Ologies with Alie Ward

Cleaner energy! Reasoning with climate deniers! Using fandom to pass policy! And not burning out. Adam Met, of the colossal indie pop band AJR is also a career climate activist, an International Human Rights Law PhD, adjunct professor at Columbia University, and the author of the upcoming book “Amplify: How to Use the Power of Connection to Engage, Take Action, and Build a Better World.” He joins to chat about breaking through the ...

Landfills! Treasures in the trash! Corporate conspiracies! Composting! An instantly classic conversation with the incredibly knowledgeable, frank and wonderful Dr. Robin Nagle of New York University’s Liberal Studies! She is a clinical professor, author, TED speaker and former New York City sanitation worker and truly the best person on Earth to trash talk with. We cover what you can and can’t actually recycle, sticky mustard bottl...

Medieval art memes! Human-faced animals! Drunk monks! And a preponderance of snails. Middle Ages manuscript expert, art history communicator, and Medieval Codicologist Evan Pridmore covers: what those golden illuminated Middle Ages manuscripts were made of, who drew them, why were people sometimes naked in them, what art trends came and went – and what does it say about our history and future, immigration politics, antisemitism, wh...

Fungus gnats. Overloved cacti. Fiddle fig failures. $20,000 specimens. It’s house plants — and it’s wild, folks. Widely beloved author, artist, house plant expert and Domestic Phytologist Tyler Thrasher joins to talk about root rot, what to grow in a dark basement, the rarest plants in the world, the punishments for poaching them, grow lights for people and plants, houseplant ethics, how to keep your cats from taking whizzes in the...

Long Covid Part 2: Treatments. Studies. Histamines. Hormones. POTS. Clots. Hearts. Hope. Highly-respected Long Covid expert, Dr. Wes Ely, is back for all of your listener questions. We also check in with Physics Girl Diana Cowern on her years-long struggle with the disease. So start with Part 1, and then finish up with this episode addressing all your straggling questions, and great advice for patients and caregivers. 

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What is Long Covid? Is it real? What does it feel like? Do you have it? And how do you cure it? With fatigue and brain fog, you don’t want to spend hours scrolling through conflicting opinions. So we’ve got you covered with the wonderful and highly-respected pulmonologist and intensive care physician and Long Covid expert, Dr. Wes Ely.  So tuck in, breathe deep and let’s load you up with true facts about what Long Covid is, how it ...

Nude strangers. Icy roads. Brain rot. True love. Class warfare. Queer visibility. Scripted ad libs. Sociologist, professor, author of the book “True Story: What Reality TV Says About Us,” and straight up Reality TV Sociologist, Dr. Danielle Lindemann studies human behavior through the lens of pop culture and reality TV. Dr. Lindemann lays out the history of the medium, the complexities of why we watch, the effect on society at larg...

Exactly the inspiration you need. Exactly the perfect time. Pass it on to anyone who loves art and/or speaking up. I went to Comic-Con’s little sister, WonderCon, to moderate a panel on protest art with expert Carol Wells, the founder of the Center for the Study of Political Graphics and C. Andrew Hall, from the Spesh Ep: Functional Magic's Environmental Art episode we did in 2021 about the non-profit he founded. So come along to W...

It beats. It throws blood. It breaks – but not if Dr. Herman Taylor can help it. He is a physician, professor and director of the Cardiovascular Research Institute at the Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta, and an absolute legend. Cardiology is a vast field but Dr. Taylor joined for a 101 on how the heart works, and how to take care of it. Get pumped for valves, tubes, electrical shocks, Grey’s Anatomy glossaries, heavy metal ...

Barbs. Grunts. Bone caves. Dogs who got too close. We got porcupines, folks. Dr. Tim Bean of Cal Poly is as charming an ologist you can get, fielding questions about porcupine squeaks, stanks, cartoonish noses, and some romantic gestures that will leave you wanting to bleach your brain. We also cover counting quills, male models, flim-flam about quill removal, how to spot a porcupine in the wild, how to gently detain one for resear...

Yes, there is an -ology for that. And yes, we’re airing this episode -– with a ton of 2025 updates -– because it’s never felt more relevant. Dr. Robert Proctor is a Stanford professor of the History of Science and co-edited the book “Agnotology: The Making & Unmaking of Ignorance,” having coined the word 30 years ago. We chat about everything from tobacco marketing, to the sugar lobby, to racial injustice, horse vision, the psychol...

Do they sweat blood? Will one kill you? What are cocaine hippos? Is Moo Deng… okay? Actual real life Hippopotomologist Dr. Rebecca Lewison explains how hippos have some of the best – and worst – PR.  We chat about pet hippos, subspecies, daily diets, the current state of hippo conservation, the absolute chaotic affection we have for pygmy hippos, their role as ecosystem engineers, what’s up with their nostrils, and how to keep a hi...

Sad? Cold? Hot? Wired? Blame the thyroid. Maybe. In your throat there is a butterfly-shaped gland under a shield-shaped Adam’s Apple and it controls your whole life, kind of. We asked Thyroidologist and surgeon Dr. Kepal Petal of NYU's Langone Hospital about libido factors, radioactive cats, stress and thyroids, how diet can affect them, deciphering labs, flim-flam and how being on TV might save your life. He’s a delight and your t...

Dogs doing science. With their faces. As a follow-up to last week’s Ethnocynology episode about humans domesticating wolves, we chat with conservation biologist and Eco-odorologist Kayla Fratt (and her working dog Barley) about how trained animals help scientists. Sit – and stay – to learn how rescue dogs can get their dog-torate degrees, which rewards work when training, dogs on a boat, dogs in the jungle, wolves in the sea, why n...

Ancient dogs! Domestic wolves! Anthropology! Archaeology! It’s all Ethnocynology: when humans and dogs started living and working together. The wonderful and iconic David Ian Howe is an educator and professional archaeologist whose focus is canines and people. So let’s curl up and be cute – like dogs – as we listen about breed histories, what evidence we have for doggies being friends, how wolves tamed themselves, why our relations...

As wildfires burn across L.A. — and my neighborhood evacuates — we thought it would be a good time to encore these Fire Ecology episodes so I can literally catch my breath. First Dr. Gavin Jones brings the heat talking about what fire is, how hot it burns, fire trends, tinderboxes, lots and lots of forest fire flim-flam, tolerant wombats, Angelina Jolie Movies, cunning pine cones, thick bark, Indigenous fire stewardship and more. 

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HAPPINESS RESEARCH, straight up. What is happiness? How do our circumstances affect happiness? Why is the word “gratitude” kinda cringey? What can we do to feel better? Should we feel guilty for feeling happy? When is positivity “toxic?” In this encore of an episode favorite,  Yale cognitive scientist, Eudemonologist, and host of The Happiness Lab podcast Dr. Laurie Santos chats about how scientists measure human happiness and what...

The time is right to revisit cabins: Log cabins, woodsy getaways, A-frame cuties, cottages, tiny homes, lake houses. WE GET INTO IT, including 2024 updates. World famous Minnesota architect, author, professional cabinologist and human delight Dale Mulfinger sits down to discuss everything from what makes a cabin a cabin, to why we bond better surrounded by wood, Scandinavian hygge-ness, where to situate windows, cabin history, horr...

Orange teeth! Vanilla butts! Architecture with twigs! Olde-timey joke books? Field naturalist, conservationist, wildlife tracker and “beaver believer” Rob Rich works with the National Wildlife Federation’s coordination of the Montana Beaver Working Group and answers all of our Castorological questions about: baby beavers, tooth tools, lodges, dams, the sound of water, the slap of a tail, who eats beaver and why, beavers in peril, i...