Wildly Curious

Send us Fan Mail Subscribe and unleash your inner science goblin. We see you. We respect it. How do scientists study animals that spend their lives hiding, migrating thousands of miles, or living deep underwater? In this episode of Wildly Curious , Katy Reiss and Laura Fawks Lapole explore the incredible technology that's transforming wildlife research. From radar that detects millions of mig...

Send us Fan Mail Subscribe and unleash your inner science goblin. We see you. We respect it. What if dragons were real? In this minisode of Wildly Curious , Katy Reiss and Laura Fawks Lapole explore one of the strangest reptiles on Earth: the Armadillo Girdled Lizard ( Ouroborus cataphractus ), a tiny armored lizard from South Africa that looks like it crawled straight out of a fantasy novel.  Cov...

Send us Fan Mail Subscribe and unleash your inner science goblin. We see you. We respect it. What happens when your DNA makes a typo? In this episode of Wildly Curious , Katy Reiss and Laura Fawks Lapole dive into the strange, fascinating world of genetic mutations—the tiny changes in DNA that can shape evolution, alter proteins, create disease, or sometimes do absolutely nothing at all.  From har...

Send us Fan Mail Most birds are harmless. This one is poisonous. In this minisode of Wildly Curious, Katy Reiss and Laura Fawks Lapole dive into one of the strangest birds on Earth: the pitohui, a brightly colored songbird from New Guinea that carries powerful neurotoxins in its skin and feathers.   The toxin is chemically similar to the same compounds found in some poison dart frogs, making the...

Send us Fan Mail Subscribe and unleash your inner science goblin. We see you. We respect it. What if “zombies” weren’t just fiction? In this Season 14 kickoff episode of Wildly Curious , Katy Reiss and Laura Fawks Lapole dive into the real science behind “nature zombies”—organisms that can hijack behavior, manipulate brains, and turn animals into living tools for their own survival. From parasitic...

Send us Fan Mail Why are crows called crows… and ravens called ravens? In this mini episode of the Bird Name Game series from Wildly Curious, Laura explores the surprisingly simple—and fascinating—origins behind the names of two of the most intelligent and culturally iconic birds in the world: crows and ravens. These birds are often associated with mystery, mythology, and even death—but their name...

Send us Fan Mail Why do birds have such unusual names? In this mini episode of the Bird Name Game series from Wildly Curious , Laura dives into the fascinating origins behind two of the most familiar backyard birds in North America: chickadees and titmice . These small, curious songbirds aren’t just cute—they’re also incredibly intelligent and highly vocal, with communication systems that scientis...

Send us Fan Mail Why are birds named what they’re named? In this mini episode of the Bird Name Game series from Wildly Curious, Katy Reiss explores the fascinating naming history behind two giant flightless birds that look like they walked straight out of the dinosaur era: cassowaries and emus. Both birds are massive, powerful, and deeply tied to the evolutionary story of modern birds—but their na...

Send us Fan Mail Why do birds have the names they do? In this episode of Wildly Curious , Katy Reiss kicks off a new mini-series called “Bird Name Game”, exploring the fascinating origins behind bird names. Each episode looks at two birds, their natural history, and the surprising linguistic stories behind what we call them. This episode dives into two iconic seabirds: the albatross and the gull....

Send us Fan Mail Subscribe and prepare to realize your cat has been training you this whole time. In this Niche Scientists minisode of Wildly Curious , Katy Reiss and Laura Fawks Lapole dive into the fascinating research of Dr. Susanne Schötz , a phonetics professor at Lund University—and the scientist behind some of the most groundbreaking work on cat–human communication . Her research explores h...

Send us Fan Mail Subscribe and unleash your inner science goblin. We see you. We respect it. In this deep-dive episode of Wildly Curious , Katy Reiss and Laura Fawks Lapole crack open the bizarre, beautiful world of echinoderms—the “spiny-skinned” sea creatures that are hard on the outside, squishy on the inside, and powered by a literal hydraulic system. We’re talking sea stars, sea urchins, sand...

Send us Fan Mail Subscribe and prepare to root for the slowest athletes on Earth. In this Niche Scientists minisode of Wildly Curious , Katy Reiss and Laura Fawks Lapole dive into the bizarre but brilliant world of snail racing—and the scientists who study it to unlock secrets of movement, slime, and survival. Every summer in England, snails compete in the World Snail Racing Championships. It soun...

Send us Fan Mail Subscribe and rediscover a skill humans were never meant to lose. In this episode of Wildly Curious , Katy Reiss and Laura Fawks Lapole explore natural navigation —the ancient human ability to find direction by reading the land, sea, sky, plants, and animals instead of relying on GPS. Long before maps and satellites, humans navigated forests and oceans using patterns, movement, an...

