124. Juli Berwald (writer) – Our Jellyfish Overlords

Think Again – a Big Think Podcast

Jason Gots: What happens in your brain when I say the word “Jellyfish”?

If you’re not a marine biologist, and if going to the beach almost anywhere in the world is a part of your life, the word probably makes you wince. Maybe you remember getting stung. Maybe you remember someone putting meat tenderizer on it (is it good for anything else?)

But as my guest today, Juli Berwald, knows, Jellyfish are neither a fish, nor the cartoon villains we make them out to be. They’re a fascinating, complex, diverse lifeform whose tentacles are tangled up in all of our lives in ways we’re only dimly aware of.

Juli Berwald is a science writer with a PHD in Ocean Science. Her new book is Spineless: The Science of Jellyfish and the Art of Growing a Backbone.

Surprise conversation-starter clips in this episode:

Joscha Bach on free will, Richard Dawkins on animal cruelty

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