The Bee Report Podcast

15 Episodes

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"We're not alone": How racism can exist in entomology – and how we can change it

2020-07-1701:03:19

Our story this week on the podcast is very much a product of this current moment in American history, in which race and racism are at the front of all of our minds. It’s a story about acknowledging and addressing the disparities that exist for people of color in the field of entomology – and in science generally.In this episode we’re talking with Dr. Jessica Ware and Ph.D. candidate Stephanita Sallqa Tuwa BondocGawa MaflaMills. They are both members of Entomologists of Color, a group that’s s...

No Mow May: Count all the flowers and bees

2020-06-2647:46

This week on the podcast we're talking about mowing lawns - or rather not mowing lawns - and the impact it can have on urban bees.You may have heard about No Mow May, an initiative from Plantlife in the United Kingdom which encourages people to stop mowing for the entire month. One of the communities participating in the initiative was Appleton, Wisconsin.And Israel Del Toro, an assistant professor at Lawrence University, went out and surveyed the bees of Appleton at the end of No Mow May. So...

Flowers are like dirty doorknobs: Spreading disease among bees

2020-06-0630:19

Thank you very much for allowing me an additional week to work on the many projects I have going on right now, including today’s story for the podcast. Never a dull moment here.I promised you a story about flowers, pathogens and bees, and that’s exactly what I have to share with you today. I had the incredible good fortune of speaking with both Lynn Adler from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and Laura Figueroa from Cornell University on the exact same day about the role flowers play i...

Last Resort: Captive breeding for bee conservation

2020-05-1532:12

This week on the podcast we have a story about a last resort in bee conservation. It’s a story about the steps we might need to take to prevent a bee species from winking out of existence for ever. It’s a story about the captive breeding and intentional reintroduction of bees into the wild.This is an idea I first heard about in my conversation with Sheila Colla a few weeks ago (Episode 4, if you want to check it out). It’s an idea that I’d never heard anyone talk about for bees. But it’s an i...

Save the chimney bees! A true story about rescuing native bees

2020-05-0137:33

This week on the show I have a story about an effort to rescue a community of native bees in Pennsylvania: Anthophora abrupta. And this story of protection and conservation might seem a little strange to you – because everything seems to go just right.It's good to be back after a couple weeks spent getting this story ready for you. I certainly had fun doing it. So I hope you enjoy it.WEEKLY UPDATE• Virus-infected honey bees more likely to gain entrance to healthy hives (University of Illinois...

Zach Portman: Taxonomy is a living science. Taxonomists deserve a living wage.

2020-04-1759:20

This week on the podcast I'm joined by Zach Portman, a bee taxonomist at the University of Minnesota in the Cariveau Native Bee Lab. For a while now I’ve been wanting to talk with a bee taxonomist about the impending taxonomic bottleneck we’re facing. So Zach and I chat about that. We chat about how taxonomy is a living science and why people in this profession deserve to make a living wage.Zach Portman:• Twitter @zachportmanWEEKLY UPDATE• Coronavirus may prove boost for UK's bees and rare wi...

Kristen Brochu: The noxious relationship between pumpkin pollen and bumble bees

2020-04-1047:15

This week on the podcast I'm joined by Kristen Brochu, a postdoctoral researcher at Penn State University. We discuss her recently published work about how harmful pumpkin and squash pollen is for bumble bees. But why is this? And what exactly can we learn from this? Kristen and I talk about what we currently know (and don't know) about bee nutrition, and how understanding species-specific nutritional needs could be another tool for assessing which bees are at the greatest risk in our climate...

Scott McArt: A discussion of recent news stories about pesticides and bee health

2020-04-0356:52

This week on the podcast I am joined by Scott McArt, assistant professor of pollinator health in the department of entomology at Cornell University. He and I discuss three recent news stories about pesticides and bee health. We break down the stories and get Scott's expert thoughts, opinions and insights on the issues.Scott also gives us his Top Three List of the most important things that the public and policy makers should keep in mind about bees and pesticides.Scott McArt:• Website http://...

Joe Wilson: Creating a children's book and effective science communication

2020-03-2740:52

This week on the podcast I'm talking with Joe Wilson, associate professor of biology at Utah State University. The very same Joe Wilson who you likely know from The Bees in Your Backyard – the book, the website and the prolific social media presence.He and illustrator Jonny VanOrman have just published a brand new children's book called Bees are the Best. It's a whimsical little tale about discovering the diversity of bees in the world. And while Joe and I talk about creating the book itself,...

Karin Gastreich: The prairie bees of Kansas City

2020-03-2044:36

This week on the podcast I'm talking with Karin Gastreich, professor of biology at Avila University. Her recent work surveying the native bee communities in the remnant prairies around Kansas City was just published in the March issue of Ecological Restoration. She and I chat about the bees, the prairie ecosystems of yesterday and today, and the difference between restoration and reconstruction.If you haven't yet spent time in the gently-waving tall grass of a modern prairie, surrounded by th...

Sheila Colla: Planning for the future of the rusty patched bumble bee

2020-03-1335:32

This week on the podcast, I talk with Sheila Colla, assistant professor in Environmental Studies at York University. At the end of February, Sheila and other bee experts came together at the Minnesota Zoo to plan for the recovery and future of the rusty patched bumble bee. And Sheila fills us in on what happened at the meeting.Sheila's graduate work first identified the drastic decline of this bumble bee and has been the foundation for protecting it as an endangered species in the United Stat...

Hollis Woodard: Creating a national native bee monitoring network

2020-03-0641:56

This week on the podcast, I talk with Dr. Hollis Woodard, assistant professor in the Department of Entomology at the University of California, Riverside. In January, Hollis announced that she and eleven of her fellow bee experts are going to be creating a native bee monitoring network here in the U.S. So she and I converse about the current plans for getting that network up and running.We also talk about an issue that everyone who is involved with ecology and conservation should be thinking a...

Peter Soroye: Bumble bee declines and a new method for assessing the risk of local extinction

2020-02-2830:59

This week on the podcast I have a conversation with Peter Soroye, a Ph.D. student at the University of Ottawa and the lead author of a recent paper in Science Magazine that provides evidence of rapid and widespread declines in bumble bee populations across North America and Europe. This work received plenty of news coverage, and you may have seen some of the headlines that painted a rather grim picture.However, the real purpose of this research by Peter, Tim Newbold and Jeremy Kerr, was to te...

Sarina Jepsen: Xerces Society seeks to join lawsuit to protect four California bumble bees

2020-02-1331:46

THIS WEEK ON THE SHOWThis past June, the California Fish and Game Commission decided to list four bumble bees as candidates for endangered species protection in the state. However, in September a coalition of agricultural interests sued to prevent the listing from going forward, claiming that insects cannot be listed under California’s endangered species act. Now the Xerces Society, Defenders of Wildlife and the Center for Food Safety are seeking to intervene in the lawsuit to ensure that the...

Welcome to the Bee Report Podcast!

2020-01-2001:08

Welcome to the Bee Report Podcast. I am your host, Matt Kelly. Just a short little introduction to get you excited for the show. If you're a regular reader of the newsletter and website, you know that the Bee Report is a well-curated collection of the latest bee-related news along with original reporting and interviews. TBR covers a whole range of topics: science, conservation, politics, economics, technology. All of the important stories to keep you connected to the world of bees.Make sure y...

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