Send us Fan Mail Subscribe and prepare to learn something you will never un-know. In this Niche Scientists minisode of Wildly Curious , Katy Reiss and Laura Fawks Lapole spotlight two researchers whose work sounds ridiculous… until you realize it’s brilliant. Meet Dr. David Hu and Dr. Patricia Yang, engineers who study fluid dynamics by asking the questions no one else would: Why do almost all mam...

Send us Fan Mail Subscribe and unleash your inner science goblin. We see you. We respect it. DNA isn’t magic—but it is one of the most powerful instruction systems in the universe. In this deep-dive episode of Wildly Curious , Katy Reiss and Laura Fawks Lapole break down genetics, DNA, and inheritance in a way that actually makes sense—no lab coat required. From the tiny molecular code inside your...

Send us Fan Mail Subscribe and prepare to learn something you absolutely did not know existed. In this Niche Scientists minisode of Wildly Curious , Katy Reiss dives into one of the strangest—and most important—jobs in science: whale earwax archivist . Yes. That’s a real thing. Certain whales build massive earwax plugs over their lifetime, adding a new layer every six months. And scientists have l...

Send us Fan Mail Subscribe and let your curiosity swear a little. We won’t tell. 😉 In this Wildly Curious minisode, Katy Reiss and Laura Fawks Lapole kick off their new Niche Scientists series with a deep dive into Dr. Richard Stephens—a psychologist who studies something we all do (sometimes loudly): swearing . From pain tolerance to powerlifting, Dr. Stephens’ research shows that strategic curs...

Send us Fan Mail Subscribe and stuff your brain before you stuff your turkey. 🦃🥧 In this Wildly Curious Thanksgiving special, Katy Reiss and Laura Fawks Lapole serve up the surprisingly scientific and hilariously human history of America’s favorite feast. From how pumpkins nearly went extinct after the Ice Age to why turkeys were almost wiped out (and then made a comeback), this episode is a buf...

Send us Fan Mail Season 13 is here… and it’s fight night. (Hypothetically, of course.) 🥊 Katy Reiss and Laura Fawks Lapole are back with Could You Fight That? Part 2 , the follow-up to one of Wildly Curious’ most beloved (and ridiculous) episodes. This time, the matchups get even wilder—from kangaroos and cassowaries to anteaters and octopuses—as the duo debates whether they could theoretically s...

Send us Fan Mail Subscribe and listen closely… if you can. 👂 In this Nature Mysteries Minisode , Katy Reiss and Laura Fawks Lapole tune into one of the strangest modern mysteries: the Taos Hum . Since the 1990s, people in Taos, New Mexico have reported a low, constant humming sound that only a small percentage of the population can hear. The rest? Silence. 🎧 What is the Taos Hum—and why can only...

Send us Fan Mail Subscribe and embrace the glow of curiosity. 🔦 In this Nature Mysteries Minisode , Katy Reiss and Laura Fawks Lapole investigate one of the most baffling natural light shows on Earth— the Hessdalen Lights of Norway. For over a century, glowing orbs have danced through a remote valley, pulsing, hovering, and splitting apart with no clear cause. Scientists have studied them for dec...

Send us Fan Mail Subscribe and let your curiosity get lost at sea (but like, safely). 🌊 In this Nature Mysteries Minisode , Katy Reiss and Laura Fawks Lapole dive into one of Earth’s most famous unsolved legends: the Bermuda Triangle —also known as the Devil’s Triangle. For over a century, this stretch of ocean between Miami, Bermuda, and Puerto Rico has been blamed for the mysterious disappearan...

Send us Fan Mail Subscribe and unleash your inner science goblin. We see you. We respect it. In this Nature Mysteries Minisode , Katy Reiss and Laura Fawks Lapole tackle one of the biggest unanswered questions in planetary science: how was the Moon formed? We look at what we do know—like why lunar rocks look almost identical to Earth’s, why one side of the Moon is thicker than the other, and why i...

Send us Fan Mail Subscribe and unleash your inner science goblin. We see you. We respect it. In this final Swarms Minisode of the season, Katy Reiss and Laura Fawks Lapole lose their minds (in the best way) over the most chaotic, moon-synced crab love party on Earth: the migration of Christmas Island red crabs . We’re talking:  🦀 50 to 100 million land crabs  🌧 Timed to what we're convinced...

Send us Fan Mail Subscribe and unleash your inner science goblin. We see you. We respect it. In this explosive episode of Wildly Curious , Katy Reiss and Laura Fawks Lapole reveal the surprising truth: sometimes, nature chooses to self-destruct—and it's all part of the plan. From exploding ants to salmon that spawn and die, and fungi that launch spores like botanical cannons, this episode div...