Best Scattered Curiosities Podcasts (2024)

1
Tarantula Hawk : The Pain Index II 30:20

1h ago30:20

30:20

You can support the show - keep it going, keep it growing - and get additional content by subscribing at The Wild Episode Substack. Become a paid subscriber to get access to occasional bonus episodes. Show notes, with photos, video and links to lots more information, are available at thewildepisode.com Subscribe to the show to make sure you don't m…

1
Bullet Ant : The Pain Index I 34:56

7d ago34:56

34:56

The infamous and fearsome (or not?) Bullet Ant. The first of three loosely connected episodes about ... pain. You can support the show - keep it going, keep it growing - by subscribing at The Wild Episode Substack. Become a paid subscriber to (if there's enough interest/support!) get access to occasional bonus episodes. Show notes, with photos, vid…

1
Remipede : How to be Perplexing 32:25

28d ago32:25

32:25

Remipedes! Upside-down-swimming, venom-injecting, cave-dwelling amazingness. Some of the strangest crustaceans ever discovered, living in some of the strangest places the world has to offer. Show notes, with photos, video and links to lots more information, are available at thewildepisode.com Subscribe to the show to make sure you don't miss any fu…

1
Myrmeconema : Gliding Ants and Red Berries 30:46

3M ago30:46

30:46

Ants that can glide and Myrmeconema, a parasitic nematode that can change the appearance and behaviour of its host. What happens when the two of them meet? Show notes, with photos, video and links to lots more information, are available at thewildepisode.com Subscribe to the show to make sure you don't miss any future Wild Episodes, and e-mail your…

1
Sumatran Rhino : Sunset Song 34:32

4M ago34:32

34:32

The Sumatran Rhino, the closest living relative of the extinct Woolly Rhinoceros, is the most vocal of all rhinos. This is the story of its extraordinary voice, and its journey through the twilight of the natural world ... Show notes, with photos, video and links to lots more information, are available at thewildepisode.com Subscribe to the show to…

1
Cookiecutter Shark : A Bright Shark in a Dark Ocean 30:29

4M ago30:29

30:29

The Cookiecutter Shark is famous for its gruesomely efficient parasitic attacks on whales, seals and big fish. But that is only a part of the story when it comes to this extraordinary, and extraordinarily bright, shark ... Show notes, with photos, video and links to lots more information, are available at thewildepisode.com Subscribe to the show to…

1
Giant Barrel Sponge : Methuselah on the Reef 30:57

5M ago30:57

30:57

The Giant Barrel Sponge: one of the simpler animals on Earth yet grows to enormous size over a crazily long life, exerts a big influence on reef ecosystems and, unlike a great many animals in our oceans, seems to be thriving ... Show notes, with photos, video and links to lots more information, are available at thewildepisode.com Subscribe to the s…

1
Aldabra Giant Tortoise : The One and Only 33:15

5M ago33:15

33:15

The Aldabra Giant Tortoise is an amazing survivor of a lost time - very recently lost - when giant tortoises dominated many of the islands in the Indian Ocean. Aldabra Atoll is the only place in the world you can still see great herds of tens of thousands of these huge reptiles. Show notes, with photos, video and links to lots more information, are…

1
59 Foolin' With You 1:07:18

6M ago1:07:18

1:07:18

Court jesters have been associated with positions of authority throughout time in memorial from the Pharoah Neferkere to the conquests of Atilla the Hun to the Battle of Hastings and through the Age of Discovery. These wisecracking wearers of the "cap and bells" have gone by various titles: minstrel, juggler, jolly, clown, comedian, joker, harlequi…

1
Phrynus longipes : The Whip Spider in the Cave 32:06

6M ago32:06

32:06

The Whip Spider Phrynus longipes is not a spider but one of the craziest-looking arachnids on Earth. They're also territorial and cannibalistic, so how do they manage to survive at super high densities in Caribbean caves without eating each other? Subscribe to the show to make sure you don't miss any future Wild Episodes, and e-mail your comments, …

