Ologies with Alie Ward Alie Ward

Sexuality and disability! Invisible illnesses! Airline frustrations! How many of us are disabled! July is Disability Pride Month, and professor, researcher, activist, and Disability Sociologist Guinevere Chambers joins to bust myths and provide perspective on everything from the history of ableism to sign language to eyeglasses, the criminal justice system, caregiving, how to ask for what you need, handling curious strangers, disclosing disabilities, where ADHD and autism come into play, and how to follow this study path.

What exactly IS a puffin? Who are they related to? Are they disco birds? WHY are they so cute? Should you kiss one? Throw one? Are they in danger? Get up in a blanket burrow and listen to field researcher and legit Puffinologist, Jillian Taylor, give us all the details on who eats them, if they are neat freaks or not, their surprising life expectancy, and how they make their long marriages work. Also: the toilets with the best views, Star Wars trivia, a cereal lore, and who should NOT become a puffinologist.

Boy howdy hot dang, Ologies has hit its 300th new episode! In celebration of this milestone, we’ve turned the tables and lead editor Mercedes Maitland hosts this episode with special guest… Alie Ward! We talk about Alie’s twists and turns finding her way into a career in science communication, selling art to child actors in LA, how she built Ologies from a small indie podcast into a chart-topping favorite, why it’s important to give adults a fun space in SciComm, putting yourself out there, how fear can kill curiosity, what it takes to be a science communicator and so much more. Buckle in for Mercedes’ debut as a host and find out whether she can be trusted to carry this beloved Fabergé egg we know as Ologies.

Part 2 of mosquitoes is here! Now that you know WHY they would like to eat you mosquito expert and Culicidologist, Dr. Fhallon Ware-Gilmore of the CDC gives us SOLUTIONS. How do we avoid bites? Why do they itch so much? Which repellents are safe for whom? What should you use in your yard? Does climate change mean an ongoing hellscape thick with mosquitos? Could Jurassic Park happen? What if mosquitoes were to, say… go extinct? Also: how do we learn to love these things that vex us?

They’re gorgeous. They’re picky moms, and tremendous flirts. They are sparkly. And they drink blood. We hopped on the line with mosquito researcher, medical entomologist, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Service officers, and Culicidologist, Dr. Fhallon Ware-Gilmore to chat about mozzies. Why do skeeters bite you, specifically? Which ones should we watch out for? Why do they make high-pitched sounds? WHAT DO THEIR HELL MOUTHS LOOK LIKE? And how can I learn to love them? But also, how can I keep them away from me? Scream in your date's face and drink blood, if you’re a mosquito, because things are about to heat up. Next week: we’ll cover diseases and repellents, just for you.

Clay tablets! Printing presses! Old timey audio books! Speed reading strategies! Attention spans! Dyslexia history! Literacy campaigns! Dr. Adrian Johns is an historian, professor, and author of the book “The Science of Reading” and we have a nice mellow chat about when humans started to “read,” what that means, being Hooked on Phonics, Dick, Jane, character languages, audiobooks, e-readers, school segregation, literacy rates, and how long we can focus at a time. He literally wrote the book on it.