Starfish, more accurately called Sea Stars, are star-shaped echinoderms (animals) that can be found in all the world's oceans. There are over 2000 species of Starfish found on every shoreline to the depths of the deepest oceans. Instead of blood, starfish use the water around them in a primitive version of a vascular system  used for locomotion, adhesion, food manipulation and gas exchange. Some starfish’s stomachs can be everted from their body to engulf and digest food. In The Good, The...

Dung beetles are a large group of Scarabaeinae that almost exclusively feed on dung. Dung Beetles are widely used as an indicator of an ecosystem's health. In some countries, they have even been introduced for the benefit of animal husbandry. The dung beetle, (otherwise known as a scarab), enjoyed a sacred status among the ancient Egyptians. Trust us, you want to learn more about this amazing beetle.  The Good, The Bad, The News Climate change is affecting animals in weird ways like...

Groundhogs, also known as woodchucks, are rodents belonging to the group of large ground squirrels known as marmots. Who knew groundhogs and woodchucks were the same species? Not the hosts before this episode! Despite their continued use in predicting the weather every mid-winter, groundhogs and their behaviors have not been well-studied by researchers.  In The Good, The Bad, The News Fake snow for the Olympics, how bad is it really?  Once gone from Florida, American Flamingo is being sighted...

A lemming is a small rodent found in the Arctic tundra. Lemmings are a keystone species that maintain the arctic diversity as prey to large animals and plant grazers. And, NO, they do not periodically leap to their deaths, regardless of what common culture may tell us. However, lemmings do have periodic population booms causing them to disperse in all directions, seeking food and shelter, in patterns not normally seen in rodents. These crazy migrations have led to some weird theories about...

You’re probably familiar with Hedwig, who according to ranker, is the world’s second most famous owl and perhaps the most famous snowy owl. But, what else do you actually know about this Arctic bird? Did you know this owl can survive at -135.4 Fahrenheit, and has several unique adaptations that are quite distinct from other owls. Such as their feet act like little snow shoes, and their thick, pigment-less feathers make them one of the heaviest owls in the world.  Unfortunately, they won't...

Gila Monsters are the only venomous lizards native to the United States. They are found in Southwestern US and Northwestern Mexico. These lizards have a bad reputation that is mostly unfounded. There are no recent incidents of a Gila Monster bite resulting in human fatality. In order to even get bit, one would have to be trying really hard to or making less than intelligent decisions because these creatures are quite slow.  Gila Monsters have a roundish body with black and pink blotches and...

The Gilbert’s Potoroo is Australia's most endangered marsupial, and one of the world’s most critically endangered mammals. The Gilbert’s Potoroo is a small, nocturnal marsupial that was recently rediscovered off the southern coast of Western Australia in Two Peoples Bay Nature Reserve. There are less than 100 Gilbert’s Potoroos left in the world.  In the Good the Bad the News Reality star who said she made $200,000 by selling her farts in Mason jars, hospitalized, and now selling her 'farts'...

Beluga Whales are white cetaceans adapted to life in the Arctic. Belugas are highly sociable and communicate in high-pitched squeaks, squeals, clicks, and whistles. This is why they’re also known as the  "sea canary" of the ocean. Their forehead contains an organ (called a melon) that they use for echolocation, finding breathing holes in the ice, and to hunt in dark or turbid waters. Young male belugas may mimic human speech, but they grow out of it.  In The Good, The Bad, The News Physics...

Krampus is a horned, anthropomorphic figure in Alpine folklore. On Christmas, he terrifies children who have misbehaved. Krampus has recently been introduced into North American culture, but has a rich history in Eastern European cultures, including pre-Christian pagan traditions where he has long been a companion of Saint Nicholas.  Jennifer’s good and bad news: Quantum entanglement is complicated, but we try to explain it in the most basic terms. Why? Because researchers from Nanyang...

The maned wolf is a large canine of South America. However, it is not a wolf, they aren’t even related. The maned wolf has many fox-like characteristics, but they are not related to foxes either. Maned wolves are a unique animal. They are the tallest wild canine species, but not largest, and they have an erectile mane.  The Good, The Bad, The News Fox News is over reacting about a Christmas tree. Conservatives only care if something bad is happening directly to them. Global Climate change is...

The American crow is a large passerine bird (song bird) of the family Corvidae. American crows are highly cunning and inquisitive, which makes them tricksters spirits. Crows both use and make tools, which is one of the reasons why crows are considered to be among the world's most intelligent animals. They’re probably smarter than a five-year-old child. Caw Caw The Bad The Norwegian wolf is extinct, and it’s 100% humans' fault. Marjorie Taylor Greene is an idiot, and anyone who supports her...

In biology, plant mimicry occurs when a plant has evolved to resemble another organism, increasing the mimic's Darwinian fitness. Mimicry may provide the mimic certain benefits including protection against being eaten, trick pollinators into provide them a service without offering a reward (food) in return, or may even do something we haven't figured out yet. In The Good The Bad The News Amber hates snow, Jennifer thinks it is beautiful, but you know what Jennifer hates? Nurdles. Those tiny...

