BewilderBeasts!

This week we talk about the effects of invasive species and how robotic fish employing scare tactics as invasive species birth control, another robot fish explores the deep sea floor, and a dead chipmunk on a stick may solve the mystery of an extinct bird while saving another.  Ready? Let's go! Resources for today's episode:  Thesaurus.com https://arstechnica.com/science/2021/12/putting-...

Let's go to Wales, a country where they are trying to put the call-and-response singing horse skull back in Christmas, where it belongs.  This is going to be fun. Let's go!  More about Melissa can be found at MelissaMcCueMcGrath.com Questions, comments, sourdough recipes? Send them in to:  bewilderbeastspod@gmail.com  Tweet @bewilderedpod BewilderbeastsPod on Facebook and  @bewilderbeast...

How much would the 12 days of Christmas cost someone today? How many birds is the True Love gifting? And where is the recipient going to put 224 birds? Let's take a peak at the ill-gifted birds in the mathiest holiday song on holiday playlists everywhere! Resources for today's throwback episode can be found on Episode 15: "Christmas Carol Creatures"  https://bewilderbeastspod.p...

Julia Child was rejected from the army in WW2, so she got in on the ground-floor of the CIA, whipping up her first ever recipe: Shark Repellent Cakes. * * * * Resources for today's episode include: https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/gfc.2005.5.3.44 https://vintagesmith.tumblr.com/post/10267501885/in-1924-the-politeness-police-was-formed-as https://www.tasteofhome.com/article/julia-child-quo...

This week, Melissa explains how we know Santa's sleigh is pulled by 8 reinDOEs who can see predators urine (that's not in the movie!), how shaman made reindeer fly, and the story of Rudolph uncovered.  Parents: Melissa is fully on Team Santa, so learn awesome holiday facts with a supportive parent host. All resources can be found at Episode 15: Christmas Carol Creatures (season 1) of thi...

This is a recording of Oné R. Pagán's book launch for "Drunk Flies and Stoned Dolphins" where a tipsy Melissa asks him about cocaine addiction in flatworms, "bouncer bees" who decapitate drunk bees coming back to the hive, a few side tracks into pjs and tattoos, then circling back to stoned dolphins, spiders on LSD, phobias, and misadventures in web-based randomizers.  His...

Melissa addresses  sex changing animals who can do it all, condors who have had enough of their male cage mates, lesbian lizards, proposes a Finding Nemo #3, and the myth of the sexual binary. I got today’s information from Theresa Thorn of the podcast, "One Bad Mother" (the podcast that saved my sanity while parenting in the early years - profanity laced sanity for parents)  "It Fe...

Trigger warning: Today's episode discusses genocide, the dark truth behind America's most gluttonous holiday.  Why you should be eating eel and deer instead of turkey and potatoes on Thursday,  and how writers of the 1800's completely SQUAWKED up how we learn about Thanksgiving today.  And we learn what they didn't teach you in school about the first feast. Buckle in, it's...

This week, Melissa has a special announcement and revisit of three African animal stories for the History Class of RSU 40 in Waldoboro, Maine. #GoPanthers  For information on Dr. One Pagan's book launch ("Drunk Flies and Stoned Dolphins: A Trip Through The World of Animal Intoxication") please visit @BaldScientist on Twitter, or Dr.  Oné R. Pagán's website: https://baldscientis...

In this 50th episode, we  meet Olga of Kiev, a PATRON SAINT who murdered a lot of people using earth, wind, fire, ale and homing pigeons. She inspired the character of Cersei Lannister,  a death metal band's concept album, a ballet and the US Military in WW2. Let's go! Resources for today's episode! Rejected Princesses : Tales of History’s Boldest Heroines, Hellions and Heretics by...

 Today Melissa takes a series of shallow dives into more royalty who were killed by hubris which changed the world forever, and has some fun with the worst nicknames in royal history. Let's go!  Resources for today's episode include:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_of_France_(11O16%E2%80%931131) https://allthatsinteresting.com/royal-titles-nicknames https://www.britannica.com/list/...

Today, there is a sign that says no pets allowed on the fence surrounding Elysian Heights Elementary - but the very foundation of this school's culture is built on the spirit of a cat named Room 8 who went to school every single day for 16 years. Let's learn about the most famous cat in the US that you likely never heard of because the Internet didn't exist in the 50s. * * * * * * *...

In 1783 a duck, a rooster and a sheep named Montauciel were heading straight for the sky.  How does their unlikely story change lead to three Billionaires ending up in space over 200 years later?  * * * * * * * * * *    https://storytellershat.com/2016/08/30/montauctiel-the-flying-sheep/ https://time.com/3583782/hot-air-balloon-history/ https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/hot-air-balloon-rooster...

