Behind the scenes of my Ologies appearance
Bonus info and why I think Ologies is the best science podcast ever
As a long-time fan of the Ologies podcast, you can imagine how giddy I was to hear that Alie Ward wanted to interview me about dolphin science (i.e., delphinology). I am not typically someone who goes all fanboy on things (although I did once buy a VIP ticket so I could meet my childhood hero, Weird Al), but I was just shy of fanboy status as I logged on to Zoom to chat with Alie. You can listen to the episode below where it should be easy to tell from how quickly/excitedly I am talking that I was having a great time:
For those curious as to what Alie is like in person, she is exactly as charming and kind and personable as she sounds on the podcast. And that is the reason Ologies has been such a huge success as far as science podcasts go. She is the perfect host - endlessly curious and witty, but always keen to fact-check and deep dive on topics in order to disseminate accurate science info. It’s no small achievement to get an audience to enthusiastically embrace the minefield that is ‘debunking’ flim-flam science, and yet that is precisely what Ologies does so well.
Incidentally, Ologies is up for a Webby award for best Science & Education podcast, and Best Host (for Alie). You should totally follow those links to vote NOW, as there’s only one more day until voting closes.
Anyhow, I was slightly nervous during the interview that I would forget everything I knew about dolphins and just start spouting nonsense. But after listening to the first episode of this two-parter, I didn’t make too many mistake. Just one that I’d like to point out: when I was talking about dolphin species that do not fare well in captivity, I said “common bottlenose dolphins” when what I meant to say was “common dolphins”. It’s the common dolphin (Delphinus delphis) that lives far out to sea (i.e., a pelagic species) and typically doesn’t survive long in captivity.
Alie also rightly pointed out that the term “committed suicide” is now outdated. I said it in the episode at one point because it was the common term I heard/used when growing up in the 80s, so it’s still right on the tip of my tongue. The better term is “died by suicide”, which is now the accepted phrase to use when talking about this issue in either academics or the news. Here’s more info on best practices for reporting on suicide.
I have done a fair number of interviews with large news outlets and talked with cool people about my books and research over the years, but because I was such an Ologies fan, this appearance is special to me. I greatly respect Alie and Ologies, and am proud to call myself an Ologist. And I can’t wait until the next episode in this two-parter which will feature some exciting and salacious material!
Final note: As always, Ologies did a FANTASTIC job researching sources and links associated with the subjects we chatted about, so I just want to provide those again here. I just cut-and-pasted these from the Ologies episode notes:
Thermal tolerance in bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus)
Denise Herzing: Could we speak the language of dolphins?
Dolphin Dialogues – A Conversation between Dr. Denise Herzing and Dr. Lori Marino
Call of Chicago: John C. Lilly, One-Man Mythos
Teaching a dolphin to speak English - The Girl Who Talked to Dolphins: Preview - BBC Four
Margaret and Peter: a sensual but not sexual partnership
How Kate Winslet held her breath for 7+ minutes
Whale and dolphin brains produce more heat than those of humans. What exactly does that mean?
Depressed dolphin who played Flipper 'drowned herself' in trainer's arms when TV hit ended
Humans and Dolphins: If Brain Size is a Measure, We're Not That Different
A few images from the life of Dr. John C. Lilly
On 'modified human agents': John Lilly and the paranoid style in American neuroscience
Cetacean Welfare in Professionally Managed Programs
WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE? DOLPHIN VS. PORPOISE
Happy the Elephant Isn’t Legally a Person, Top New York Court Rules
The dolphin who loved me: the Nasa-funded project that went wrong
Update: Alie edited out the word "bottlenose" for that time I said "common bottlenose dolphins" - so now nobody will notice that I said it wrong! Thanks Alie!
And IF NIETZSCHE WERE A NARWHALE best animal intelligence book in years. If you haven't read it you might also like WHALE MUSIC, just sayin'