Getting Curious with Jonathan Van Ness Earwolf

We’re dripping in jewels this week on Getting Curious! What does it mean for a diamond to be “hard”? Are lab-grown gems made to perfection? What’s the difference between rubies and pink sapphires? Dr. Gabriela Farfan joins Jonathan to discuss the science and art behind the dazzling, multifaceted world of gems and minerals.

Dr. Gabriela Farfan is the Coralyn Whitney Curator of Gems and Minerals at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. She began collecting minerals at a young age and turned her hobby into a career as a mineralogist, geochemist, and the first woman and Latina to become Curator-in-Charge of the National Gem Collection.

You can follow Dr. Farfan on Twitter @gabriela_farfan and on Instagram @the.mineralogist. The Smithsonian National Museum of American History is on Twitter @nmnh and Instagram @smithsoniannmnh.

Curious for more? Check out these resources from Dr. Farfan:

What is a Mineral?
The AMNH’s “GeoGallery”
Hope Diamond
Whitney Flame Topaz
Dom Pedro Aquamarine
Chalk Emerald
Carmen Lucia Ruby
Lion of Merelani Tsavorite Garnet

And check out these episodes from the Getting Curious archive:

Does Groundwater Go With The Flow?
How Does Dust Impact Earth’s Climate?
How Major Are Volcanoes?

Follow us on Instagram @CuriousWithJVN to join the conversation. Jonathan is on Instagram @JVN.

Transcripts for each episode are available at JonathanVanNess.com.

Find books from past Getting Curious guests at bookshop.org/shop/curiouswithjvn.

Our executive producer is Erica Getto. Our producer is Chris McClure. Our editor is Andrew Carson. Production support from Julie Carrillo and Emily Bossak.

Our theme music is “Freak” by QUIÑ; for more, head to TheQuinCat.com.

New Orleans was one of America’s most important cities in the early 1800s. It was also one of the most deadly. This week, to mark the new season of Queer Eye, we’re exploring New Orleans history with Dr. Kathryn Olivarius in a special two-part episode. Today, we’re learning about yellow fever’s grip on the city—and what this illness revealed about power and politics in New Orleans.

Haven’t listened to part one yet? Check it out here to learn more about New Orleans history.

A note from the team: this episode discusses enslavement and graphic descriptions of illness.

Kathryn Olivarius is a prizewinning historian of slavery, medicine, and disease. She is Assistant Professor of History at Stanford University. Her book Necropolis: Disease, Power, and Capitalism in the Cotton Kingdom, published by Harvard University Press, was recently awarded the Frederick Jackson Turner Prize.

You can follow Dr. Olivarius on Twitter @katolivarius. Harvard University Press is on Twitter @Harvard_Press.

If you’re new to Getting Curious, here are some episodes that are relevant to today’s discussion:

When Viruses Spread, Who’s Most Vulnerable?
What’s The Sordid History Of U.S. Trash Collection?
Who Does America’s “Child Welfare System” Serve?
Who Built The Panama Canal?
How F$^*#d Up Is Fatphobia?

Follow us on Instagram @CuriousWithJVN to join the conversation. Jonathan is on Instagram @JVN.

Transcripts for each episode are available at JonathanVanNess.com.

Find books from past Getting Curious guests at bookshop.org/shop/curiouswithjvn; we’ll be updating it soon with more releases!

Our executive producer is Erica Getto. Our editor is Andrew Carson. Production support from Julie Carrillo, Chris McClure, and Emily Bossak.

Our theme music is “Freak” by QUIÑ; for more, head to TheQuinCat.com.

New Orleans is a city in a swamp—a city, some argue, that should have never been built. So how did it become one of America’s most important sites in the 1800s, and a critical battleground in the American Civil War? This week, to mark the new season of Queer Eye, we’re exploring New Orleans history with Dr. Kathryn Olivarius in a special two-part episode. Today, we’re breaking down the basics on antebellum New Orleans. Tomorrow, we’ll learn all about New Orleans’ rampant history of yellow fever.

A note from the team: this episode discusses enslavement and references to bodily harm.

Kathryn Olivarius is a prizewinning historian of slavery, medicine, and disease. She is Assistant Professor of History at Stanford University. Her book Necropolis: Disease, Power, and Capitalism in the Cotton Kingdom, published by Harvard University Press, was recently awarded the Frederick Jackson Turner Prize.

You can follow Dr. Olivarius on Twitter @katolivarius. Harvard University Press is on Twitter @Harvard_Press.

If you’re new to Getting Curious, here are some episodes that are relevant to today’s discussion:

When Viruses Spread, Who’s Most Vulnerable?
What’s The Sordid History Of U.S. Trash Collection?
Who Does America’s “Child Welfare System” Serve?
Who Built The Panama Canal?
How F$^*#d Up Is Fatphobia?

Follow us on Instagram @CuriousWithJVN to join the conversation. Jonathan is on Instagram @JVN.

Transcripts for each episode are available at JonathanVanNess.com.

Find books from past Getting Curious guests at bookshop.org/shop/curiouswithjvn; we’ll be updating it soon with more releases!

Our executive producer is Erica Getto. Our editor is Andrew Carson. Production support from Julie Carrillo, Chris McClure, and Emily Bossak.