Cranberries are a fruit native to North America, and are a staple at most American Thanksgiving Dinners. Due to their very sharp and sour taste, cranberries are rarely eaten outside of the holidays. Nowadays, most Cranberries are consumed as a juice which can contain more sugar than soda pop, and has iffy health benefits.  In The Good The Bad The News The Bad: The Kyle Rittenhouse trial once again proves that white men can get away with murder. You don’t bring a gun somewhere unless you plan...

Hamsters are rodents commonly kept as pets. Do you know what Hamster means? Hoard. Do you know what a group of Hamsters is called? Horde. You know what that means? Bring out the horde of hoarders! If you’ve ever had a pet hamster, then you probably know, they're solitary animals that dislike changes in temperature, and may resort to cannibalism if stressed. Amber isn’t a fan of hamsters as pets, but we can agree that they are an interesting species in the wild, as a pet, and in...

Ladybugs (Ladybirds or Coccinellidae) are a widespread family of small beetles. Regardless of their name, they are not bugs nor birds. We’re not sure where their name comes from but it might come from "Beetle of Our Lady" in reference to the Virgin Mary. Many cultures consider them good luck, this is probably because they sometimes eat unwanted pests which helps preserve crops. In The Good The Bad the News This week it's complicated. Jennifer talks about the cocaine hippos from Colombia and...

This week is all about the Allosaurus, a large carnosaurian theropod dinosaur that lived 155 to 145 million years ago during the Jurassic period. Think what the Velociraptors in Jurassic Park look like, but bigger, and spoiler: probably no pack hunting.  In the Good The Bad the News In the Bad, Syphilis in on the rise in the U.S., a sign that our public health services are failing. (A few years ago we almost eliminated syphilis in America…) In the Good, Amber talks about the ‘penis plant'...

The Addams Family are almost the perfect family. How so, you ask? There are lots of reasons, like Morticia being a feminist icon, or Wednesday being every goth girl's life goals, or Morticia and Gomez being the perfect couple. #relationshipgoals But first, where did the fictional characters of the Addams Family come from? You might be surprised to find out they started as a cartoon in The New Yorker and were created by American cartoonist Charles Addams in 1938. He created the  Addamses, a...

A Mermaid is a mythical aquatic creature with the upper body of a female human and the tail of a fish.  Legends of these creatures have been reported since the beginning of humanity.  There is no evidence that mermaids live anywhere on earth. However, there are a lot of scientific reasons why they physically cannot exist. Seriously, fish and human’s last common ancestor was over 170 million years ago. If you’re going to say mermaids are mammals, they’d have to breathe air, which means going...

Bigfoot, also commonly referred to as Sasquatch, (another word we’ve stolen from Native Americans), is a large bipedal ape-like creature, covered in hair. Bigfoot has become an icon of cryptozoology. You know what cryptozoology is? Fake science. There is no evidence that Bigfoot exists. Even animals that have gone extinct millions of years ago leave evidence of their existence. Giants (Larger than human beings) appear in the folklore of cultures worldwide and evoke terror and remind humans of...

It’s finally October, the best month of the year, and time for Better Than Human's spooky Halloween Episodes. We start the month off with a BOO and an episode on the Villisca Axe Murder House, recorded live in the Villisca House itself. Poor, poor Amber knew nothing about what happened in the house before recording.  Not only did Amber and Jennifer record an episode in the house on the murders that happened there, we spent the night in the house.  The Villisca axe murders occurred between...

Neanderthals went extinct around 40,000 years ago so there are a lot of maybes when it comes to what we know about them. Did they know how to start fires? Did they use medicine? Did they have a language similar to humans? Did they know how to preserve food? Did they create art and music? Did they make clothing? Did they sail? The answers to all those questions are big fat maybes, which archaeologist are still trying to figure out.  But First Guess what everyone? It’s almost spooky month,...

Neanderthals are an extinct species of archaic humans who lived to about 40,000 years ago. Neanderthals left Africa, while modern humans stayed behind. They interbred with an unidentified human species and then were ‘replaced’ by modern humans. Neanderthals most likely went extinct due to interbreeding with homo sapiens, climatic change, disease, or a combination of all these factors. It’s almost spooky month, get excited everyone! This October we have a banger line up. We have the Villisca...

What most people know about black holes, they’ve learned from sci-fi. In this genre, black holes (spacetime where gravity is so strong that nothing can escape) can often do some nifty things, like time travel. In real life, however, black holes are a whole lot more interesting. A compact mass of deformed spacetime with zero volume and infinite density? Sign us up to learn more. In the Good the Bad the News The Bad The next solar storm could knock out the internet for months. Which will be a...

Hummingbirds are the world’s smallest bird species, with a heart rate of 500 beats-per-minute on average and a breathing rate of 250/minute. Hummingbirds are nearly always on the edge of starvation, so they need to eat their body weight in nectar each day. Which might explain why some female white-necked Jacobin hummingbirds have evolved to look like male hummingbirds. Because, guess what? Male hummingbirds can be jerks.  In The Good The Bad The New The Bad: The EU has removed US travelers...

The European eel (Anguilla anguilla) is  a snake-like, migratory fish. Eels spend most of their adult lives as freshwater fish, but are born and die in the ocean. How they’re born and how they die scientists are still trying to figure out. And we better figure it out quickly because European eel are a critically endangered species. So no jellied eels for you.  But first: Jennifer tells the story of her boomer encounter in the doctor's office. And by boomer, we mean, OK boomers, the group of...