1
Glacier Lanternfish : The Scatterers 33:03

6M ago33:03

33:03

The Glacier Lanternfish is one of the most important fish in the world - part of arguably the greatest, and most under-appreciated, concentration of animal life on the planet. Which we can only really 'see', and understand, using sound. Subscribe to the show to make sure you don't miss any future Wild Episodes, and e-mail your comments, corrections…

1
Matabele Ant : The Raid 29:50

7M ago29:50

29:50

The Matabele Ant conducts large-scale raids against its only prey: termites. And the way it does it is amazing, with elements that might remind us of reconnaissance, generals, signalling, tactics, even battlefield medical services. Subscribe to the show to make sure you don't miss any future Wild Episodes, and e-mail your comments, corrections, sug…

1
Yellow-Footed Antechinus : Paying the Hormonal Price 31:26

9M ago31:26

31:26

The Yellow-footed Antechinus is a tiny marsupial predator in Australia that has a life history, and in particular a breeding system, that makes it one of the most unusual mammals in the entire world ... Subscribe to the show to make sure you don't miss any future Wild Episodes, and e-mail your comments, corrections, suggestions or feedback to help …

1
Train Millipede : The Eight Year Itch 31:48

9M ago31:48

31:48

The Japanese Train Millipede has a surprising history of interactions with the country's railway system, and the pattern of those interactions reveals it to be almost unique in the way its life is governed by a ticking clock ... Subscribe to the show to make sure you don't miss any future Wild Episodes, and e-mail your comments, corrections, sugges…

1
Leopard : The Cat in the City 32:09

10M ago32:09

32:09

The leopard is the most flexible, adaptable big cat in the world, with a surprisingly long history of visiting urban areas. Today, as in the past, sharing your city with a large predator brings problems, but maybe there's an upside, because of how, and what, urban leopards are hunting ... Subscribe to the show to make sure you don't miss any future…

1
Paragordius tricuspidatus : The Phantom Thread 34:06

11M ago34:06

34:06

What connects feasting Japanese fish, a swimming pool in southern France and Alexander the Great's encounter with the Gordian Knot? The extraordinary horsehair worm Paragordius tricuspidatus, a simple animal capable of astonishing things ... Subscribe to the show to make sure you don't miss any future Wild Episodes, and e-mail your comments, correc…

1
58 1986: Balki In Space 1:11:45

11M ago1:11:45

1:11:45

1986 (a 365-day time frame fraught with discharge of toxic material, skyjackings, and espionage) was dubbed the International Year of Peace by the United Nations. And why not? The U.K. and Netherlands officially ended the 335-Years War, Hands Across America was raising funds for hunger and homelessness, the late Martin Luther King Jr. was honored w…

1
Northern Gannet : Deep Impact 31:15

11M ago31:15

31:15

Northern Gannets are famous for one thing above all else: plunge diving after fish. So, an episode that's a bit of a deep dive into ... diving! How high, how deep, how dangerous, and how individually distinctive is a gannet's dive? Subscribe to the show to make sure you don't miss any future Wild Episodes, and e-mail your comments, corrections, sug…

1
Antarctic Krill : Maximum Swarm 32:32

12M ago32:32

32:32

The Antarctic Krill is one of the most numerous animals on Earth, probably responsible for the biggest single species aggregations you can find nowadays. So numerous, in fact, that its surprising connection to Antarctic sea ice is just one of the ways it's bound into global climatic systems, carbon cycling and flows of energy and matter ... Subscri…

1
Tentacled Snake : J Stands For Death 29:19

1+ y ago29:19

29:19

The tentacled snake is one of the most unmistakable snakes in the world. And the story of how its tentacles connect to its extraordinary hunting strategy involves two letters: 'J' and 'C'. Subscribe to the show to make sure you don't miss any future Wild Episodes, and e-mail your comments, corrections, suggestions or feedback to help make those fut…

