The Wild Life

Meet this week's guest before the episode airs, Dr Jessica L Ware, assistant curator in invertebrate zoology at the American Museum of Natural History.

Dr. Ware’s research focuses on the evolution of behavioral and physiological adaptations in insects, with an emphasis on how these occur in Odonata (dragonflies and damselflies) and Dictyoptera (termites, cockroaches and mantises). Her research group focuses on phylogenetics/phylogenomics and uses these tools to inform their work on reproductive, social and flight behaviors in insects. Jessica holds a BSc from the University of British Columbia in Canada, and a PhD from Rutgers, New Brunswick. She was an NSF postdoctoral fellow at the AMNH 2008-2010, before being hired at Rutgers Newark where she was an associate professor of evolutionary biology. She is the current president of the Worldwide Dragonfly Association, and serves as an elected board member on the executive committee of the Entomological Society of America Governing Board. She was recently awarded a PECASE medal from the US government for her work on insect evolution.

Make a donation to our 501(c)3 organization

Sign up for our Newsletter!

Become a Member-Supporter

Follow us on all of our platforms

Dr Ware's Must-Read Book Picks:

Chasing Dragonflies

Dragonflies and Damselflies of the East

Utterly Bugged

Before you read what this episode is about, we have an ask. Whoever you are, wherever you are, whichever platform you are using to listen, please consider leaving us a rating and review. Aside from the feedback being helpful to shape our work, it also increases our visibility and helps to grow our community and organization. Plus you'll forever be our favorite listener!

Professor Marcus Byrne teaches us about the fantastical and unexpected world of dung beetles, their ecological importance, their connections to human culture and history, and how this lowly creature finds its way home by looking to the stars.

Make a donation to our 501(c)3 organization

Sign up for our Newsletter!

Become a Member-Supporter

Follow us on all of our platforms

Marcus Byrne's Book Picks:

Dance of the Dung Beetle: Their Role in Our Changing World

Origins: How Earth's History Shaped Human History

Enlightenment Now

Get to know this week's guest before the episode drops!

Donate to the Binoculars for Young Birders Program here

Support The Wild Life at https://www.patreon.com/thewildlife

Welcome to part two in an ongoing series examining our connections and impact on the environment, sustainability, and our changing climate.

Part 1 through roughly 9 will focus on laying the groundwork for understanding these complicated issues from a variety of perspectives, while parts 10 through 20 or so will place the first half into real-world context, examining issues and controversies surrounding Deforestation, Overfishing, Recycling, and E-Waste.

Today we ask, if economic systems are the primary producers of environmental problems, can they also be expected to solve those problems?

Read the episode transcript here: https://thewildlife.blog/2021/04/23/can-the-market-save-the-world/

Become a member supporter of The Wild Life at patreon.com/thewildlife

Please consider leaving us a rating and review wherever you are listening!

In this episode, we finally learn the answer to why wombats have cubed poop, learn how all of us mammals are bonded by our bowels, find out about something called the Law of Urination, and learn that we are in deep doo-doo as we discover the Global Feces Problem.

Patricia Yang is a postdoc in Civil and Environmental Engineering, where she is studying the collective behavior of birds. Before coming to Stanford, she completed doctoral and postdoctoral studies in Mechanical Engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology on the fluid mechanics of body fluids, in particular, blood, feces, and urine. She received bachelor’s degrees in Engineering Science and Ocean Engineering (ESOE) and Physics from National Taiwan University.

Yang was the recipient of the Sigma Xi Best Thesis award and the Ig Nobel Prize in Physics. Her work has been featured on CNN, the BBC, National Public Radio, National Geographic, and The Times. In addition to conducting research, she teaches fluid mechanics at all levels, from elementary school to college.

https://www.patriciayang.net/

Donate to the Binoculars for Young Birders Program here

Support The Wild Life at https://www.patreon.com/thewildlife

Patricia's book recommendation: How to Walk on Water and Climb up Walls

Stay tuned for her full episode, Poo Cubed, out this Friday!

