In the early 2000s, the Tennessee Aquarium was closing out its first decade on the river with plans underway for a major expansion: the Ocean Journey building. At the same time, two other nearby institutions were in the midst of their own major expansions. The three joined forces, under the leadership of former U.S. Sen. Bob Corker (then mayor of Chattanooga) to embark on a combined campaign for funding.

The plan worked, and these expansions were important facets of an even larger plan to transform Chattanooga's riverfront experience: the 21st Century Waterfront Plan.

Twenty years later, Sen. Corker popped by the Studio Dive Cage to talk about the origins of the Plan, the perpetual optimism with which it was realized and the continuing impact it's having on the Aquarium's hometown so many years later.

Episode Cast

• Casey Phillips, host, senior communications specialist, resident of Chattanooga
• Bob Corker, former mayor of Chattanooga and two-term U.S. Senator
• Todd Womack, Corker's former senatorial chief of staff, current president/CEO of Bridge Public Affairs

The Podcast Aquatic is made possible by support from The Tennessee Conservationist, the official magazine of Tennessee State Parks.Printed sustainably on 100% post-consumer recycled paper with UV ink, each issue is filled with fascinating stories about Tennessee’s native species, rich history, and unique culture. It’s also your guide to exploring state parks and planning your next outdoor adventure.

Become a Tennessee Conservationist and subscribe at ⁠⁠tnconservationist.org⁠⁠.

After eight years under the leadership of former president & CEO, Keith Sanford, the Tennessee Aquarium has welcomed a new chief executive: Andy Wood. With more than 14 years of leadership experience at the Florida Aquarium and Mystic Aquarium in Connecticut, Wood is bringing a wealth of knowledge of the zoo and aquarium world to bear in his new role.

In this episode, we get to know a lot more about him, from the animal that best reflects his personality and how he thinks the aquarium benefits the community (and vice versa) to why working in a land-locked state reminds him how interconnected all water -- and life -- on earth really is.

Episode cast

• Casey Phillips, senior communications specialist and host
• Andy Wood, president & CEO

The Podcast Aquatic is made possible by support from The Tennessee Conservationist, the official magazine of Tennessee State Parks.Printed sustainably on 100% post-consumer recycled paper with UV ink, each issue is filled with fascinating stories about Tennessee’s native species, rich history, and unique culture. It’s also your guide to exploring state parks and planning your next outdoor adventure.

Become a Tennessee Conservationist and subscribe at ⁠⁠tnconservationist.org⁠⁠.

From much-maligned pigeons and purportedly "wise" owls to noble raptors and cereal hawking toucans, birds are one of the world's most diverse, widespread class of animals.

To many of us, birds are so much a part of our lives that we often fail to notice or appreciate them. Such is definitely not the case for the special guest of this episode, the Aquarium's curator of forests, Kevin Calhoon.

In this episode, we chat about all things birding, from how to do it and what equipment to invest in to Kevin's far-flung adventures in search of rogue swans and other rare or out-of-place avians.

Additional resources:

The Christmas Bird Count 101 and winter birds in Chattanooga: https://youtu.be/Xqk8gCmpqbc?si=jZVzxV_7lnZ8YmKf

Kevin Talks About The Joy of Birding:

https://youtu.be/aReP4q4uYE0?si=MbwNHWSClqo3wLmI

Episode Cast

• Casey Phillips, senior communications specialist, host and bird appreciator
• Kevin Calhoon, curator of forests

The Podcast Aquatic is made possible by support from The Tennessee Conservationist, the official magazine of Tennessee State Parks.Printed sustainably on 100% post-consumer recycled paper with UV ink, each issue is filled with fascinating stories about Tennessee’s native species, rich history, and unique culture. It’s also your guide to exploring state parks and planning your next outdoor adventure.

Become a Tennessee Conservationist and subscribe at ⁠⁠tnconservationist.org⁠⁠.

For our first Earth Day special on The Podcast Aquatic, we're focusing in on the important work being done by the Tennessee Aquarium Conservation Institute (TNACI), not only to raise freshwater fish but also freshwater scientists.

As a nexus for a great deal of conservation science in the Southeast, TNACI is carrying forward long-term species restoration efforts while also attracting new generations of researchers who will carry on this work in years to come.

