Dr. Ursula Goodenough has a scientific career that spans six decades, numerous accolades, and is a writer of both textbook and popular science books. But her crowning achievement is being a guest on this podcast. This week, Ursula and I have a conversation that covers topics like algal research, work-life balance, science communication and story telling, life-changing microscopy finds, why sex is so prevalent in nature, and relatedly--Richard Gere. We also discuss her book, The Sacred Depths...

Choanoflagellates are unicellular protists but they also happen to be the closest living relatives to animals. This week, David Booth discusses what choanoflagellates are, where you can find them, and the connection to animal evolution. He also talks about how these microbes are interesting in their own right, impacting whole food webs and ecosytems and interacting with bacteria. We talk about the fossil record and cover a bunch of major evolutionary transitions and how microbial life was the...

Do you ever walk past an old building or a tree or a big rock and notice splotchy green or orange or yellow blobs growing all over it? Well, these are probably lichens! Lichens aren't plants and they aren't even technically just fungi. They are actually many organisms living together and functioning as one unit. These "composite" organisms are fungi with symbiotic algae or cyanobacteria living inside them, providing them with sugars produced by photosynthesis. On this episode, Dennis Waters...

Is fungi everywhere? Is it on our eyeballs and in our nose hairs? Yes, yes, and yes! This week I talk to Dr. Kristen aka Kaydubs about fungi in general and forest fungi in particular. We discuss what these organisms are made of, why they're only now being studied in depth, and the devastating outcomes of American chestnut blight. We also talk about how to become a master naturalist and why it's okay to be weird and/or join a mushroom club! Dr. Kristen, PhD is a plant pathologist and an...

Tardigrades aka water bears aka moss piglets are extremely popular! This is due to their tolerance of harsh environments and because of their perceived "cuteness". This week, I speak with Chloé Savard (@tardibabe) about what tardigrades are, what it actually means to "survive" in extreme conditions, and how to find them in nature. We also talk quite a bit about some of the tardigrade misinformation that's constantly circulating that paints these animals as indestructible or even immortal....

What are the microbes in our gut up to? And how does their life affect our lives? This week, Dr. Haley Hallowell teaches us all about the gut microbiome and virome, that is, how microbes and viruses inside us affect each other and our own health! We also play a game on this episode where I make some bold claims that have gained traction on social media recently-some true, some ridiculous, some in between-and Haley becomes a professional myth-buster, using the latest science of course. Make...

Did you know there are microbes living in holes in glaciers? What are they doing there and what can we learn from them? Quite a lot actually! This week, Dr. Jaz Millar and I talk all about cryoconite holes which house polar microbial communities, how they're forms, and what they tell us about the past, present, and future conditions of life on Earth. We also learn that when a topic related to something unmicrobial like gasp animals gasp comes up, I'm totally clueless. Jaz tells us the...

How do we know what the Earth was like billions of years ago? And where did all the oxygen come from? Spoiler alert: it's microbes! This week I speak with Dr. John Encarnacion about the Great Oxygenation Event (GOE) that changed our planet forever and is the reason we breathe today. We talk about the detective work of geologists and the evidence found in rocks that teaches us about ancient biological and geological processes! Dr. John Encarnacion, PhD is a professor at Saint Louis University...

How can you get started with hobby microscopy? What products and practices do we recommend? Why do we have a conflict with the Unicode emoji consortium? And what on earth is a vinegar eel??? Find out all these things and more on this week's episode where I talk to Dr. Lena Struwe about our shared love of microscopy, answer questions from instagram followers, and cover topics that range from iNaturalist to community science to why I refuse to swim in a pond. Dr. Lena Struwe, PhD, FLS is a...

Why don't we ever talk about archaea? What can we learn from this domain of life? Why would someone want to cook a chicken in a Yellowstone National Park geyser? Find out about these things and more on this week's TLB episode. Dr. Arthur Charles-Orszag is here to teach us about Sulfolobus acidocaldarius, a sulfur-oxidizing archaeon that lives in super hot and acidic environments. We discuss Arthur's work studying DNA segregation in this microbe and we also unpack many common misconceptions...

