If you want to be a scientist, you enroll in 4-10 years of higher education. If you want to be an artist, you go to art school and learn a classic technique. Two choices; a binary. Right?

Or, could it be that there’s an entire spectrum of choices in between? In this episode, we explore the places where art and science connect with three talented people who have a foot in both worlds. Aissa Domingo is an artist, photographer, and illustrator, Nicole Parish is an artist and naturalist, and Kathleen Baraan is a nature-based art educator. All three have unique perspectives on the shared practice of art and science, and our discussion reveals how important art is to telling scientific stories.

See more of Aissa’s work on her website: https://aissadomingo.com/wp/

And Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aissa_domingo/

And more of Nicole’s work on hers: https://www.soundoftheforest.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/_soundoftheforest_/

Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/soundoftheforest.bsky.social

Tik Tok: https://www.tiktok.com/@soundoftheforest

And follow Kathleen’s work on her website: https://beacons.ai/deartoourhearts

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/deartoourhearts/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/deartoourhearts/

A transcript of this episode can be found here: Aissa Domingo, Kathleen Baraan, and Nicole Parish - Transcript

Other resources and people mentioned in this episode:

Leonard Co: https://www.philippineplants.org/General/AboutLeonard.html

Baba Dioum: https://biographycentral.com/biography/baba_dioum

Wild Wonder Foundation’s prompts for nature journaling: https://www.wildwonder.org/store/p/nj-zine

The Philippine Taxonomic Initiative: https://phtaxa.org/

Be sure to follow New Species on Bluesky (@newspeciespodcast.bsky.social) and Instagram (@NewSpeciesPodcast) and “like” the podcast page on Facebook (www.facebook.com/NewSpeciesPodcast).

Music in this podcast is "No More (Instrumental)," by HaTom (https://fanlink.to/HaTom)

If you have questions or feedback about this podcast, please e-mail us at NewSpeciesPodcast@gmail.com

If you would like to support this podcast and enjoy free bonus episodes, please consider doing so at https://www.patreon.com/NewSpeciesPod

If you would like to make a one-time contribution to this podcast, you can do so at https://buymeacoffee.com/newspeciespod

While giving a tour in the Ecuadorian Amazon, Alex Bently identified a clump on a leaf as a dead spider parasitized by a Cordyceps fungus. When it moved under his touch, he realized that it was actually a unique case of mimicry, and worked with David Ricardo Díaz Guevara and Nadine Dupérré to describe it as a new species. In this episode, Alex shares the unique nature of this spider, as well as what we can learn from it about the complex relationships that can occur between fungi and other organisms.

Alex Bently’s paper “The Cordyceps spider”: Taczanowskia waska sp. nov. (Araneae: Araneidae), a new spider species and a novel case of mimicry of an araneopathogenic fungus (Cordycipitaceae: Gibellula)” is in volume 5760 of Zootaxa.

It can be found here: www.doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.5760.5.4

Photo Credit: David Ricardo Díaz Guevara

Listen to an interview with Alex’s coauthor David in spanish on New Species Español - https://open.spotify.com/episode/1YZuyGcLva6hK752ueXOtZ?si=6qj-Ru2hTwSpMnVLsTpGwA

A transcript of this episode can be found here: Alex Bently - Transcript

New Species: Taczanowskia waska

Follow Waska Amazonia on instagram: @ waska.amazonia

And on facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WaskaAmazonia

Some neat press coverage of this new species:

https://www.cbc.ca/radio/asithappens/spider-mimicing-cordyceps-9.7141687

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/20/science/spider-cordyceps-fungus-zombies.html

Be sure to follow New Species on Bluesky (@newspeciespodcast.bsky.social) and Instagram (@NewSpeciesPodcast) and “like” the podcast page on Facebook (www.facebook.com/NewSpeciesPodcast).

Music in this podcast is "No More (Instrumental)," by HaTom (https://fanlink.to/HaTom)

If you have questions or feedback about this podcast, please e-mail us at NewSpeciesPodcast@gmail.com

If you would like to support this podcast and enjoy bonus episodes, please consider doing so at https://www.patreon.com/NewSpeciesPod
If you would like to make a one-time contribution to this podcast, you can do so at https://buymeacoffee.com/newspeciespod

Freshwater shrimps are difficult to study. They’re nocturnal, they live in leaf litter, and yet they are involved in both commercial fishing and the pet trade, making research on their diversity critical. Dr. Prakash Sanjeevi and Maclean Santos have a new strategy for adapting to these challenges: harnessing the power of community. Through educational videos, social media, workshops, and more they provide training to already-interested hobbyists, who in turn help them find rare specimens for papers like this one, in which they redescribe a species that hadn’t been seen in Indian waters for 72 years.