Learn more about the work of TNACI at https://tnaqua.org/conserve/what-we-do/

See our scientists in action:

• Snorkeling for Tangerine Darters
• Releasing Critically Endangered Laurel Dace
• Collecting Southern Appalachian Brook Trout Eggs
• Spawning Wild Lake Sturgeon

Episode Cast

• Casey Phillips, senior communications specialist, host and thankful resident of Planet Earth
• Dr. Anna George, vice president of conservation science & education
• Teresa Israel, reintroduction biologist II
• Sarah Kate Bailey, reintroduction biologist II

The Podcast Aquatic is made possible by support from The Tennessee Conservationist, the official magazine of Tennessee State Parks.Printed sustainably on 100% post-consumer recycled paper with UV ink, each issue is filled with fascinating stories about Tennessee’s native species, rich history, and unique culture. It’s also your guide to exploring state parks and planning your next outdoor adventure.

Become a Tennessee Conservationist and subscribe at ⁠⁠tnconservationist.org⁠⁠.

Smack dab in the middle of Tennessee in Hohenwald is a population that would probably surprise must residents of the Volunteer State: a dozen African and Asian Elephants.

This year, The Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee is celebrating 30 years of serving as a sprawling "retirement community" for elephants that lived most of their life in human care. In this episode, we chat with the sanctuary's education manager, Laura Roddy, who will be visiting the Aquarium to help launch a new IMAX film, Elephants: Giants of the Desert 3D.

Together, we cover a lot of ground, from what working "on elephant time" means and how elephants modify their environment. In addition, this episode launches on Save the Elephant Day (April 16), and Laura discusses several ways everyday people can do their part to help elephants all over the world!

Check out the trailer for Elephants: GIants of the Desert 3D: https://youtu.be/VpsEBQyNfmo?si=PSOsyIlX5Ki5fIZh

Learn more about The Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee at https://www.elephants.com

Episode cast

• Casey Phillips, senior communications specialist, host and pachyderm pal
• Laura Roddy, education manager, The Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee

The Podcast Aquatic is made possible by support from The Tennessee Conservationist, the official magazine of Tennessee State Parks.Printed sustainably on 100% post-consumer recycled paper with UV ink, each issue is filled with fascinating stories about Tennessee’s native species, rich history, and unique culture. It’s also your guide to exploring state parks and planning your next outdoor adventure.

Become a Tennessee Conservationist and subscribe at ⁠⁠⁠tnconservationist.org⁠⁠⁠.

April is National Frog Month, and what better way to celebrate these boisterous, shape-shifting amphibians than hearing from the experts who care for them here at the Aquarium?

In this episode, our ambassador animal coordinator and senior herpetologist wax poetic about frog calls, explain why our poison dart frogs actually aren't poisonous and talk about the incredible survival strategies that allow frogs to survive in places you probably wouldn't believe.

Learn more about the Poison Dart Frogs' Malagasy cousins, the Mantellas: https://youtu.be/QjDMz8yLR3g

Episode cast

• Casey Phillips, senior communications specialist, host and foster frog parent
• Charlie Olson, senior herpetologist
• Tanisha La Guardia, ambassador animal coordinator

The Podcast Aquatic is made possible by support from The Tennessee Conservationist, the official magazine of Tennessee State Parks.Printed sustainably on 100% post-consumer recycled paper with UV ink, each issue is filled with fascinating stories about Tennessee’s native species, rich history, and unique culture. It’s also your guide to exploring state parks and planning your next outdoor adventure.

Become a Tennessee Conservationist and subscribe at ⁠⁠⁠⁠tnconservationist.org⁠⁠⁠⁠.

Whether you think of them as the horizontally compressed cousins of sharks or "majestic underwater flap-flaps," there's no denying that stingrays are some of nature's most interesting aquatic animals.

This listener-request special episode features a panel of aquarists whose job it is to care for the many species of stingrays that live at the Aquarium. We chat about the different types of rays that reside in our exhibits, how they reproduce, their capacity to learn and their perhaps-surprising love of bubbles.

Watch the don't-do-this-if-you-like-your-clothes-dry approach we take to feeding our Cownose Rays at https://youtu.be/3XWg13Yszk4

Episode Cast

• Casey Phillips, communications specialist, host and amateur stingray-watcher
• Kyle McPheeters, life support system lead aquarist
• Cody Beavers, aquarist II
• Brenda Salgado, aquarist II

The Podcast Aquatic is made possible by support from The Tennessee Conservationist, the official magazine of Tennessee State Parks.Printed sustainably on 100% post-consumer recycled paper with UV ink, each issue is filled with fascinating stories about Tennessee’s native species, rich history, and unique culture. It’s also your guide to exploring state parks and planning your next outdoor adventure.