1
Mediterranean Monk Seal : The Seal in Hiding 34:21

1+ y ago34:21

34:21

The Mediterranean Monk Seal is probably the rarest pinniped in the world. It's had almost everything thrown at it - by us and by Nature - and survived, just, in part by changing its own behaviour. At some point, left with no alternative, it went into hiding. Subscribe to the show to make sure you don't miss any future Wild Episodes, and e-mail your…

1
57 Simpsucation 1:10:01

1+ y ago1:10:01

1:10:01

Since The Simpsons debuted over three decades ago, Albort’s Jeopardy game has been embiggened exponentially. But for the Simpsons, he would never have known about Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass, Howard Hughes’ Spruce Goose, or William Alton Carter’s Billy Beer; and that’s just scratching the surface. This episode celebrates the random factoids lear…

1
São Tomé Caecilian : Double Yellow 31:57

1+ y ago31:57

31:57

The São Tomé Caecilian is a fantastic creature: an extremely yellow legless amphibian living in the soil on a single volcanic island. An extraordinary example of an already extraordinary group of animals. Subscribe to the show to make sure you don't miss any future Wild Episodes, and e-mail your comments, corrections, suggestions or feedback to hel…

1
White-Barred Acraea : Where Did All The Males Go? 30:48

1+ y ago30:48

30:48

Something very weird goes on in mating assemblies of the White-barred Acraea butterfly - males and females swap roles. Why? And what can it tell us about a secret natural force shaping whole populations of insects? Subscribe to the show to make sure you don't miss any future Wild Episodes, and e-mail your comments, corrections, suggestions or feedb…

1
Whirling Disease Myxozoan : Minimum Animal 32:38

1+ y ago32:38

32:38

Whirling Disease in fish is caused by a tiny parasite. But what is that parasite and just how tiny is tiny? The answers will astound you! Subscribe to the show to make sure you don't miss any future Wild Episodes, and e-mail your comments, corrections, suggestions or feedback to help make those future episodes better! You can also follow the show o…

1
Megamouth Shark : The Third Biggest Shark in the World 31:05

1+ y ago31:05

31:05

The Megamouth Shark is one of the biggest, yet least known, least understood, sharks in the world. Not entirely surprising, since we've only known it exists for about fifty years ... Subscribe to the show to make sure you don't miss any future Wild Episodes, and e-mail your comments, corrections, suggestions or feedback to help make those future ep…

1
Update and 2023 Preview 4:31

2y ago4:31

4:31

Just a quick update on the podcast, and a quick look forward to 2023! Subscribe to the show to make sure you don't miss any future Wild Episodes, and e-mail your comments, corrections, suggestions or feedback to help make those future episodes better! You can also follow the show on Facebook or Twitter. To support the show, please share on social m…

1
Vampire Jumping Spider : Vampire or Van Helsing? 32:39

2y ago32:39

32:39

The Vampire Jumping Spider feeds - in part - on blood. Often, human blood. But how it does it makes it one of the most extraordinary spiders in the world ... Subscribe to the show to make sure you don't miss any future Wild Episodes, and e-mail your comments, corrections, suggestions or feedback to help make those future episodes better! You can al…

1
Vampire Squid : Neither Vampire Nor Squid 31:13

2y ago31:13

31:13

The Vampire Squid is not really a vampire, nor is it really a squid. It's the last survivor of an ancient lineage that has arrived in the present with an astonishing array of adaptations that equip it to live in a place most other animals can only visit ... the oxygen minimum zone. Subscribe to the show to make sure you don't miss any future Wild E…

1
56 Cliché Cache 35:51

2y ago35:51

35:51

How many movies have you seen that feature a wardrobe montage, a protagonist tearing out an IV to hastily leave the hospital, post-coital bed-sheets that magically only cover the woman’s chest, or characters uttering stale lines like, “We’ve got company”, “No time to explain”, or “He’s behind me, isn’t he?” All are examples of clichés but they aren…

1
Corsac Fox : Two Foxes, an Eagle and a Marmot 31:42

2y ago31:42

31:42

The Corsac Fox is a small, elegant fox of Central Asia, Mongolia and China - a huge range, most of which it shares with four other animals that loom large in its life: red fox, golden eagle, marmots and, inevitably ... humans. Subscribe to the show to make sure you don't miss any future Wild Episodes, and e-mail your comments, corrections, suggesti…

