They dance. They make songs. They will steal your heart. They are spiders. Jumping spiders, specifically, and impassioned spider scientist Dr. Sebastian Echeverri is on board to tell you all about their dances. How far can a jumping spider jump? What makes a good spider dancer? How do they learn their moves? Why are they so cute? Can you sample their drumming and make a sick industrial-EDM track that feels like you’re in a Berlin discotheque? Buckle up for the grooviest Spooktober of your life.

BUY the track “Habronattus: Multimodal Display” on Bandcamp

Created by Jason Scardamalia and featuring recordings by Dr. Damian Elias with proceeds going toward spider research

Visit Dr. Sebastian Echeverri’s website

Follow Dr. Sebastian Echeverri on Bluesky and Instagram

Donations went to Entomologists of Color and Xerces.org

Full-length (*not* G-rated) Kinetic Salticidology episode + tons of science links

More kid-friendly Smologies episodes!

Become a patron of Ologies for as little as a buck a month

OlogiesMerch.com has hats, shirts, hoodies, totes!

Follow Ologies on Instagram and Bluesky

Follow Alie Ward on Instagram and TikTok

Sound editing by Mercedes Maitland of Maitland Audio Productions, Jake Chaffee, Jarrett Sleeper of MindJam Media & Steven Ray Morris

Made possible by work from Noel Dilworth, Susan Hale, Kelly R. Dwyer, Aveline Malek and Erin Talbert

Smologies theme song by Harold Malcolm

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

OWLS. FINALLY. In no particular order: what’s up with their eyes, legs, hoots, nests, necks, barfs? Is it ok to hoot back at them? What do you mean one of their toes is reversible? Go take a walk or sit on a porch in the dusk and make friends with Rocky. Dr. R.J. “Rocky” Gutiérrez is a celebrated researcher, Professor Emeritus at the University of Minnesota, a legend in the owl world, and simply one of the loveliest ologists. He’ll take us on a trip next to a river, scrambling up some trees, over rocky terrain and through the forest to learn why owls are so magnetic. Yeah, I called owls the best bird. Not backing down.

Follow Dr. Gutiérrez on Google Scholar

Donations went to the International Owl Center and Northcoast Environmental Center

Full-length (*not* G-rated) Strigiformology episodes + tons of science links

More kid-friendly Smologies episodes!

Become a patron of Ologies for as little as a buck a month

OlogiesMerch.com has hats, shirts, hoodies, totes!

Follow Ologies on Instagram and Bluesky

Follow Alie Ward on Instagram and TikTok

Sound editing by Mercedes Maitland of Maitland Audio Productions and Jake Chaffee

Made possible by work from Noel Dilworth, Susan Hale, Kelly R. Dwyer, Aveline Malek and Erin Talbert

Smologies theme song by Harold Malcolm

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Serotonin! Dopamine! Norepinephrine! Neurotransmitters: what's their deal? Dr. Crystal Dilworth, aka Dr. Brain, stops by to have a spirited discussion about how chemical messengers change our moods and behaviors. We chat about sleep, focus, happiness, depression, anxiety, what chemicals drive us to get off the couch, ADHD, the microbiome, and so much more of what goes into making our noggins work they way they do.

Visit Dr. Dilworth's website and follow her on Instagram

A donation went to The Geena Davis Institute

Full-length (*not* G-rated) Molecular Neurobiology episode + tons of science links

More kid-friendly Smologies episodes!

Become a patron of Ologies for as little as a buck a month

OlogiesMerch.com has hats, shirts, hoodies, totes!

Follow Ologies on Instagram and Bluesky

Follow Alie Ward on Instagram and TikTok

Sound editing by Mercedes Maitland of Maitland Audio Productions, Jake Chaffee, Jarrett Sleeper of MindJam Media, and Steven Ray Morris

Made possible by work from Noel Dilworth, Susan Hale, Kelly R. Dwyer, Aveline Malek and Erin Talbert

Smologies theme song by Harold Malcolm

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Dehydrated eggs. Airborne tortillas. Pouches of chicken. Tang. Work up an appetite for space food with artist, designer and Astrobromatologist, Maggie Coblentz. We talk micro-gardening in space, recycled water, dehydrated beef, velcro fatigue, the problem with crumbs in zero gravity, how to make barbecued wings in orbit, and what’s being done to make space food more delicious.

Visit Maggie’s website and follow her on Instagram

A donation went to AstroAccess

Pods Fight Poverty is raising money for Rwandan families via GiveDirectly.org/ologies

Full-length (*not* G-rated) Astrobromatology episode + tons of science links

More kid-friendly Smologies episodes!

