Podcast Episodes

Summer: Minimalist animals

Could a legless lizard be 'minimalist of the year' for famous podcaster T. K. Coleman?

Ann Jones leads an unlikely gang of animal experts on a tidy dance through the philosophy of minimalism. There ar…

Published on 11 months, 1 week ago

Summer: Mother Nature does it better (ASMR edition)

ASMR (autonomous sensory meridian response) is a tingly sensation that can bring relaxation, and it's spawned a growing industry of videos online of whispering, tapping, mouth noises and soft speakin…

Published on 11 months, 2 weeks ago

Summer: Why do Quolls have spots?

Imagine you've just been cancelled for a controversial opinion about Taylor Swift's musical output, and you have to go to ground.

You can act like the Olsen twins, and hide behind big glasses and a bi…

Published on 11 months, 3 weeks ago

Summer: Butts- what are they good for?

Right now, you’re probably sitting on one of the most unique things about humans. One thing that separates us from the apes, from the birds, from EVERYTHING on earth. The thing that allows us to walk…

Published on 11 months, 4 weeks ago

Summer: How many animals REALLY live in your house?

How many species live around your house?

In the COVID lockdown of 2020, three housemates decided to count.

They thought there’d only be a handful, but the number kept rising and rising.

Could their simp…

Published on 1 year ago

Hollywood lied to us: Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer

Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer is a Christmas classic... but how much do we really know about reindeer? 

In the last instalment of "Hollywood lied to us" for 2024, Ann Jones fact-checks the festive fa…

Published on 1 year ago

Hollywood lied to us: The Lion King

The Lion King (1994), aka Hamlet with Cats, is an iconic family classic. But would The Lion King's portrayal of a pride make biologists proud?

Ann Jones presents “Hollywood lied to us” - a What The Du…

Published on 1 year ago

Hollywood lied to us: Groundhog Day

The movie is fictional but Groundhog Day (asking a groundhog for a long-term weather report)  IS A REAL THING!

But wait, what even ARE groundhogs? AND do they have any qualifications in meteorology?

An…

Published on 1 year ago

Hollywood lied to us: The Little Mermaid

Yes, the Little Mermaid is an animated movie, but if it were real, where would this mermaid paradise be?

 Is it plausible that Ursula the Octo-woman would have henchmen in the form of eels? 

Ann Jones …

Published on 1 year, 1 month ago

Hollywood lied to us: Jaws

Jaws (1975) was a massive hit that also created a whole lot of fear, but does anything in the film really stand up to shark science? Do sharks stalk humans? Do they roar? What can they sense? There a…

Published on 1 year, 1 month ago