Natural Curiosities

In this episode, Megan and Melissa remember Alfred Russel Wallace, the legendary natural historian, multi-talented academic, friend of Charles Darwin, co-discoverer of the theory of evolution, champion of human rights, and... ghost hunter? Learn about the true stories of the race to publish the theory of evolution, Wallace's amazing discoveries in the Pacific, why Wallace is a feminist icon, and Wallace's strange proclivities for the supernatural, only on Natural Curiosities.

Megan and Melissa blast through 4.6 billion years of history to contemplate deep time, how we discovered the age of the Earth, and the uncomfortable realities it causes us to face as human beings. Digressions include as many Stephen Jay Gould references as Megan can possibly fit into one episode, and unabashed love for the fossil Tiktaalik.

Megan and Melissa delve into the strange events surrounding the railway construction of the Tsavo river railway bridge in Kenya in 1898. When workers started disappearing from their tents at night, and their mutilated bodies turned about around the camp, British Colonel John Henry Patterson knew exactly why. The local legends he had heard about man-eating beasts were no longer myth, but reality. 

Megan and Melissa ponder about the myriad of myths and mysteries about the multifarious Mr. Joseph Banks, a major force of the 18th century scientific revolution and close friend of Lord Sandwich himself.  

Thylacines, passenger pigeons, bucardos, aurochs, woolly mammoths, and saber-toothed cats went extinct hundreds to thousands of years ago. With the advent of cloning and genetic engineering technologies, extinction may no longer be forever - but is that a good thing? Megan and Melissa discuss the opportunities and obstacles that bringing lost species back presents, and accidentally discover weird YouTube videos and conspiracy theories along the way. It's not Jurassic Park, it's Pleistocene Park!

Megan and Melissa relay the unbelievable tale of a scientist who was struck by lightning as a baby, and went on to change the world. Paleontology pioneer Mary Anning risked her life every day to unearth our favorite fossils, even when her pre-Victorian society didn't understand her - or her strange creatures.

Megan and Melissa reveal the most hilarious little-known story in United States history. When French natural historian Georges-Louis LeClerc Comte de Buffon published outrageous claims about America in the most popular natural history book of the time, none other than Thomas Jefferson came to save the day.

Megan and Melissa explain what some of the most famous Ancient Greek philosophers and natural historians Aristotle, Theophrastus, Pliny the Elder, and Dioscorides got right and wrong in their struggle to understand the natural world over 2,000 years ago.

Megan and Melissa cover the true story of Charles Darwin, from his legendary voyage on the HMS Beagle to the publication of On the Origin of Species, as well as little-known facts about his personal life.