The Shape of the World

Shape of the World Studios

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Natural Sciences

A Podcast About Cities, Nature and People

14h ago

Nighthawk: The Voice of Twilight (Ep. 43)

We often notice more of the visual world than we do the auditory world, yet many of our experiences are defined by sound. Edward Warden, the president of the Chicago Ornithological Society....

40 min
May 28

How to Make a Myth, and Then Debunk It (Ep. 42)

Samara Greenwood, a PhD candidate in the field of History and Philosophy of Science, explores the women who revolutioned the field of primatology and...

45 min
May 7

Where Did All of Our Rivers Go? (Ep. 41)

The Executive Director of Seven Canyons Trust, Ronnie Pessetto, is attempting to peel back the layers of concrete that cover many of the creeks in Salt Lake City, Utah. The process is known as “daylighting rivers.” And because Ronnie’s projects are happening right inside a city with a million people, it means the work is as much about civic healing as it is ecological restoration....

31 min
Apr 22

Friendship, Bushtits, and the Vastness of Everything (Ep. 40)

Jill Riddell speaks with her colleague, the cartoonist and author Sophie Lucido Johnson, about comedy, community, and the social science of friendship. In her new book...

38 min
12/18/2025

The Warm Glow of Helping (Update)

As a child, Peggy Mason was a biology prodigy. Today, as a neurobiologist, Peggy is still working with mammals, but instead of preserving their skins, she’s studying whether they experience empathy and act to help one another...

30 min
11/20/2025

How Thinking Like a Geologist Can Change the World (Update)

Structural geologist Marcia Bjornerud was raised by free-thinking parents who instilled in her a love of books and nature. She’s published many professional papers (read mainly by experts in the field) and two popular books that, in the opinion of this podcast, ought to be read by every inhabitant of our planet...

34 min
08/21/2025

Is the Earth Alive?

Ferris Jabr, author of Becoming Earth, claims that it is: that Earth is a vast interconnected living system and we humans (and all other living things) don’t just live...

21 min
07/31/2025

Zoned Out: Race, Property, and Ownership in America

Dr. Adrienne Brown reads cities the way professors read novels: carefully, and with lots of attention to what’s written between the lines...

29 min

A Podcast About Cities, Nature and People

Creator

Shape of the World Studios
Years Active

2025 - 2026
Episodes

49
Rating

Clean
Show Website

The Shape of the World