Our theme music is “Freak” by QUIÑ; for more, head to TheQuinCat.com.

You didn’t hear it from us, but this week’s episode is so juicy that you’ll want to tell everyone about it. Dr. Meltem Yucel joins Jonathan to dish on gossip: why it’s irresistible, what it reveals about our moral and social codes, and how we can use it to our benefit. Come for the drama, stay for the drama. (Are we the drama?)

Dr. Meltem Yucel is a Postdoctoral Associate at Duke University’s Department of Psychology and Neuroscience. She researches the development of social cognition and morality, specifically focusing on how and when children become moral beings. She is also the founder of www.PsychResearchList.com with the goal of making Psychology more accessible to students from all backgrounds by making the hidden curriculum of higher education more visible.

You can follow Dr. Yucel on Twitter @DrMeltemYucel, on Instagram @drmeltemyucel, and on LinkedIn @nazlimeltemyucel. Her website is meltemyucel.com.

Follow us on Instagram @CuriousWithJVN to join the conversation. Jonathan is on Instagram @JVN.

Transcripts for each episode are available at JonathanVanNess.com.

Find books from past Getting Curious guests at bookshop.org/shop/curiouswithjvn; we’ll be updating it soon with more releases!

Our executive producer is Erica Getto. Our editor is Andrew Carson. Production support from Julie Carrillo and Chris McClure.

Our theme music is “Freak” by QUIÑ; for more, head to TheQuinCat.com.

Chimpanzees and bonobos know how to live it up. They hang out with their friends, they take self-care breaks, they eat fresh fruit, and when it’s raining they fashion umbrellas out of leaves. Dr. Laura Simone Lewis is back on the show this week to tell us all about the social lives of these dynamic individuals, who happen to share 98% of our DNA. From their favorite juice flavors to their equivalent of Netflix and chill—this episode’s got it all.

Missed Dr. Lewis’s first episode on the show, all about our great ape family tree? Check it out here.

Dr. Laura Simone Lewis is a UC President’s Postdoctoral Fellow in the Psychology department at UC Berkeley. She received her PhD from Harvard through the department of Human Evolutionary Biology last year. She studies how social cognition has evolved in our closest living primate cousins, chimpanzees and bonobos!

You can follow Dr. Lewis on Twitter @LauraSimoneLew.

Want to support our chimpanzee and bonobo cousins? Here are some groups to follow:

Lola Ya Bonobo in DRC
Ngamba Island Chimpanzee Sanctuary in Uganda
Sweetwaters Chimpanzee Sanctuary in Kenya
Jane Goodall Institute
World Wildlife Fund

Follow us on Instagram and Twitter @CuriousWithJVN to join the conversation.

Jonathan is on Instagram @JVN and @Jonathan.Vanness on Facebook.

Transcripts for each episode are available at JonathanVanNess.com.

Find books from Getting Curious guests at bookshop.org/shop/curiouswithjvn; we’ll be updating it soon with more releases!

Our executive producer is Erica Getto. Our editor is Andrew Carson. Production support from Julie Carrillo, Chris McClure, and Erin McKeon.

Our theme music is “Freak” by QUIÑ; for more, head to TheQuinCat.com.

What do Enlightenment-era paintings, 19th-century American fashion magazines, and Sir Mix-A-Lot’s “Baby Got Back” have in common? They’re all examples of what fatphobia has to do with race, class, and gender discrimination. This week, we’re re-releasing one of our favorite episodes from the archives, with Dr. Sabrina Strings. Learn all about the origins of anti-fat bias, and how it persists today.
Listened to this one last year? We promise—it’s worth revisiting!
Sabrina Strings, Ph.D. is a Chancellor's Fellow and Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of California, Irvine. Sabrina has been featured in dozens of venues, including BBC News, NPR, Huffington Post, Vox, Los Angeles Times, Essence, Vogue, and goop. Her writing has appeared in diverse venues including, The New York Times, Scientific American, Ethnic and Racial Studies, and Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society. Her book, Fearing the Black Body: The Racial Origins of Fat Phobia (2019), was awarded the 2020 Best Publication Prize by the Body & Embodiment Section of the American Sociological Association.
You can follow Dr. Strings on Twitter @SaStrings and check out her website, sabrinastrings.com. Want to learn more? Here are some books and resources Dr. Strings recommends:
Da’Shaun Harrison's Belly of the Beast

Sonya Renee Taylor’s The Body Is Not An Apology

Dr. Joy Cox’s Fat Girls In Black Bodies

Roxane Gay’s Hunger

Tressie McMillan Cottom’s THICK

Dr. Jill Andrew’s work

NAAFA

Follow us on Instagram and Twitter @CuriousWithJVN to join the conversation.

Jonathan is on Instagram @JVN and @Jonathan.Vanness on Facebook.

Transcripts for each episode are available at JonathanVanNess.com.

Find books from past Getting Curious guests at bookshop.org/shop/curiouswithjvn; we’ll be updating it soon with more releases!

Our executive producer is Erica Getto. Our editor is Andrew Carson. Production support from Julie Carrillo, Chris McClure, and Erin McKeon.

Our theme music is “Freak” by QUIÑ; for more, head to TheQuinCat.com.