From Steppe to Stable (Ep 143)

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1. 

   23 Apr 2026 · 30 min

   The Voracious Ctenophore and the Silent Sea (Ep 148)

   This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit bigbiology.substack.com How is climate change affecting the movements of small predators in the sea? How do diatoms affect ocean carbon cycling? How do Cassiopea jellyfish act like ecosystem engineers? On this episode, we bring you a live conversation from the recent University of South Florida Climate Teach-In where Marty interviewed his colleague, Associate Professor from the…

2. 

   2 Apr 2026 · 52 min

   The Genetics of Vice (Ep 147)

   This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit bigbiology.substack.com What role do genes play in complex human behaviors? If behavior is largely shaped by a combination of experience and luck, how should we rethink blame, punishment, and forgiveness? In this episode, we talk with Kathryn Paige Harden , a Professor of Psychology at the University of Texas at Austin, where she leads the Developmental Behavior Genetics lab and…

3. 

   12 Feb 2026 · 32 min

   Evolution at the speed of life (Ep 145)

   This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit bigbiology.substack.com What are eco‑evolutionary dynamics and how can we study them in the wild? Why do some fish evolve placentas? In this episode, we talk with David Reznick , Distinguished Professor of Biology at the University of California, Riverside. David has spent much of his career studying Trinidadian guppies to understand adaptation in the wild. In our conversation, …

4. 

   22 Jan 2026 · 33 min

   Heart of gold (Ep 144)

   This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit bigbiology.substack.com How are camera traps used in the conservation of cryptic species such as the African golden cat? How can local communities be engaged to foster the success of conservation? In this episode, we talk with Mwezi Mugerwa, winner of the 2025 Indianapolis Prize Emerging Conservationist , a National Geographic Explorer, and President of the Society for Conservat…

5. 

   1 Jan 2026 · 1 hr 2 min

   The Vital Question: The Chemistry of Early Life

   How did life originate on Earth? Why is it that eukaryotes but not bacteria or archaea evolved large size and complicated body forms? How likely is that life has arisen independently elsewhere in the universe? On this episode, we talk with Nick Lane , a biochemist and professor at University College London, about his 2015 book The Vital Question . Nick argues that protolife arose in alkaline hydrothermal vents deep in the early Earth’s oceans. The key early event was the evolution of metabolism powered by proton gradients. In other words, metabolism came first, and all of the rest of traits…

6. 

   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…

7. 

   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…

8. 

   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 …

9. 

   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…

10. 

    4 Sep 2025 · 1 hr 1 min

    The Origin of Us: Human Evolution

    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…