Excuse me, Sir, but are you going to eat that woolly mammoth?

The Feast

The meat served at the 1951 Explorers Club Annual Dinner. Division of Vertebrate Zoology, YPM HERR 19475. Courtesy of the Peabody Museum of Natural History, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA.

Pass the mastodon, would you? This week we're talking about the famous Explorers Club Dinner of 1951, where woolly mammoth (or was it ancient giant sloth?) was a featured appetizer. We'll find out how a Connecticut museum ended up with the leftovers of this crazy meal & how it took over 60 years to finally figure out what was really for dinner that night. Join us for a great discussion with Jessica Glass & Dr. Matt Davis, the two scientists who discovered the identity of the most famous mystery meat in history. We'll talk about the curious tendency for scientists to nibble on their specimens, including Darwin's regrettable dinner of owl, and how food might have a major role in the future of conservation.

Written & Produced by Laura Carlson

Technical Direction by Mike Portt

Click here for more info, show notes, and episode soundtrack

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