Ologies with Alie Ward Alie Ward

Another kid-safe, short episode of Smologies! What IS a coral? Where do they grow and what do they eat and why are they so pretty? What kind of tools do coral scientists use? Why are they so many colors? And what is bleaching? Will changing your sunscreen save coral reefs? The wonderful and charming Cnidariologist Dr. Shayle Matsuda took time out of his busy schedule during a coral spawning event to chat about how magical and beautiful coral can be and why reef health is important.

DO NOT YOU SKIP THIS ONE. Listen. Give flies a chance. Everyone loves a bee, but meanwhile flies are out here with all kinds of bodies and adaptations, inhabiting the least inhabitable lands, pollinating your future lunch, shimmering in rainbows, having lifelong love affairs, and burrowing in your back to eat your flesh. It’s a wild world and Australian Dipterologist Dr. Bryan Lessard creaks open a door to a wonderland of fly facts. Open a spot in your heart for shiny metallic ones, soft velvety goths, tiny humpbacks named after bodybuilders, and flies that give their lives to further medical research. Oh also: how to kill the ones in your kitchen — if you choose to. But after this, you might open a window and gently suggest their exit first.

Fresh new episode! Gorillas. These chest-beating, salad-munching, communal living, thick-furred beauties have so many surprises for you. (Don't get this confused with the earlier Primatology episode because this is all new and zeros in on two species of critically endangered ape!) Gorillaologist (IT’S A WORD) Dr. Tara Stoinski has been a gorilla scientist for nearly 3 decades and dishes on everything from fieldwork in cloudy mountains to dick facts, forest farts, banana flim-flam, the intersection of animal conservation and community investment, night-time nesting, grief, what those big teeth are for, gorilla musk, the legacy of primatologist Dr. Dian Fossey and the Gorilla Fund, and why our closest relatives need and deserve our protection. Also some weird asides about jaw exercises and online dating, because I want to.

Have you listened to Part 1 yet? No? Go on, git. Here's a link to it! Go do that.

Now if you have, this Part 2 is a bonanza of problem solving from neurologist and somnologist Dr. W. Chris Winter. He'll cover: if you should be taking sleep supplements or pills, sleep talking, apnea, why sleepiness makes us hungry, narcolepsy, the difference between insomnia and sleep deprivation, how to lucid dream, the dangers of shift work and some tactics to lull yourself to dreamland without any medications. ALSO: I share a family secret: my mom's insomnia buster -- newly dubbed the "Sleepy Fancy Nancy" -- that has literally never failed me.

And I am currently spending time with my family after my dad’s emergency brain surgery a few weeks back, but put a few extra notes and updates on how we’re doing. Thanks for all the thoughts, friends.

Dr. W. Chris Winter's sleep clinic

Dr. W. Chris Winter's book, The Sleep Solution plus his 2021 release The Rested Child

Follow twitter.com/sportsleepdoc

You may also enjoy the Hematology (BLOOD) and Chronobiology (CIRCADIAN RHYTHMS) episodes

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Sound editing by Steven Ray Morris and Jarrett Sleeper of MindJam Media

Transcripts by Emily White of The Wordary

Website by Kelly R. Dwyer

Theme song by Nick Thorburn

Bugs are cool! But are they lunch? Entomophagy Anthropologist Dr. Julie Lesnik is an expert on bug eating and enthusiastically explains how much more sustainable – and tasty? -- it is than other types of animal proteins. We talk about the human past, present and future of ingesting insects, from grasshopper tacos to ant omelettes, cricket wedding cakes, humane bug slaughter, water conservation, arthropod allergies, and the cultural biases that are literally killing us. Also: termite farts? Yes.

Birds do it. Bees do it. Why the hell can't we do it? Called "The Sleep Whisperer," neurologist and sleep specialist Dr. W. Chris Winter joins for an updated encore of the thrilling 2-parter about why we need sleep, the ideal amount of it, what sleep does to the brain, insomnia, sleep stages, ideal bedtime conditions, and even the historical lore around sleep paralysis. Next week, we'll answer listener questions about everything from sleeping pills to brain performance to insomnia cures to apnea to sleepwalking to parenthood and shift work. Think of it as a free seminar to fix your life. Maybe. And I am currently spending time with my family after my dad’s emergency brain surgery a few weeks back, but put a few extra notes and updates on how we’re doing. Thanks for all the thoughts, friends.