Why scientists are looking to potty train 1 billion cows to combat a growing acid rain crisis. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Resources on  The Moo Loo: USGS.gov The Guardian Chick a Pig board game NPR Beef Market Central And if you want to watch a cow open a door, go pee - a LOT of pee, then get a treat, you can go to YouTube.com - the Telegraph has a great short video on the subject which you can a...

A Smithsonian Museum exhibit depicting the skeletal remains of Dr. Grover Krantz and his beloved Irish wolfhound, Clyde. But, who was Dr. Krantz, and why is he - and his dogs - at the Smithsonian? And, why is this photo of their posthumous posed parts circulating social media?    Resources:  https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/grover-krantz-donated-his-body-to-science-on-one-con...

As there is talk of suicide and class one narcotics, listener discretion is advised.  How magicians, debleated goats,  LSD, a maybe murder, and a CIA holiday party are tied into the misinformation effect.   Resources: Jon Ronson: "The Men Who Stared at Goats" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Men_Who_Stare_at_Goats http://www.jonronson.com/goats.html Every Little Thing https://podcasts.g...

This week is all about Michael Packard, a man who went out to catch lobster but instead got an inside view of a humpback whale.   . . . . . . . Resources and references on  Michael Packard and the whale   The Cape Cod Times article by Doug Frasier dated June 11, 2021, “I was completely inside” Fisheries.noaa.gov Dumb People Town -  episode dated July 23, 2021, "I've Got A Tracheal Occlus...

A truck of hens heading to a slaughterhouse turns over on a California Highway, leading to the funniest trilogy in chicken-cinema. . . . . . . . Resources: on the California Freeway Chickens: Terry Pratchett's book of short stories, "A Blink of the Screen" LA Times Wikipedia Snopes Jessica Tandy Deseret News Intro Music is “Tiptoe out the back” by Dan Lebowicz and Interstitial music...

There is a place called the Diamond Coast where humanity clings to a thread, and pigeons are angels and lifelines. Let's go. Resources:  Flight of the Diamond Smugglers by Matthew Gavin Frank Just the Zoo of Us - Pigeons / Varmints - Pigeons / Strange Animals Podcast - Pigeons Adam Ruins Everything (Diamonds) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5kWu1ifBGU   https://www.allaboutbirds.org/news/a-t...

Today, a quick update and a revisit of episode 8: the naughty bird who got evicted from a President's funeral for swearing, some birds who were separated for turning the zoo into an R rated experience for school kids, and some birds who use fire to catch prey, much to the dismay of firefighters.  This episode is also playing this week over at Melissa's other project, Totally Pawsome Pod...

Updates on the wanderlust walrus who is now sinking boats in Spain, a bomb sniffing rat retires, and a revisit of the raven who inspired two old-timey authors, Charles Dickens & Edgar Allan Poe.   Resources: Magawa the land mine sniffing rat (original resources found on Episode 10 ) NPR: https://www.npr.org/2021/06/04/1003258540/after-years-of-detecting-land-mines-a-heroic-rat-is-hanging-up-hi...

A father's devotion to his daughter is saving the monarch butterfly; condors go all Spinal Tap on a woman's home; Melissa gets real with how local and state government officials in Massachusetts can get inspiration from wildlife overpasses before another Somerville resident is killed in a crosswalk in her city. ***** Resources:  Butterfly Connection Monarch Watch Rooted Mag Good News Net...

Melissa presents three happy stories about animals and humans - Yoriko the fish makes an unusual friend at an underwater shrine; a service dog flunk out becomes the first arson detection dog in Saginaw, TX; how scientists are using googley eyes to save birds. Resources: Love is Blind: Yoriko and Hiroyuki Arakawa  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfwdm5W2lWs Wikipedia Asian Sheepshead Wrasse and Yor...

This week all about dogs and sight! We have a greyhound who gets corrective lenses, the first seeing eye dogs, and a guardian livestock dog gets an unusual flock to tend. ***** Melissa can be found at MelissaMcCueMcGrath.com and BewilderedPod on Twitter, BewilderbeastsPod on Facebook, Bewilderbeasts on Instagram and email BewilderBeastsPod@gmail.com Dr. Pip Boydel and the Blind Greyound https://ww...

On this shortie, Melissa got vaccinated and wanted to revisit the horseshoe crabs who made our vaccines --- and nearly every medical instrument and medication --- possible.  Thanks, horseshoe crabs! ***** Big thanks to Freesound.org and Joshua Empyre for additional music for this week's episode.   For all other information regarding this shortie, including the original resources of informatio...