Smologies with Alie Ward

Ah, charismatic megafauna! Teeth, claws, fur, poop, hibernation, hiking, nature preserves, and living your childhood dreams with Alie’s longtime -ologist crush, Dr. Rae Wynn-Grant. The large carnivor…

Why were postcards invented and why do they still exist? Why do we fib about our vacations and say they’re better than they are? Alie stopped into the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan and talk…

This one’s got it all: teeny tiny cellular factories, mitochondrial relevancy, what big smelly vats of poop have to do with curing cancer, how many trips to the sun your unravelled DNA could make, an…

Butterflies are… gross. Yes they are delightful and beautiful and part of any idyllic picnic-scape, but lepidopterologist, TV host and jungle explorer Phil Torres is here to gossip about how shameles…

When were glasses invented? What happened back then if your horse stepped on them? How is the digital age changing adults’ and kids’ vision? The first half of this special episode about Optical Techn…

Plumage! Dance battles! Possible holographic disco birds? Natural History Museum of LA ornithology curator Dr. Allison Shultz is a professional plumologist aka feather expert. We visit the museum’s c…

What exactly is “fun?” How will you know when you’re having it? What’s a fun magnet? Catherine Price is an award-winning journalist and author who spent years researching the science of fun for her b…

At just 22, Iddris Sandu’s life story was already legendary. This Architectural Technologist learned to program at the age of 11 and has worked with everyone from Kanye West to Nipsey Hussle to Space…

SHAAAARKS. Leading shark researcher Dr. Chris Lowe dishes about why sharks get a bad rap, antibiotic mucus, 120 year old teenagers, eye lasers, and how to snooze when you’ve got to keep swimming. Ali…

Scorpions: the victims of undue shade. A handful of people on planet Earth have a PhD in scorpions and Dr. Lauren Esposito is one of them. She spills the beans on how venom works, what's up with the …

What IS an island? How do birds and plants and mammals GET there? What happens when they stay? Dr. Andy Kraemer studies how life populates and survives on hunks of remote rock and chats all about the…

Cumulus! Lenticular! Venti sugar-free stratocumulus stratiformis translucidus undulatus! Those light and fluffy things that hang overhead weigh thousands of pounds and form under all kinds of conditi…

It’s time. Otters. Sea otters. River otters. Big beefy otters. Tiny otters. Giant river otters. Dr. Chris J. Law, a professional Lutrinologist, shares tales about coastal vs. inland otters, magical t…

How long can we live? How much of aging is genetics vs. environment? How old are your cells? What can we learn from the world’s oldest people? World-renowned aging expert and biogerontologist Dr. Cal…

Squids. Cuttlefish. Octopusseseses. The world's most impassioned squid nerd, Sarah McAnulty, picks Alie up in her squidmobile to talk about raising cephlopods from eggs, their personalities, camoufla…

The Red Planet. A mysterious dusty orb millions of miles away. Our emergency escape bunker. Alie sits down with Dr. Jennifer Buz to talk about what Mars’s DEEEEAL is, why we send rovers there, the po…

Soil! Dirt! Earth. Dr. Lydia Jennings, aka Native Soil Nerd, breaks down the stuff under our feet and explains everything from electrons in soil to why it can be different colors. Also: medicine from…

Yep. Here it is. A kid-friendly episode on… poop. Camel poop. Rhino poop. Dog poop. Cat poop. Your poop. The charming and informative Dr. Rachel Santymire -- aka Dr. Poop -- has a background in anima…

They are numerous. They are patient. They are COMING for the United States in droves this spring: They are cicadas. *The* Cicada guy Dr. Gene Kritsky joins to chat all about the annual cicadas you ma…

The biggest eggs! The smallest eggs! The rarest eggs! Oologist Dr. John Bates gave Alie a tour of the egg vault at the Field Museum of Chicago and it was a barrage of beautiful sights and shocking fa…