Ologies with Alie Ward

This one’s all about lived experience: What's it like to have OCD? What’s the therapy all about? How do you support people with it? And how to accept the darkest thoughts that might haunt you. As a bonus to last week’s OCD Neurobiology episode with Dr. Wayne Goodman, the wonderful neuroscientist, board-certified mental health peer specialist, and survivor Uma Chatterjee joins to share her experien...

Ruminations and reassurances. Checking and counting. Suffering and stigmas. It’s OCD, babes! OCD is now considered one of the most common psychiatric conditions, afflicting 2% to 3% of the general population, and this episode is among our top-requested topics. So we snagged a top-shelf ologist: psychiatrist, researcher, advocate and OCD Neurobiologist, *the* Dr. Wayne Goodman. We cover myths, misc...

We’re back with molten hot cheese trivia in Part 2 with Fromologist Kyra James of OwnYourFunk.com . Part 1 covered the foundations and this week we address your listener questions about cows on boats, plant-based cheese options, how to properly store cheese, how cheese changes your brain chemistry, the Cooper's Hill Cheese-Rolling and Wake, the great grilled cheese debate, DIY cheeses, squeaky cur...

Soft. Hard. Fresh. Aged. Stinky. Illegal. Let’s talk cheese with Certified Cheese Professional (CCP) and Fromologist, Kyra James. We chat about proprietary bacterial slurries, basement caves, cheese knife etiquette, rind eating, vegetarian versus vegan cheeses, cheese history, different warm-blooded animals whose milk is used for cheese, American cheese side-eye, shoe deodorizers, and how to chat...

Let’s light up your life and butt. World-renowned firefly expert Dr. Sara Lewis of Tufts University gives us some updates to her 2021 episode, sharing her love of a bug that many think is merely mythological. Learn how these tiny animals illuminate the night, the dos and don’ts of firefly observation, how to take good firefly photos, femme fatales, pink glowworms, secret languages, artificial ligh...

Fangs. Rattles. Misconceptions. Crawl out from under your rock for the angelic rattle of one of the world’s most maligned, misunderstood, gorgeous, mysterious, efficient creatures. Herpetology professor, rattlesnake scientist and thus, Crotalologist Dr. Emily Taylor discusses why rattlesnakes deserve our love, the parenthood strategies of rattlers, how to avoid getting bitten, dog rattlesnake trai...

Farmed versus wild. Basement shrimp hustles. Mangrove drama. Anthropology. Animal welfare and plant-based diets. Climb aboard to meet UCSB’s super cool dude, researcher and Aquaculture Ecologist, Dr. Ben Halpern. You’ll hear about sustainable food sources, land vs. sea farming, bycatch, shellfish guilt, salmon who wear makeup, global marine populations, ditching iceberg for seaweed, and a gentle n...

Have you ever read every word of The U.S. Constitution? You don't have to, because I read it with my mouth into your brain in this weird but vital episode on civil liberties. And of course, there are little sidenotes to make sure we both understand it. There has never been a better time to know what your legal protections are.  This episode is a follow up to Nomology (CONSTITUTIONAL LAW) with the...

Moonlit seaweeds. Dreamy underwater forests. Mounds of beach debris. Not plants. Let’s talk about where seaweed grows and whether or not it will save us all. Macrophycology means “big-ass algae” so let’s join five dazzling seaweed enthusiasts: guest-in-chief Dr. Patrick Martone of the University of British Columbia, UConn Professor Emeritus and “grandfather of seaweed farming” Dr. Charlie Yarish,...

Secret ciphers. Hidden treasure. Enigma breakers. Mysterious manuscripts. And … hog Latin. Cryptology expert and author of “The Code Book,” Simon Singh finally lets me ask him about the small mistakes that lost huge battles, the prison plots of Mary Queen of Scots, a cryptology reality show that I wish existed, the legacy of Alan Turing, Indigenous code-talking war heroes, hiding messages in your...

Bushy tails! Stinky butts! Faces so cute you weep! Let’s talk foxes – specifically the little gray ones you never knew you loved. Fox behavioral expert, researcher, conservationist, author of “The Road to Fox Hollow” and Urocyonologist Bill Leikam chats about fuzzy foxes, baby names, parental strategies, where they live, what they eat, advice for potential pet owners, how to observe foxes, how tin...

Shipwrecks. Treasure. Sunken planes. Scuttled submarines. New life forming around old machinery. There’s an -ology for that -- just ask Maritime Archaeologist and wreck nerd Chanelle Zaphiropoulos. This absolutely charming and passionate scuba diver, history buff and antiquities scholar dishes about pirates, warships, admirals worth admiring, and ships ranging in size from water taxis to the Costa...

Why would a spider have a frog best friend? Why do they love your shower? Does lemon repel them? Should you rehome them outside? Why so hairy? How do you identify the harmless ones? Which ones get kinky? Hey. This will be fun. If you’re afraid of spiders, this is the best first step to conquering that fear forever. If you love spiders, you’re in good company with Dr. Marshal Hedin, a San Diego Sta...

Who’s babysitting AI? Will it steal your job? What happens when you’re rude to a chatbot? Cognitive scientist, Trinity College professor and Artificial Intelligence Ethicologist  Dr. Abeba Birhane lets me ask her not-smart questions about legislation around AI, auditing datasets, environmental impacts, booby traps, doorbell narcs, commonly used fallacies, how the “godfathers’ of AI feel about thei...

It’s Part 2 of how to fix your life with hobbies! Pretty much. Journalist/author of “The Connection Cure” Julia Hotz explains the science behind forest bathing, how privilege affects accessibility to hobbies and what to do about it, how to figure out what lights you up, how to schedule time for hobbies if you have no time to do hobbies, why I used to call my old job at newspaper Club Karoshi, what...

Crafting. Motorcycle repair. Banjo lessons. Hobbies aren’t a reward, but tools to save your mental and physical health. Journalist/author of “The Connection Cure,” — and professional Salugenology expert — Julia Hotz explains the science behind going outside, rediscovering what makes you happy, scheduling time for hobbies if you have no time for hobbies, free support, how quarantine affected mental...

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...

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 act...

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, imm...

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 y...

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 pat...

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 fact...

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 w...

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-pr...

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...