Become a Tennessee Conservationist and subscribe at ⁠⁠⁠⁠tnconservationist.org⁠⁠⁠⁠.

Few people are as well-versed in documenting the underwater world as giant-screen filmmaker Jonathan Bird. The charismatic producer and host of award-winning web series, Jonathan Bird's Blue World, he's plumbed the depths of sites all over the world, from diving alongside Whale Sharks in the Galapagos and dodging Barracuda in Portugal to navigating flooded caves in Mexico.

In 2023, Bird paid a visit to Chattanooga to document our work raising marine fish species from eggs laid in our own exhibits as well as our role as one of the world's leading freshwater aquariums. In this episode, he joins us in the studio dive cage to chat about that experience as well as to promote his fourth giant-screen film, Call of the Dolphins 3D.

Check out the Tennessee Aquarium specific episodes of Blue World at:

Episode Cast

• Casey Phillips, senior communications specialist, host and longtime Blue World fan
• Jonathan Bird, underwater filmmaker

The Podcast Aquatic is made possible by support from The Tennessee Conservationist, the official magazine of Tennessee State Parks.Printed sustainably on 100% post-consumer recycled paper with UV ink, each issue is filled with fascinating stories about Tennessee’s native species, rich history, and unique culture. It’s also your guide to exploring state parks and planning your next outdoor adventure.

Become a Tennessee Conservationist and subscribe at ⁠⁠⁠⁠tnconservationist.org⁠⁠⁠⁠.

All over the world, otherwise inoffensive plants and animals are wreaking havoc on ecosystems just by ... well, existing. Often (if not usually) through no fault of their own, invasive species upend the natural order by reproducing with wild abandon, outcompeting or preying on native species and disrupting entire economies dependent on healthy fisheries and eco-tourism.

In this episode, three Aquarium experts with experience either caring for or dealing with the impacts of invasive species visit the studio dive cage to discuss how these plants and animals ended up where they shouldn't be, how they're impacting native wildlife and what, if anything, can be done about it.

Check out a three-part video series discussing the impact of Asian Carp on American river systems and approaches to stemming their spread: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjkmEccUchZbEYwxDE1KrxGauykYlGm4_&si=nYeLRKHHV7MnMpZV

Episode cast

• Casey Phillips, senior communications specialist, host and invasive homo sapien
• Ben Stenger, River Journey lead aquarist
• Sharyl Crossley, Ocean Journey lead aquarist
• Matt Hamilton, curator of fishes

The Podcast Aquatic is made possible by support from The Tennessee Conservationist, the official magazine of Tennessee State Parks.Printed sustainably on 100% post-consumer recycled paper with UV ink, each issue is filled with fascinating stories about Tennessee’s native species, rich history, and unique culture. It’s also your guide to exploring state parks and planning your next outdoor adventure.

Become a Tennessee Conservationist and subscribe at ⁠⁠⁠⁠tnconservationist.org⁠⁠⁠⁠.

Comedian Jim Gaffigan may have famously described them as "rocks with snot in them," but mussels (along with oysters, clams and other bivalve molluscs) are incredible — and incredibly important — animals.

Freshwater mussels' filtration of water as they feed helps to ensure the health of our rivers, lakes and streams. Their reproductive strategies are awe-inspiringly cunning, not to mention a little bit horrifying. And most importantly, they're a homegrown biological treasure, with the Southeastern United States sporting a greater diversity of freshwater mussels than almost anywhere else on Earth.

So in honor of International Day of Women and Girls In Science (and Galentine's Day), we've invited four Aquarium mussel fans and experts on the show to put the notion of mussels being underwhelming well and truly to bed.

Check out a hotspot of freshwater mussels diversity in Tennessee's Duck River:https://youtu.be/IcBSk6WnGY0?si=z-Hj5aPuLoJxggVE

Episode Cast

• Casey Phillips, senior communications specialist, host and amateur mussel-man
• Dr. Anna George, VP of conservation science and education
• Stephanie Chance, conservation manager
• Avery Millard, senior aquarist

The Podcast Aquatic is made possible by support from The Tennessee Conservationist, the official magazine of Tennessee State Parks.Printed sustainably on 100% post-consumer recycled paper with UV ink, each issue is filled with fascinating stories about Tennessee’s native species, rich history, and unique culture. It’s also your guide to exploring state parks and planning your next outdoor adventure.

Become a Tennessee Conservationist and subscribe at ⁠⁠⁠⁠tnconservationist.org⁠⁠⁠⁠.