“I truly feel that it is not the talent which survives the long term in this research game, It is more of the hard work and it is more about how much you like the species because if you love a species, you will work really hard for the species” says Maclean. Listen in as we discuss the fascinating morphology, biology, and joy provided by these freshwater shrimps.

Maclean Santos and Prakash Sanjeevi’s paper “Rediscovery of the genus Atyopsis Chace, 1983 (Decapoda: Atyidae) in mainland India following a 72-year gap” is in volume 5722 of Zootaxa.

It can be found here: www.doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.5722.4.7

A transcript of this episode can be found here: Maclean Santos and Prakash Sanjeevi - Transcript

Episode image credit: Maclean Santos

Read their recent paper describing a new species from the same region: https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.5194.3.5

Follow Maclean and Prakash on Instagram:

Prakash: @sanjeeviprakash

Maclean: @homeaquat

More pictures and information on GBIF: https://www.gbif.org/species/7839136

Be sure to follow New Species on Bluesky (@newspeciespodcast.bsky.social) and Instagram (@NewSpeciesPodcast) and “like” the podcast page on Facebook (www.facebook.com/NewSpeciesPodcast).

Music in this podcast is "No More (Instrumental)," by HaTom (https://fanlink.to/HaTom)

If you have questions or feedback about this podcast, please e-mail us at NewSpeciesPodcast@gmail.com

If you would like to support this podcast and enjoy bonus episodes, please consider doing so at https://www.patreon.com/NewSpeciesPod
If you would like to make a one-time contribution to this podcast, you can do so at https://buymeacoffee.com/newspeciespod

“I hope that individual taxonomists take a step back and really think about the choices they make when it comes to collaboration…I want taxonomists to consider equity in their work, and not just consider that but actively support actions that are making a difference in the way we do science.” Cláudia Xavier’s words here address the issue that is the focus of her new paper; who actually gets the opportunity to be a taxonomist?

In this episode, I talk to Katherine and Cláudia about their experiences writing this paper, but also being taxonomists in a field that wasn’t built with everyone in mind. They tell me the stories of two marginalized taxonomists who made outsized impacts on their field, and how they hope their research lays the foundation for a more equitable and just arachnology in the future.

Katherine Montana and Cláudia Xavier’s paper “If history is written by the victors, who describes the spiders? Species author trends reflect gender and geopolitical disparities in biodiversity science” is in volume 146, issue 1 of the Biological Journal of the Linnean Society.

It can be found here: https://doi.org/10.1093/biolinnean/blaf067

A transcript of this episode can be found here:

Cláudia and Katherine

A spanish transcript of this episode can be found here:

Cláudia and Katherine en español

Follow Cláudia on Bluesky: @claudiaxavier.bsky.social

And learn from her on Instagram: @geaaoficial

Check out more from the Esposito lab:

https://www.arachnerds.info/

And follow them on Instagram: @arachnerds

Dr. Esposito is also the founder of the 500 Queer Scientists project:

https://500queerscientists.com/

World Spider Catalog: https://wsc.nmbe.ch/

Untold Stories from the Academy:

https://www.calacademy.org/scientists/library/untold-stories

Why Fish Don’t Exist by Lulu Millerhttps://pushkinpress.com/book/why-fish-dont-exist/

Additional reading:

Developing scientific equity for biodiversity research: a thematic analysis of ecological change impacts on ranchers in Baja California Sur, Mexico: https://doi.org/10.1017/S1742170525100100

Science in Indigenous homelands: addressing power and justice in sustainability science from/with/in the Penobscot River

https://doi.org/10.1007/s11625-021-00904-3

Promoting equity between the Global North and Global South in entomological research

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cois.2025.101357

Anti-racist interventions to transform ecology, evolution and conservation biology departments

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-021-01522-z

Be sure to follow New Species on Bluesky (@newspeciespodcast.bsky.social) and Instagram (@NewSpeciesPodcast) and “like” the podcast page on Facebook (www.facebook.com/NewSpeciesPodcast).