Become a patron of Ologies for as little as a buck a month

OlogiesMerch.com has hats, shirts, hoodies, totes!

Follow Ologies on Instagram and Bluesky

Follow Alie Ward on Instagram and TikTok

Sound editing by Mercedes Maitland of Maitland Audio Productions and Jake Chaffee

Made possible by work from Noel Dilworth, Susan Hale, Kelly R. Dwyer, Aveline Malek and Erin Talbert

Smologies theme song by Harold Malcolm

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Fronds. Forest dwellers. Spores. Houseplants. Gametophytes? We’ve got ferns. The charming and hilarious professor, pteridologist and author of “Ferns: Lessons in Survival from Earth’s Most Adaptable Plants,” Dr. Fay-Wei Li, tells me all aboutwhat makes ferns such oddities in the plant world, fern evolution, why they have beef with flowering plants, tips for growing your own fern gully, whether they have roots or rhyzomes or friends, and how ferns could help cool down a warming planet or grow better crops. This episode is, in Fay-Wei’s words, “ferntastic.”

Visit Dr. Li’s lab website and follow him on Google Scholar

Buy his book, Ferns: Lessons in Survival from Earth’s Most Adaptable Plants, on Bookshop.org or Amazon

A donation went to the ASPT Herbarium Emergency Fund

Full-length (*not* G-rated) Pteridology episode + tons of science links

More kid-friendly Smologies episodes!

Become a patron of Ologies for as little as a buck a month

OlogiesMerch.com has hats, shirts, hoodies, totes!

Follow Ologies on Instagram and Bluesky

Follow Alie Ward on Instagram and TikTok

Sound editing by Mercedes Maitland of Maitland Audio Productions and Jake Chaffee

Made possible by work from Noel Dilworth, Susan Hale, Kelly R. Dwyer, Aveline Malek and Erin Talbert

Smologies theme song by Harold Malcolm

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Orange teeth! Multi-purpose tails! Architecture with twigs! Field naturalist, conservationist, wildlife tracker and “beaver believer” Rob Rich works with the National Wildlife Federation’s coordination of the Montana Beaver Working Group and answers all of our Castorological questions about: baby beavers, tooth tools, lodges, dams, the sound of water, the slap of a tail, beavers throughout history and in your dreams forever.

Follow Rob Rich on LinkedIn

A donation went to Tracker Certification North America

Full-length (*not* G-rated) Castorology episode + tons of science links

More kid-friendly Smologies episodes!

Become a patron of Ologies for as little as a buck a month

OlogiesMerch.com has hats, shirts, hoodies, totes!

Follow Ologies on Instagram and Bluesky

Follow Alie Ward on Instagram and TikTok

Sound editing by Mercedes Maitland of Maitland Audio Productions & Jake Chaffee

Made possible by work from Noel Dilworth, Susan Hale, Kelly R. Dwyer, Aveline Malek and Erin Talbert

Smologies theme song by Harold Malcolm

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Cultural burns. Prescribed blazes. A healthy forest. What exactly is “good fire?” Let’s ask Indigenous fire scientist Dr. Amy Christianson, who is a co-host of the podcast ...Good Fire. This wonderfully generous and informed scholar took a quick break from her Canadian wilderness vacation to fill me in on Indigenous history, thoughts on cultural burns, flim-flam, evacuations, hunting strategies, land stewardship, learning from Indigenous wildfire fighters, Two-Eyed Seeing and more. Huge thanks to her and Matt Kristoff -- who also hosts the Your Forest Podcast -- for allowing us to use excerpts from their Good Fire interview. Subscribe to both podcasts to get more ecological knowledge in your ears.

Follow Dr. Amy Christianson on Bluesky

Check out the Good Fire podcast and the Your Forest podcast

A donation was made to Indigenous Residential School Survivors

Full-length (*not* G-rated) Indigenous Fire Ecology episode + tons of science links

More kid-friendly Smologies episodes!

Become a patron of Ologies for as little as a buck a month

OlogiesMerch.com has hats, shirts, hoodies, totes!

Follow Ologies on Instagram and Bluesky

Follow Alie Ward on Instagram and TikTok

Sound editing by Mercedes Maitland of Maitland Audio Productions, Jake Chaffee, Jarrett Sleeper of MindJam Media & Steven Ray Morris

Made possible by work from Noel Dilworth, Susan Hale, Kelly R. Dwyer, Aveline Malek and Erin Talbert

Smologies theme song by Harold Malcolm

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.