Episode notes
Where, when, and how did Homo sapiens appear? What do we know about the complex set of ancestral hominins that preceded us? How recently did other hominin lineages live and what happened to them? On this episode, we talk with Kate Wong, a senior editor at Scientific American, about her article, The Origin of Us . Our understanding of hominin evolution over the past several million years has been transformed by exciting new fossil finds and new DNA sequence data. We talk with Kate about the biggest news, the luxuriant evolutionary bush from which our ancestors emerged in Africa, and her…
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Big Biology
Cameron Ghalambor and Marty Martin · Tech & Science · English
The biggest biology podcast for the biggest science and biology fans. Featuring in-depth discussions with scientists tackling the biggest questions in evolution, genetics, ecology, climate, neuroscience, diseases, the origins of life, psychology and more. If it's biological, groundbreaking,…
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This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit bigbiology.substack.com How and when did humans domesticate the horse? How did horses shape our language, culture, and history? On this episode, we talk with Dr. Ludovic Orlando , a research director for the French National Center for Scientific Research and founding director of the Centre for Anthropobiology & Genomics of Toulouse. Ludovic is also the author of the new book Hor…
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20 Nov 2025 · 31 min
Doctors by Nature (Ep 142)
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit bigbiology.substack.com How do animals use medication and can humans learn from them? What are the evolutionary consequences of animal self-medication? In this episode, we talk with Jaap de Roode , the Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of Biology at Emory University and author of the book Doctors by Nature: How Ants, Apes, and Other Animals Heal Themselves . Jaap’s research on monar…
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30 Oct 2025 · 1 hr 25 min
Vulnerability in science and in genomes (Ep 141)
What impact has the Trump administration had on biology and the scientific community? How do scientists study genomic adaptation and vulnerability? On this episode we talk with Dr. Katie Lotterhos , Associate Professor in the Department of Marine and Environmental Sciences at Northeastern University. Katie is also the Secretary for the American Society of Naturalists, and she helped to coordinate and implement a survey of scientists to understand the impacts of the Trump administration’s policies on ecology, evolution, marine science and environmental science. In the first half of the…
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9 Oct 2025 · 31 min
Biology outside the box (Ep 140)
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit bigbiology.substack.com What’s the value of risk-taking in research? How is studying the mechanisms of transgenerational inheritance in C. elegans unorthodox and insightful? How can AI help improve aspects of biology, namely the peer review process? In this episode, we talk with Oded Rechavi , professor in the Faculty of Life Sciences and the Sagol School of Neuroscience at Tel …
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S8 · E139 · 17 Sep 2025 · 35 min
Evolution across scales (Ep 139)
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit bigbiology.substack.com How do non-adaptive processes shape biological diversity and complexity? What is effective population size and what important role does it play in evolution? On this episode of Big Biology, we talk with Dr Mike Lynch , Regents Professor and the Director of the Biodesign Center for Mechanisms of Evolution at Arizona State University. We talk with Mike abou…
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S7 · E138 · 14 Aug 2025 · 46 min
Covid Conversations (Ep 138)
What can we learn from the COVID-19 pandemic, and how do we apply that knowledge moving forward? On this special episode of Big Biology, we’re bringing you the highlights from a conference called “Covid Conversations,” which was hosted at the University of South Florida last December. The event brought together scientists, public health experts, medical doctors, historians, students, philosophers, and community leaders—for one big, open conversation about COVID-19. The episode shares the different perspectives these speakers had on the virus, the pandemic response, and our future…
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S7 · E137 · 24 Jul 2025 · 36 min
Student Spotlight: Finding passion in science communication and advocacy (Ep 137)
How can grad students advocate for science policy? How can science communication make research more accessible and inclusive? On this episode of Big Biology, we bring back our “Student Spotlight” segment. We talk with JP Flores , a PhD student studying bioinformatics and computational biology at UNC Chapel Hill. JP does more than just research, he is also deeply engaged in science communication and hosts the award-winning podcast From where does it STEM? He has also worked in science policy as an intern at the NIH and is part of the Science Policy and Advocacy Group at UNC. Earlier this…
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3 Jul 2025 · 33 min
The call of the wild (Ep 136)
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit bigbiology.substack.com What role does media play in conservation efforts and inspiring future generations of scientists? How can science communication make scientific knowledge accessible to the public, especially for communities underrepresented in science? On this episode, we talk with Dr Rae Wynn-Grant a researcher at the Bren School of Environmental Science and Management …
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12 Jun 2025 · 32 min
Not all heroes have spines (Ep 135)
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit bigbiology.substack.com What biological "superpowers" do marine invertebrates possess? What challenges do they face and will their resilience protect them from anthropogenic change? On this episode, we talk with Drew Harvell , Professor Emerita of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Cornell University, Affiliate Faculty at the University of Washington, former Science Envoy for O…
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22 May 2025 · 54 min
#SaveNSF (Episode 134)
Why is the National Science Foundation important? What is the potential impact of the proposed budget cut to the NSF? How can we stand up for federally-funded science in the US? In this episode, we talk with Bill Zamer and Sam Scheiner , two former BIO program officers at the NSF. Much of the conversation focuses on the recently proposed 56% budget cut to the NSF and what the impacts of such a spending cut would be on science in the US. We discuss how the NSF came to be, the proposal selection process, and some of the scientific breakthroughs that have come out of the NSF-supported basic…
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