Music in this podcast is "No More (Instrumental)," by HaTom (https://fanlink.to/HaTom)

If you have questions or feedback about this podcast, please e-mail us at NewSpeciesPodcast@gmail.com

If you would like to support this podcast and enjoy bonus episodes, please consider doing so at https://www.patreon.com/NewSpeciesPod

New Species en Español will be a Spanish-language version of the New Species Podcast, hosted by Ivonne Garzón.

Subscribe to it here: https://open.spotify.com/user/31jdpbfn26x3w7sa2b76db3z2vxa?si=160a1a8eac644f00Or wherever you get your podcasts.

Sometimes, a collection of new species turns out to be… no new species!

Takahiro Sugiyama, Ryutaro Goto, and Chloé Fourreau began studying the unique ectoparasitic scale worm Gastrolepidia clavigera in part because of its fascinating diversity of color, likely contributing to its ability to camouflage on sea cucumbers. After some genetic work, they found that this entire rainbow of scale worms all actually seem to belong to the same species!

Takahiro Sugiyama, Ryutaro Goto, and Chloé Fourreau’s paper “Host specific camouflage in a holothurian-ectoparasitic scale worm: testing the host-race hypothesis using COI and genome-wide SNP data” is in volume 173 of Marine Biology

It can be found here: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00227-025-04744-y

Episode image credit: Takahiro Sugiyama and Ryutaro Goto

A New Species episode with Chloé on Polychaete worms: https://open.spotify.com/episode/0aH2bPNb4u3wOrONIYfZkp?si=7i0lzzSlSjWfsXce436-3g

Follow Chloé on instagram and Bluesky: @chaoticchloeia

Follow the MISE lab on instagram: @mise_lab

Read Takahiro’s recent paper about the scale worms that live on sea stars: doi.org/10.3800/pbr.15.289

Original description of G. clavigera: https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/50342#page/8/mode/1up

Be sure to follow New Species on Bluesky (@newspeciespodcast.bsky.social) and Instagram (@NewSpeciesPodcast) and “like” the podcast page on Facebook (www.facebook.com/NewSpeciesPodcast).

Music in this podcast is "No More (Instrumental)," by HaTom (https://fanlink.to/HaTom)

If you have questions or feedback about this podcast, please e-mail us at NewSpeciesPodcast@gmail.com

If you would like to support this podcast and enjoy bonus episodes, please consider doing so at https://www.patreon.com/NewSpeciesPod
If you would like to make a one-time contribution to this podcast, you can do so at https://buymeacoffee.com/newspeciespod

Donard Geci fell into studying spiders by accident, but now he can’t imagine his life without them. He’s one of the only arachnologists in the Balkans, a hotspot for spiders as well as plenty of other flora and fauna. It’s difficult, he says, “but you have many things to do here because many groups are unexplored.”

Trapdoor spiders are masterful architects, and there is so much work to do in order to better understand their relationships to one another. Fortunately, Donard isn’t deterred at all and wants to encourage even more scientists to study the amazing quantity of life found in the Balkans.

Donard Geci’s paper “Trapdoor spiders of the family Nemesiidae Simon, 1889 (Araneae: Mygalomorphae) from Kosovo” is in volume 20, issue 2 of Arachnology.

It can be found here: www.doi.org/10.13156/arac.2025.20.2.281

A transcript of this episode can be found here: Donard Geci - Transcript

New Species: Brachythele kosovarica, Nemesia dukagjinica

Episode image credit: Donard Geci

A New Trapdoor Spider with Christian Pertegal: available in english and in spanish

An episode with Alireza Zamani: https://www.newspeciespodcast.net/all-episodes/e28-a-new-species-named-because-of-this-podcast-and-another-after-the-father-of-modern-medicine

First DNA Barcoding of Dysderidae: https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.5653.4.2

New Eratigena from the Balkans based on an integrative approach: https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.5636.1.6

Find Donard on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/donardgecii

And on X: https://x.com/donard_geci

Be sure to follow New Species on Bluesky (@newspeciespodcast.bsky.social) and Instagram (@NewSpeciesPodcast) and “like” the podcast page on Facebook (www.facebook.com/NewSpeciesPodcast).

Music in this podcast is "No More (Instrumental)," by HaTom (https://fanlink.to/HaTom)

If you have questions or feedback about this podcast, please e-mail us at NewSpeciesPodcast@gmail.com

If you would like to support this podcast and enjoy bonus episodes, please consider doing so at https://www.patreon.com/NewSpeciesPod

If you would like to make a one-time contribution to this podcast, you can do so at https://buymeacoffee.com/newspeciespod