Mammalogist Tyrone Lavery had heard rumors of a giant coconut-eating rat living somewhere, elusively, in the Solomon Islands. But after five years of searching, all he had to show for it was a mysterious poop. That is, until the giant rat fell

Kevin Discovers a Virgin Birth

May 31st, 2018 23m 31s

Dr. Kevin Feldheim is interested in shark sex. Okay, shark reproduction. Like most vertebrates, sharks and their relatives reproduce sexually-- but while studying critically endangered sawfish (a very cool, very threatened cartilaginous fish),

Aimee and Emily on Science Storytelling

May 15th, 2018 21m 10s

Humor and storytelling are my two favorite devices for communicating science. My colleague Aimee Davis agrees: in a past life she was a classroom teacher, but after taking a series of classes at Chicago's hub of comedy, Second City, she decided

Molly's Gerbils (and Ancient DNA)

May 2nd, 2018 20m 53s

Would you ever think that calling up a natural history museum and asking for their 'crusties' would be a legitimate scientific request? Well, it is, and that's what Dr. Molly McDonough does. She studies mammals and their DNA, sometimes pulling

LIVE Stories from Berlin! (Part 2)

Apr 4th, 2018 34m 6s

Back in January we held a meetup at the Museum für Naturkunde in Berlin, and invited ExploreAStory listeners and Brain Scoop fans to share a story about a memorable experience they had in a museum, in nature, or while exploring the world arou

LIVE Stories from Berlin! (Part 1)

Mar 29th, 2018 37m 9s

Back in January we hosted a meetup for Brain Scoop fans and ExploreAStory listeners at the Museum für Naturkunde in Berlin. We invited you to come and share a story of a time you had a memorable experience in a museum, in nature, or while explo

Meg, who Lived on Gilligan's Island

Mar 13th, 2018 22m 29s

Today's story is from someone who gets to live out basically every kid's dream of being a marine biologist on a beautiful tropical reef. Meg Malone studies fish behavior on a reef that's located off the shore of Moku o Lo'e, Coconut Island, whi

Sarah, the 'Most Hated Person in Fandom'

Feb 22nd, 2018 20m 56s

Sarah Ebel has one of the most interesting jobs at the Field Museum, but it's likely not one that would jump to mind if I asked you about exciting museum positions. She's an attorney, and in addition to helping us sort out copyright and licensi

Gabi & Ken Discover New Species

Feb 7th, 2018 19m 17s

How do paleontologists know when they've found a new species of dinosaur, or any other extinct life? I have no idea but thankfully I've got a few scientists on speed-dial that comes in pretty handy for such questions. In today's episode we caug

Ken's Broken Turtle (and other fieldwork mishaps)

Jan 24th, 2018 18m 2s

Dr. Ken Angielczyk is an Associate Curator at the Field Museum. While his research primarily focuses on a group of ancient mammal relatives called Dicynodonts, he's dabbled elsewhere in the fossil record, too- but no matter the subject of study

Kate's Big Debut on Japanese TV

Jan 10th, 2018 19m 6s

Kate Golembiewski is a Public Relations and Science Communications Manager for the Field Museum. As a science writer tasked with bringing the Field's research to the press, her work isn't exactly 'behind-the-scenes' -- thousands of people have

Trailer

Welcome!

Jan 10th, 2018 2m 9s

Welcome to ExploreAStory, a science podcast by the makers of The Brain Scoop. Every other week we'll bring you a new story about the fantastic people who work behind-the-scenes at natural history museums, and the scientists who are making new a

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