Smologies with Alie Ward

The what, where, and who of native plants! The wonderful ethnobotanist Leigh Joseph shares how she includes her Squamish First Nation community in her research and how we relate to plants – both native and invasive. She’ll chat about how to identify plants, how knowledge is passed down or silenced, the chilling history that inspired some of her work, uses for barks and berries and saps and teas, pharmaceuticals derived from Indigenous knowledge, the dos and do-nots of harvesting, skin remedies, and so much more.


Visit Leigh Joseph’s website and follow her on Instagram
Buy her book Held by the Land: A Guide to Indigenous Plants for Wellness
Shop Leigh’s plant-based beauty brand: Skwálwen Botanicals
Donations went to Indigenous Climate Action and Seeding Sovereignty
Full-length (*not* G-rated) Ethnoecology 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 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.

RATS: They love pizza. They invade taquerias at midnight. They scurry. They cuddle. They outsmart. Proving that not just woodsy megafauna can be charismatic, rats have lives we would never suspect. Globally-lauded Urban Rodentologist Dr. Robert Corrigan, or Bobby if you like, has been studying these animals in their big-city ecosystem for decades and he is a wonder-filled joy. Learn about rats’ origin story, their chompers, their scaly tails, how they communicate, where they live, and what cuisines they prefer. Might as well start to love and respect them, because we’re not-too-distantly related and one day… they may be steering the ship.

Find Dr. Corrigan’s publications on ResearchGate
A donation went to the Yash Gandhi Foundation
Full-length (*not* G-rated) Urban Rodentology 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, Jake Chaffee, Jarrett Sleeper of MindJam Media & Steven Ray Morris
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.

Every day, your brain tries to save your life by being terrified. Thanks, brain! Also, calm the heck down, brain. Alie hunted down Dr. Mary Poffenroth, an expert in the biological and sociological causes/effects of fear and it is riveting. This real life FEAROLOGIST (which is a real word) talks about how the difference between stress and fear, what’s going on in our noggins and bods when we’re afraid (and what’s NOT going on), how to talk to your brain when it has needlessly pulled the fire alarm, why we sometimes like scary movies, why we’re afraid of the dark, and how likely it is that a snake will bite your butt.

Check out Dr. Mary Poffenroth’s website and follow her on Instagram
Full-length (*not* G-rated) Fearology episodes + 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, Jake Chaffee, and Steven Ray Morris
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.

They dance. They make songs. They will steal your heart. They are spiders. Jumping spiders, specifically, and impassioned spider scientist Dr. Sebastian Echeverri is on board to tell you all about their dances. How far can a jumping spider jump? What makes a good spider dancer? How do they learn their moves? Why are they so cute? Can you sample their drumming and make a sick industrial-EDM track that feels like you’re in a Berlin discotheque? Buckle up for the grooviest Spooktober of your life.
BUY the track “Habronattus: Multimodal Display” on Bandcamp
Created by Jason Scardamalia and featuring recordings by Dr. Damian Elias with proceeds going toward spider research
Visit Dr. Sebastian Echeverri’s website
Follow Dr. Sebastian Echeverri on Bluesky and Instagram
Donations went to Entomologists of Color and Xerces.org
Full-length (*not* G-rated) Kinetic Salticidology 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, Jake Chaffee, Jarrett Sleeper of MindJam Media & Steven Ray Morris
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.

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