What can we get algae to do for us (other than be beautiful and produce half of our oxygen)? How can we engineer different algae to create products and services we need? And what do algae SMELL like? Which smell like feet and which smell like "milky grass"? Dr. Kyle Lauersen is on this week's episode answering these questions and more! He explains all about his research on algal biotechnology and how we can engineer these tiny green cells to produce chemical products that are useful to us and...

What the heck are glaucophyte algae? And where are they found? Spoiler alert: everywhere and nowhere. This week, Prof. Debashish Bhattacharya talks about Glaucophyta, one of the most ancient photosynthetic eukaryotic lineages on the planet and why they are great models for understanding evolution and endosymbiosis (a process introduced in last week's episode). He focuses on Cyanophora paradoxa, the most well-studied glaucophyte, what we can learn from this organism and its ancient origins,...

"Photosynthesis is very important if you care about breathing." Half of the oxygen on the planet is produced by microbes. Dr. Awra Gabr talks about the photosynthetic Paulinella lineage of rhizarian amoebas that represent an independent acquisition of a photosynthetic organelle in eukaryotic cells. This is HUGE because this kind of event has only successfully occurred two other times in the four billions year history of life on Earth. We talk about the ins and outs of this process, why...

As a society we have (rightly) spent soooo much time talking and thinking about SARS-CoV-2 but what about the billions of other viruses out there, most of which don't infect humans? This week evolutionary virologist Alvin Crespo talks about cassava mosaic begomoviruses which infect cassava plants, a food crop that is the main source of carbohydrates for the people of sub-Saharan Africa. We talk about where this virus came from, where all viruses may come from, and we also tackle topics...

Did you know that one third of the food we eat is transformed by microbes? Why did people start eating sauerkraut? Will veggie burgers ever taste better? Is humanity doomed??? We answer these questions and more on this episode of TLB. Bacteria and many fungi may be invisible to the naked eye but their impact is all around us and is especially important when it comes to food. Chef, author, food scientist, fermenter, and TV personality David Zilber talks about the past, present, and future of...

What do some amoebozoans and the urban planners of Tokyo have in common? And who is smarter? What even is intelligence? Find out by learning about Physarum polycephalum, a slime mold (aka "slimy guy") you could find on a walk in the woods. Scientist Kyle David talks about the lifestyle and weird features of P. polycephalum and how, even when it's meters long and wrapping itself around trees, it's really still only one single cell. We also talk about human vs. non-human intelligence, how this...

If you have a dog, you'll want to listen to this one! Leptospira is a genus of spirochete bacteria that can infect many different mammals, from rats to rhinos. Veterinarian Kyra Hartog talks about what Leptospira do in nature and why some animals get Leptospirosis and others do not. She also describes symptoms and treatments and gives advice on how to keep your dogs safe! We also go on a rant about outdoor cats' impact on wildlife that you won't want to miss. Dr. Kyra Hartog, DVM is a...

Naegleria fowleri is a Percolozoan flagellate protist known as the "brain-eating amoeba". While fatal to humans, this microbe doesn't have a sinister motive. In fact, as Dr. Bromagen explains, infecting humans has no benefit to the amoeba and will be fatal to it as well as the infected human. In this episode we discuss the ecology, natural history, and pathogenicity of Naegleria fowleri and then things get existential... Dr. Seth Bromagen, PhD is a parasitologist and assistant professor of...

"The world shimmers, a pointillist landscape made of tiny living beings." -Lynn Margulis Tiny Living Beings is a weekly podcast where listeners get to know a scientist, a weird microorganism they like, and why they think it's interesting. Our planet is full of billions of different microscopic organisms, most of which are still unknown to science. The ones we do know are diverse and strange. Microbiology knowledge is often gatekept by scientists who mostly discuss this information among...