Give a cluck about chickens. The most popular meat actually has a 3,500 year history of cockfighting, backyard keeping, incubation invention, and a lot of scrambled eggs. And now, people are keeping them in their backyards as pets. How did we get here, and what changes have we made to the bird formerly known as the Asian Jungle Fowl? We're talking with Tove Danovich, author of the new book Under the Henfluence: Inside the World of Backyard Chickens and the People Who Love Them. For more on the rise of the domestic chicken, make sure to check out our previous episode with Maryn McKenna on her b ..read more

Sea creatures do so many things that astound us. They regrow and regenerate, they incubate eggs for years without ever eating a morsel. They can be one big individual one moment, and a multicelled colony the next. And writers like Sabrina Imbler don't see these differences from us as alien, but as jumping off points to explore selfhood, development, life and death in their new book; How Far The Light Reaches: A Life in Ten Sea Creatures ..read more

In January 2020 a race began to identify, control, and understand a novel coronavirus that quickly spread around the world creating a global pandemic. In his most recent book "Breathless: The Scientific Race to Defeat a Deadly Virus", writer David Quammen takes us back to those first days, weeks, months and years, putting us behind the shoulders of some of those first scientists as they try to reckon with the new Covid-19 virus. This week, we learn more about his experiencing of writing about the pandemic during the pandemic, how information about the virus spread through the scientific commun ..read more

Humans are musical. Really, really musical. But why? What is it for, how did it come about, and what do we get from it? Let's get between the science and the hype (Mozart is not going to make you smarter) with Adriana Barton and her book: Wired for Music: A search for Health and Joy through the Science of Sound ..read more

On this week’s show, we’re getting emotional. Our guest, neuroscientist Dean Burnett, talks about his new book Emotional Ignorance. He shares how the experience of his father’s death during covid prompted him to take on his emotions by writing about them. We talk about the sad, such as why people cry, but also travel across a wide range of emotions including strange emotional experiences such as nightmares. And we dive into the complexity of emotions, from defining them to how they arise in the brain and connections with the body ..read more

Let's talk about sex, baby. Let's talk about birds and bees. Let's talk about all the slime molds and the algae that can be, let's talk about sex. This week we are talking about the history of sex, where it came from, what it is, who has it, and why people are always trying to tell others they are not allowed to do it. We're getting down and dirty with Rachel Feltman and their new book, Been There, Done That: A Rousing History of Sex ..read more

John Dupuis and Joanne Manaster join host Rachelle Saunders in what might be our most favourite and longest-running December tradition: science book recommendations! We've brought our book mavens back to talk about their 2022 science book highlights and give us a sneak peak at what they're looking forward to reading next year. As always, we've got our companion blog post ready with the full book list (plus some extras) with links to Amazon where you can find more information. Happy reading ..read more

It's that time of year when Rachelle spends far too much time finding strange and wonderful new clocks, Bethany adds more mugs to her collection, and together we spend some time embracing our inner holiday-consumer and getting excited about lots of wonderful, delightful, charming and (sometimes) weird things you might get the geeks in your life. As always, you can find a blog post companion to this episode with links to everything we discussed in this episode. And if that's still not enough to satisfy your nerdy gift-giving needs, you can always check out our full Bookshelf here, or take a loo ..read more

We all know what a "pest" is. We can all point to creatures that are pests in our neighborhoods, those invasive hard-to-get-rid-of, disruptive animals that civilization seems to be in constant battle with. The rats, the racoons, the pigeons... But what makes them pests, really? Who decides? And what about other animals that are pests to some - cats, elephants, and deer for example - but not to others? Rachelle Saunders speaks with our very own Bethany Brookshire about her new book "Pests: How Humans Create Animal Villains" and explore how our very human problem with pests is really more about ..read more

Number 2. Poop. Crap. Doodoo. It's something that a lot of people just want to flush and forget, but others want to talk about it. Do they poop too much? Not enough? Easily enough? Not only can poop tell us about ourselves and our health, though, it could also doo much more. Feces can fertilize our crops, and with the right processing, toilet water can be refreshing. All we need to do is rethink our relationship with poo. This week we sit down with Bryn Nelson to talk about his new book Flush: The Remarkable Science of an Unlikely Treasure ..read more