Smologies with Alie Ward

Landfills! Composting! Recycling flimflam! An instantly classic conversation with the incredibly knowledgeable, frank and wonderful Dr. Robin Nagle: 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 our long history of figuring out what do do with our waste, what you can and can’t actually recycle, sticky mustard bottles, incinerators, the journeys our trash takes, why rats love plastic garbage bags, and how and why can thank your local sanitation workers.
Visit Robin Nagle’s website
Follow Robin on Instagram and Bluesky
Read Robin’s book Picking Up, an ethnography of New York City's Department of Sanitation
A donation was made to the Sanitation Foundation
Full-length (*not* G-rated) Discard Anthropology episode + tons of science links
More kid-friendly Smologies episodes!
Become a patron of Ologies for as little as a buck a month
OlogiesMerch.com has hats, shirts, hoodies, totes!
Follow Ologies on Instagram and Bluesky
Follow Alie Ward on Instagram and TikTok
Sound editing by Mercedes Maitland of Maitland Audio Productions, Jarrett Sleeper of MindJam Media, and Jake Chaffee
Made possible by work from Noel Dilworth, Susan Hale, Kelly R. Dwyer, Aveline Malek and Erin Talbert
Smologies theme song by Harold Malcolm

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

How did these tree-hopping furry angels evolve to be the cutest thing in the world, objectively speaking? They have saucer eyes, wet noses, chunky tails, toe claws, matriarchies, a feature film starring role, and all the mystery of 100 species spending millions of years on a remote island.  Wildlife ecologist and official Lemurologist Dr. Lydia Greene joins me to bust flim-flam straight out of the gate and talk about Madagascar, mouse lemurs, evolutionary biology, striped tails, treetop duets, hibernation, and so much more. If you thought you liked lemurs, just wait until you’re obsessed with them. 
Visit Dr. Lydia Greene’s website and follow her on Instagram
A donation went to the Mahaliana Labs
More episode sources and links
Full-length (*not* G-rated) Lemurology episode + tons of science links
More kid-friendly Smologies episodes!
Become a patron of Ologies for as little as a buck a month
OlogiesMerch.com has hats, shirts, hoodies, totes!
Follow Ologies on Instagram and Bluesky
Follow Alie Ward on Instagram and TikTok
Sound editing by Mercedes Maitland of Maitland Audio Productions
Made possible by work from Noel Dilworth, Susan Hale, Jake Chaffee, Kelly R. Dwyer, Aveline Malek and Erin Talbert
Smologies theme song by Harold Malcolm

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Sunspots! Solar storms! Photons! Magnetic fields! Let’s get to know the center of our solar system: the Sun. What is it made of? How big is it? How old is it? When will it explode? How does its light reach your eye? What kind of star is it? How do they form and change? Dr. Michael Kirk and Dr. India Jackson are brilliant and charming Heliologists who have both worked with NASA’s heliophysics departments. Get to know them and also the giant hot plasma ball we revolve around. You’ll never (not) look at it the same. 
Follow Michael on Google Scholar
Visit India’s website and follow her on Instagram, Bluesky & Google Scholar
Donations went to Astronomers Without Borders and the Grady Memorial Hospital Health Foundation
Full-length (*not* G-rated) Heliology episode + tons of science links
More kid-friendly Smologies episodes!
Become a patron of Ologies for as little as a buck a month
OlogiesMerch.com has hats, shirts, hoodies, totes!
Follow Ologies on Instagram and Bluesky
Follow Alie Ward on Instagram and TikTok
Sound editing by Mercedes Maitland of Maitland Audio Productions and Jacob Chaffee
Made possible by work from Noel Dilworth, Susan Hale, Kelly R. Dwyer, Aveline Malek and Erin Talbert
Smologies theme song by Harold Malcolm

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Do penguins have flippers or wings? What’s up with pebble gifts? Are they squishy or dense? And why why why are they so cute?  We sit down with renowned penguinologist Dr. Tom Hart, a research fellow with Oxford University, to chat all about life on Antarctica, penguin cities, icy cuddle parties, ocean camouflage and how to become a flightless bird. Dr. Hart is your new favorite penguinologist.
Help count penguins — for science!
Donations went to PenguinWatch.org and TRASS for mangrove planting
Full-length (*not* G-rated) Penguinology episode + tons of science links
More kid-friendly Smologies episodes!
Become a patron of Ologies for as little as a buck a month
OlogiesMerch.com has hats, shirts, hoodies, totes!
Follow Ologies on Instagram and Bluesky
Follow Alie Ward on Instagram and TikTok
Sound editing by Mercedes Maitland of Maitland Audio Productions, Jarrett Sleeper of MindJam Media, and Steven Ray Morris
Made possible by work from Noel Dilworth, Susan Hale, Jake Chaffee, Kelly R. Dwyer, Aveline Malek and Erin Talbert
Smologies theme song by Harold Malcolm

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Polar vortices! Atmospheric rivers! Cold fronts! Warm fronts! Hurricanes, typhoons, cyclones… Wait, what’s the difference anyway? One of the world’s leading Meteorologists, Dr. Marshall Shepherd – a former NASA scientist and current Professor of Geography and Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Georgia – is here to field a downpour of questions. We chat about the personalities of climate and the moods of weather, heatwaves, hail, sleet, fluid dynamics, storms of all kinds, and what a rain forecast really means.
Follow Dr. Shepherd on Bluesky, Instagram and TikTok
Check out his website, and his podcast Weather Geeks
A donation went to Sustain.org
Full-length (*not* G-rated) Meteorology episode + tons of science links
More kid-friendly Smologies episodes!
Become a patron of Ologies for as little as a buck a month
OlogiesMerch.com has hats, shirts, hoodies, totes!
Follow Ologies on Instagram and Bluesky
Follow Alie Ward on Instagram and TikTok
Sound editing by Mercedes Maitland of Maitland Audio Productions and Jarrett Sleeper of MindJam Media
Made possible by work from Noel Dilworth, Susan Hale, Jake Chaffee, Kelly R. Dwyer, Aveline Malek and Erin Talbert
Smologies theme song by Harold Malcolm

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.