1
Neon Flying Squid : You'll Believe a Squid Can Fly 29:59

2y ago29:59

29:59

The Neon Flying Squid is one of those animals that lives up to its cool name: a squid that can actually fly. And we're not talking just gliding - time to talk jets and rockets ... Subscribe to the show to make sure you don't miss any future Wild Episodes, and e-mail your comments, corrections, suggestions or feedback to help make those future episo…

1
Scottnema : Maximum South 31:48

2y ago31:48

31:48

The most numerous purely terrestrial animal in Antarctica is almost certainly the nematode worm Scottnema lindsayae. An astonishingly resilient little creature that goes places almost no other animal can, and probably rides the wind to get there ... Subscribe to the show to make sure you don't miss any future Wild Episodes, and e-mail your comments…

1
Red-Crowned Crane : DMZ 36:06

2y ago36:06

36:06

The Red-Crowned Crane is a hugely charismatic, properly iconic bird, with symbolic importance in much Asian art, culture and myth. So here's me trying, in a way, to use it as a symbol of something else ... the state of the natural world, for want of a better description ... Subscribe to the show to make sure you don't miss any future Wild Episodes,…

1
Emperor Scorpion : Very Good With Children 30:36

2+ y ago30:36

30:36

The Emperor Scorpion (Pandinus imperator) is one of the biggest, most impressive and fearsome-looking scorpions in the world. So why is it described online as '... very good with children ...'? Subscribe to the show to make sure you don't miss any future Wild Episodes, and e-mail your comments, corrections, suggestions or feedback to help make thos…

1
(REBROADCAST) Northern Fulmar : The Foul Gull of St Kilda 33:09

2+ y ago33:09

33:09

To fill an unanticipated, COVID-related gap in the schedule, this is a rebroadcast of an episode from the first year of the podcast - one that mysteriously became unavailable in the podcast feed a while back. Hopefully it sticks around this time, though no promises since I don't know what went wrong with it the first time round. The northern fulmar…

1
Pig-Nosed Turtle : One of a Kind 30:23

2+ y ago30:23

30:23

The Pig-Nosed Turtle of New Guinea and northern Australia really does have a pig-like nose. But this is one of the most unusual, distinctive turtles in the world, so there's a whole lot more going on than just that ... Subscribe to the show to make sure you don't miss any future Wild Episodes, and e-mail your comments, corrections, suggestions or f…

1
Fenyes's Strepsipteran : You Have Got To Be Kidding 31:08

2+ y ago31:08

31:08

Fenyes's strepsipteran (Caenocholax fenyesi) is one of the most extraordinary insects in the world. A parasitoid living a deeply strange life - twice over, in fact, since males and females both get up to some remarkable stuff but are wildly different in both form and behaviour ... Subscribe to the show to make sure you don't miss any future Wild Ep…

1
Tri-Spine Horseshoe Crab : Survivors 32:10

2+ y ago32:10

32:10

The Tri-spine Horseshoe Crab (Tachypleus tridentatus) is one of four living horseshoe crab species (probably, marginally, the biggest). Animals that have survived, superficially very little changed, for hundreds of millions of years. They've come through multiple mass extinctions, but are still facing new and unexpected challenges today ... Subscri…

1
55 Magnetic Tape, Joysticks, and Pizza Theaters 1:00:01

2+ y ago1:00:01

1:00:01

It's been fifty years since Atari’s revolutionary game, Pong, ushered in a Renaissance for video arcades in America and gave rise to the animatronic house bands of Chuck E. Cheese and Showbiz Pizza. Albort experienced it in real time and invites you to join him for a stroll down memory lane with detours at the 1982 World’s Fair, Blockbuster Video a…

1
Colugo : Glide Path 28:54

2+ y ago28:54

28:54

Colugos (often called, entirely inaccurately, flying lemurs) - there are two officially recognised species at the moment - are more dramatically and completely adapted to gliding than any other mammal. They've essentially turned their entire bodies into one big gliding surface. Extraordinary animals which also, as it happens, have extraordinary tee…

