbit hole. We discuss facial tilt, satellite dish ears, evolutionary ghosts of predators past, touchdown dances, jackalopes, Easter, and so much more.

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Happy MaxFunDrive! Right now is the best time to start a membership to support your favorite shows. Learn more and join at https://maximumfun.org/joinjustthezoo

Join Ellen & the Cryptonaturalist (Jarod K. Anderson) to talk about the ways that nature and wildlife can inspire our creativity and shape our stories, particularly the enticingly unknowable cryptids. We discuss being raised by a witch, the natural poetry in scientific facts about starfish, the value of enthusiasm, caked up Mothman and the tragic Squonk, getting emoted on by skunks, the surprisingly complicated history of dandelions, a vulture named Potato, and so much more.

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Happy MaxFunDrive! Right now is the best time to start a membership to support your favorite shows. Learn more and join at https://maximumfun.org/joinjustthezoo

Don't call it a comeback, coelacanth's been here for years. We discuss life on Earth 400 million years ago, a military escort mission, our own fish ancestors, five year pregnancies, underwater handstands, an unnecessarily complicated puzzle in the third generation Pokémon games, and so much more.

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Happy MaxFunDrive! Right now is the best time to start a membership to support your favorite shows. Learn more and join at https://maximumfun.org/joinjustthezoo

Join Ellen & Dalton Mason, creator and bird parent behind Apollo and Frens, for a look into life alongside the world-famous African grey parrot. You may have seen their videos on social media showing off Apollo’s incredibly impressive vocabulary, answering questions and even speaking in full sentences, which have earned the bird a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records in 2025 - on top of all the pistachios, of course. We discuss animal cognition and what makes parrots such great models for animal intelligence, the brain soup machine, bird-proofing a home, parrots video calling each other, and so much more.

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Happy MaxFunDrive! Right now is the best time to start a membership to support your favorite shows. Learn more and join at https://maximumfun.org/joinjustthezoo

Ellen falls in love with the Mandarin duck. We discuss why waterfowl's webbed feet don't freeze in the winter, the evolutionary arms race between male and female ducks, New York City's local celebrity Hot Duck, your new favorite coffee order, and more.

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Happy MaxFunDrive! Right now is the best time to start a membership to support your favorite shows. Learn more and join at https://maximumfun.org/joinjustthezoo

Join Ellen & special guest, science communicator and Certified Bug Friend Emily, for a review of the tiny little bugs that fly around your nearest kitchen sink. We discuss what Big Pest doesn’t want you to know, convergent evolution between bugs and fish, the drain gods, secret spy languages that only bugs can read, and so much more.

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Happy MaxFunDrive! Right now is the best time to start a membership to support your favorite shows. Learn more and join at https://maximumfun.org/joinjustthezoo

Ellen goes on a journey through time and space with Triops, the tadpole shrimp. We discuss book fairs, vernal pools, whether saltwater or freshwater came first, trips to space, prehistoric scampi, surprise guests at Burning Man, and so much more.

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Happy MaxFunDrive! Right now is the best time to start a membership to support your favorite shows. Learn more and join at https://maximumfun.org/joinjustthezoo