Verd has been growing food for as long as he can remember, beginning in his family’s backyard garden in Oak Park, Illinois. At age sixteen, he left home to live and work on a communal farm in Austin, Texas, where he stayed for ten years and met his future wife, Jeanne.

Manatees are large marine mammals found in shallow coastal waters near Florida, Brazil, and the west coast of Africa. Manatees are occasionally called sea cows, because, like cows, they are slow, peaceful, and graze on plants. Sheri Barton is a Senior Biologist at the Mote Marine Laboratory & Aquarium in Florida, where she studies these fascinating creatures. On this episode of The Show About Science, Sheri joins Nate to talk about her research.

Did you know that there are tiny microbes that call our bodies home? These microorganisms live on and inside of us. You can even take a test to learn which ones make up your microbiome. Stefan Green is a microbial ecologist who runs the DNA Sequencing Lab at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Stefan joins Nate to talk about what the microbiome is and why these tiny little microbes are so important for our health.

Jesse Schell is a video game designer and a professor of entertainment technology at Carnegie Mellon University. He is also the creator of “Happy Atoms,” a game that helps kids learn how atoms bond to form new molecules. Jesse joins Nate on this episode to talk about how “Happy Atoms” uses technology like augmented reality to teach kids about chemistry.

When organs like kidneys and livers fail, it can be scary—especially for kids. But the science of regenerative medicine, where new organs are created from a patient's own cells and tissue, is a promising new field in medicine. Dr. Anthony Atala is the Director of the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine and he joins Nate on this episode to talk about how new organs can be created in the lab using 3D printers.

Last summer, Nate was walking to the train when he spotted a giant wasp carrying a cicada. Later he discovered that the insect he saw was a cicada killer wasp. These insects will paralyze cicadas with their venomous sting, but luckily rarely sting humans. Blake Newton is an entomologist at the University of Kentucky. He joins Nate on this episode of The Show About Science to talk about these fascinating creatures.