Patricia Yang is a postdoc in Civil and Environmental Engineering, where she is studying the collective behavior of birds. Before coming to Stanford, she completed doctoral and postdoctoral studies in Mechanical Engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology on the fluid mechanics of body fluids, in particular, blood, feces, and urine. She received bachelor’s degrees in Engineering Science and Ocean Engineering (ESOE) and Physics from National Taiwan University.

Yang was the recipient of the Sigma Xi Best Thesis award and the Ig Nobel Prize in Physics. Her work has been featured on CNN, the BBC, National Public Radio, National Geographic, and The Times. In addition to conducting research, she teaches fluid mechanics at all levels, from elementary school to college.

https://www.patriciayang.net/

Donate to the Binoculars for Young Birders Program here

Support The Wild Life at https://www.patreon.com/thewildlife

The truth is, the concept of a plant or animals purpose isn’t as cut and dry as many would like. This makes sense. People are always trying to determine their purpose, their deeper meaning, and trying to answer age old questions like “What’s the meaning of life?”. When we start looking outward, we start trying to apply that same thought logic, but that’s just not how life really works. This is a topic I will be sure to explore more in-depth in a future podcast episode devoted to this idea of purpose.

That being said, everything plays a role in its ecosystem. Yes, even ticks. So what are those roles? I’ll explain!

Read the transcript of the episode here

Welcome to part 1 of Us, an ongoing series examining our connections and impact on the environment, sustainability, and our changing climate.

Part 1 through roughly 9 will focus on laying the groundwork for understanding these complicated issues from a variety of perspectives, while parts 10 through 20 or so will place the first half into real-world context, examining issues and controversies surrounding Deforestation, Overfishing, Recycling, and E-Waste.

For a transcript of the episode, check out our post on thewildlife.blog

Support us at www.patreon.com/thewildlife

Have you ever seen an injured animal and wished you knew what to do or who to call? Have you ever seen an animal acting strangely but were unsure of whether or not that thing you saw was normal? Have you ever thought about getting into wildlife rehab? Then this is the episode for you.

We talk baby birds, fledglings, bats, baby deer, squirrels, and so much more.

Our guest is Tami Vogel, the Communications Director of WRCMN.

Check them out here!

Support us at www.patreon.com/thewildife

This episode has it all: Quokkas, trivia, selfies, Australia, the La Brea Tar Pits, Conservation Paleobiology, and somehow manages to tie it all together. Dr Larisa DeSantis, Conservation Paleobiologist and professor at Vanderbilt University, is our guest and she tells us how she is using relics of the past to inform the conservation of species now and into the future.

Check out our new children's e-book on Kindle, Quokka's Aren't Cute!

Also, be on the lookout for the upcoming quokka kids book from Dr DeSantis herself, Fox Food!

Support The Wild Life, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization, at patreon.com/thewildlife or paypal.me/thewildlife

Follow these wonderful Podcasts too!

Planthropology

Twitter: @Planthropology_

Varmints

Twitter: @varmintspodcast

The Root of the Science

Twitter: https://twitter.com/RootofSciPod

Website/Podcast: https://rootofthesciencepodcast.buzzsprout.com/

Earth Ideas

Twitter: https://twitter.com/ideas_earth

Website/Podcast: https://lnk.bio/SnYr

Curiosity Cake

Twitter: https://twitter.com/curiosity_cake

Website/Podcast: https://curiositycake.co.uk/

Papa PhD

Twitter: https://twitter.com/PapaPhDPodcast

Website/Podcast: https://papaphd.com/

Mad Scientist

Twitter: https://twitter.com/MadScientistPod

Website/Podcast: https://www.themadscientistpodcast.com/

Breaking Math

Twitter: https://twitter.com/breakingmathpod

Website/Podcast: https://breakingmathpodcast.app/

The Nagging Naturalist

Twitter: https://twitter.com/nag_naturalist

Website/Podcast: http://www.thenaggingnaturalist.com/

That's What I Call Science

Twitter: https://twitter.com/ThatsScienceTAS

Website/Podcast: https://thatsscience.org/

mAcademia

Twitter: https://twitter.com/mAcademiaP

Website/Podcast: https://anchor.fm/mAcademia

What Are YOU Going to Do with THAT?

Twitter: https://twitter.com/What2doWithTHAT

Website/Podcast: https://linktr.ee/what2dowiththat