Paleo Nerds

Sam Ohu Gon III, trilobite expert and Senior Scientist & Cultural Advisor for the Nature Conservancy of Hawaiʻi. Sam looks to traditional Hawaiian cultural history as an example for a sustainable fut…

Imagine time traveling back to the Western Interior Seaway AKA "Hell's Aquarium."  It's a fitting nickname for the shallow marine environment, full of fish with teeth so big they ate differently than…

Don Prothero has written 48 books and counting! And he has repeatedly gone to bat for science, using the facts of the fossil record to disprove creationist beliefs.

Grant Zazula is a Paleo Nerd! His interest in archaeology is what attracted him to the Pleistocene and now he studies in the mighty Yukon, managing thousands of fossils that are byproducts of the min…

Connie Soja has extensively studied the paleontology of the Alexander terrane, a gigantic crustal fragment that underlies Ray's backyard of Southeast Alaska. In fact, she's reconstructed ancient envi…

JP Hodnett is a Paleo Nerd. But that's a given! He's a shark (and sauropod and cat) expert, so the Nerds get to go off the deep end, diving into incredible finds at Mammoth Cave and JP's day job at D…

Emily Lindsey is a paleoecologist who's been fascinated with giant ground sloths since the beginning of her career. She is now a curator and excavation director at the La Brea Tar Pits in LA!

Louie is a photographer and documentary filmmaker, so what's he doing on a podcast about paleontology?  Well, you can thank Jurrasic Park for that. 

Luis Chiappe is as famous for his barbecues as he his for his knowledge of prehistoric birds. Luis' discoveries include an incredible Sauropod nesting site and is currently the Vice President of the …

Regan Dunn is a paleobotanist who's work has taken her all over the world and has landed her in the hottest paleontology site in Hollywood - the La Brea Tar Pits. Learn how she uses the microscopic r…

The Nerds get to talk Tiktaalik with esteemed evolutionary biologist and author Neil Shubin.  Neil uses molecular biology and gene expression to fill in the gaps left in the fossil record.  

Paleontologist Holly Woodward reads the microscopic stories left behind in dinosaur bones to tell characteristics like their age, sex, and general health. She's even used histology to "kill" a dinosa…

Ray joins his old friend Chuck Bonner in Kansas where Chuck's family has collected exquisite fossils now on display around the world. 

The Nerds sit down with Kallie Moore, cohost of the PBS youtube show Eons and fossil librarian at the University of Montana.  

World renowned paleontologist Jack Horner discusses bringing paleontology to the masses as the scientific advisor on the Jurassic Park franchise and how dyslexia may have helped him make discoveries.

Get ready for a second season of Paleo Nerds: A Prehistoric Podcast with David Strassman and Ray Troll. Interviews with Paleontologists, Scientists and Artists who love dinosaurs just as much as they…

The Nerds have a whale of a time with Bobby Boessenecker. 
Modern whales actually evolved from walking mammals! But how exactly does a huuuuuuge blue whale go from walking on land to swimming in the …

Dr. Christian Sidor tells the Nerds all about the ancestry of mammals, including a little creature that hibernated through the Permian-Triassic extinction, allowing reptiles to branch off and evolve …

Did you know we're in the middle of a Cephalopod Renaissance? Esteemed author Danna Staaf is ready to introduce you to our Squid Overlords!

What's the difference between humans and animals? Who decided there was a difference? Maybe there's less of a difference than we thought...