1
Wasp Mantidfly : Spider's Bane 28:45

2+ y ago28:45

28:45

First in a series of listener-suggested shows! The Wasp Mantidfly (Climaciella brunnea) is a stunning little insect with some amazing stuff going on. Mimicry, convergent evolution, phoresy, egg predation, hypermetamorphosis and much, much more. Subscribe to the show to make sure you don't miss any future Wild Episodes, and e-mail your comments, cor…

1
Great Slaty Woodpecker : The Haunted Bird 30:27

2+ y ago30:27

30:27

The Great Slaty Woodpecker (Mulleripicus pulverulentus) is probably the biggest woodpecker in the world. A spectacular inhabitant of Asian forests that's haunted, perhaps, by the ghosts of two even bigger woodpeckers ... Subscribe to the show to make sure you don't miss any future Wild Episodes, and e-mail your comments, corrections, suggestions or…

1
Greater Argonaut : The Aquarium of Jeanne Villepreux-Power 30:39

2+ y ago30:39

30:39

The Greater Argonaut (Argonauta argo) is a very unusual octopus, that travels the oceans in an exquisite papery case. And many of its secrets were uncovered by a very unusual (for her time) woman - the remarkable Jeanne Villepreux-Power - one of the 19th century's leading scientifically-minded naturalists. Subscribe to the show to make sure you don…

1
Better Half E4 - Pearls, Pants Suits, And The Golden Age Of Capitalism 1944 - 2022 1:57:11

2+ y ago1:57:11

1:57:11

This is the final episode of our four-part Better Half mini-series containing six lectures apropos to the First Ladies from the Cold War up to the present time. What is known of the First Ladies of the United States we have covered up to this point comes down to us via the press, memoirs, what can be divined from letters, paintings, anecdotes, and …

1
Better Half E3 - Amelia And Eleanor's Excellent Adventure 1933 - 1944 42:32

2+ y ago42:32

42:32

This third installment of our four-part Better Half mini-series departs from the regular format as it is not focused solely on the First Lady of the United States of America and only features one of them. Today's narrative was built around the 1933 evening when Amelia Earhart and Eleanor Roosevelt ducked out of a party at the White House to take a …

1
Better Half E2 - Scalawags, Carpetbaggers, And The Gospel Of Wealth 1865 - 1933 1:14:29

2+ y ago1:14:29

1:14:29

This is the second apportionment of our four-part Better Half mini-series containing four lectures regarding the First Ladies of the United States within the Reconstruction Era, the Gilded Age, through total global interwar, the Mad Decade, and up to the brink of the Dirty Thirties. The sixty-eight-year span features a shy First Lady entreating the…

1
Better Half E1 - Remember The Ladies 1789 - 1865 1:10:31

2+ y ago1:10:31

1:10:31

This is the inaugural episode of an introductory four-part mini-series regarding the First Ladies of the United States of America. The New Nation's inception thought nothing of what to call the President's wife as "First Lady" did not appear in print until thirty-six years after Martha Washington's death. Because women have been so thoroughly shaft…

1
Stoplight Loosejaw : Jaws Sees Red 30:29

3y ago30:29

30:29

The Stoplight Loosejaw (Malacosteus niger) is a pretty extraordinary fish: a jet-black denizen of the twilight zone, armed with some of the strangest and most spectacular jaws in the animal kingdom and a surprising superpower: it's one of the very, very few creatures down there that can both generate and see red light. Subscribe to the show to make…

1
Giant Hummingbird : Life At The Limit 29:07

3y ago29:07

29:07

The Giant Hummingbird (Patagona gigas) is, by a long way, the biggest hummingbird in the world. It's about twice the size of the next biggest hummingbird - the most extreme version of a kind of animal that's already pretty extreme ... Subscribe to the show to make sure you don't miss any future Wild Episodes, and e-mail your comments, corrections, …

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