I’ll start with this, I was never a podcast person. I would rather suffer through listening to playlists that I would end up mostly skipping through because the songs didn’t fit my current vibe. But something changed. Maybe the current pandemic that made driving around in my car to get some alone time so appealing. But who really knows for sure. I’m obsessed with podcasts. I think they are the best thing to listen to on long drives, short drives, socially anxious trips to target, whatever it may be. But I would go through podcasts faster than 5th grade me reading the Percy Jackson series for the first time (so VERY fast). I also got bored with true crime podcasts, as interesting as they may be. Which led me on a journey to find my next favorite genre of podcast or at least a podcast that could entertain me for a couple weeks. That’s when I stumbled upon Ologies.
I can’t describe to you how much I love Ologies. I could write a book about my obsession with this podcast. This podcast is hosted by Ali Ward, a humorist and science correspondent, who invites scientists in their field of study to describe their ‘ology’, and then answer questions that Ali Ward and patrons to her podcast ask. Ali Ward takes science and learning about new things and makes it funny and yet informational. The podcast is set up as interviews that Ali Ward conducts with the scientists. Whenever terminology that the general public may not know comes up, Ali Ward takes it upon herself to look up the definition and describe it in interjections to the interview. The subjects that come up are so vast. From paleontology(the study of dinosaurs) to Gastroegyptology(the baking of bread with a stain of yeast from ancient Egypt). When I say there is an episode for everyone, I mean it. You love butterflies? There’s an amazing episode on Lepidopterology. You love clouds? She’s got an episode on clouds too. The apocalypse? Check! Crow funerals? Wouldn’t think so, but there’s even an episode for that.
Listening to the podcast is like sitting in on a conversation with friends. I learn so much during the episode and by the end I feel like I know every scientist personally. The way Ali Ward connects to each scientist gives me such a sense of comradery. It makes me want to be better and work harder so that one day I can be on her podcast. But until that point I will be filled with so much random knowledge. I could tell anyone way too much about deer, or penguins, or procrastination. It makes me so happy to have the random knowledge in my brain again like when I was excessively reading in my childhood.
I would recommend this podcast to every one. I actually do recommend this podcast to everyone. I try to fit it into any conversation I have. Ali Ward has not only opened my eyes to the vast world of science but in an indirect way helped me know I was on the right path in my life because if I stopped studying biology, how else am I supposed to one day possibly be on her podcast?
So to end this, I would like to use the tradition that Ali Ward uses to end all of her episodes, so I will end with telling a secret of mine. Here it is; after watching the Paleontology episode I realized that is what I would truly, honestly love to pursue in life and what I am determined to do.
HCXO,
Becca