x

75% of people globally want unbiased news (Pew Research) but are concerned they're not getting that.

Get balanced coverage with Symby. See how stories are covered across diverse outlets and spot when one side covers a story the other skips.

PODCAST

Tiny Living Beings

Julia Van Etten

Tiny Living Beings is a weekly podcast where listeners get to know a scientist, a weird microorganism they like, and why they think it"s interesting. Our planet is full of billions of different microscopic organisms, most of which are still unknown to science. The ones we do know are diverse and strange. Microbiology knowledge is often gatekept by scientists who discuss this information in exclusive professional circles, but more of these topics need to be shared with the public! Although generally

science natural sciences

All Episodes

01:04:56

Introducing the Fire Amoeba - with Angela Oliverio...

Tiny Living Beings ·

2025/12/22

Eukaryotes are "complex" organisms with nuclei and membrane-bound organelles: plants, animals, fungi, and protists. Protists include many understudied lineages of fascinating organisms that challenge our understanding of cell biology, and so many protist species remain undiscovered. This week Dr. Angela Oliverio and Beryl Rappaport come on the podcast to discuss a new amoeba species called Incendiamoeba cascadensis that lives and reproduces at the highest temperature ever described for a eukaryote,

en

60:03

Parasites in our pets' poop

Tiny Living Beings ·

2025/05/26

Microbes are everywhere, including inside our pets! This week, Ben Alverson comes on to give us a crash course in veterinary parasitology. He discusses the variety of worms and protists that can live inside mammals and cause problems ranging from being a mild nuisance to causing death. We talk about the different types of animals that get tested for these parasites including cats and dogs, zoo animals like big cats, and farm animals. Ben does a great job explaining how diagnoses are made from

en

89:45

Is science political? - with Kevin Bird

Tiny Living Beings ·

2025/05/05

American science has been under attack since this Trump administration began. Tens of thousands of scientists and federal workers have lost their jobs and the effects are starting to permeate through society. This week I have Dr. Kevin Bird on to explain the events of the last 3 months, how science is funded in the United States, why it is being attacked so aggressively, and the ideologies behind these attacks. He also gives us a history lesson on movements of the past that sought to protect the

en

57:38

The Diatom Detective - with Kirstie Scott

Tiny Living Beings ·

2025/04/14

If you tuned in last week, you'll know that diatoms produce one quarter of the air we breathe (and they produced this podcast's logo), but did you know that they can also be used to solve crimes???! Rather than spoiling too much by writing a long caption here, you should just press play to hear from Dr. Kirstie Scott, a forensic diatomist and one of the most interesting people I've spoken with. In this episode we discuss how certain environments have certain cells and how these cells can travel on

en

60:05

Diatoms and dinoflagellates and dinotoms, oh my! -...

Tiny Living Beings ·

2025/04/07

Diatoms are beautiful (and weird). Dinoflagellates are weird (and beautiful). They are completely different organisms but both are protists that can both support whole ecosystems or cause devastating environmental hazards. However, only one of them inspired Alfred Hitchcock to make his famous movie, The Birds (listen to find out which). Both organisms can produce oxygen to help us breathe, and diatoms alone produce over 20% of the oxygen in the atmosphere. And sometimes dinoflagellates will ingest

en

69:51

Sharks of the plankton - with Matt Johnson

Tiny Living Beings ·

2025/03/31

Did you know that some organisms, from protists to sea slugs, steal photosynthesis? This week Dr. Matt Johnson is on the podcast to talk about his work on kleptoplasty, the process by which organisms steal plastids (photosynthetic organelles) from other organisms to become photosynthetic. These special cells with stolen plastids are mixotrophs, that is, they can both eat food and produce their own from solar energy. Matt discusses why kleptoplasty and mixotrophy are special processes that aren't as

en

68:30

Urine for a treat - with Owen Hale

Tiny Living Beings ·

2025/03/24

Newsflash! Urine is not sterile! This week we have Owen Hale on the podcast to talk about the urinary tract microbiome, which is really understudied. We discuss which bacteria live inside us, what they do, why so many people get UTIs, and what urinary tract bacteria can tell us about evolution more broadly. Owen also points out that because UTIs affect women so frequently, this is one of the few systems in biomedical science where females have been studied more than men, and what we can learn from

en

60:01

Where did plants come from? - with Blair Young

Tiny Living Beings ·

2025/03/17

Bryophytes are an ancient group of plants that include hornworts, liverworts, and mosses. They are the evolutionary link between land plants and the green algal ancestors that plants evolved from. But bryophytes are also really interesting in their own right and they are very understudied so it is lucky that I got to chat with an expert bryologist! This week, Blair Young discusses what bryophytes look like, where to find them, and why we study them. Blair is a PhD student at Rutgers University in

en

81:12

4.5 billion years of Earth history in one hour - with...

Tiny Living Beings ·

2025/03/10

Did you know the continents move at the same rate as your fingernails grow? Welcome BACK to Tiny Living Beings after a couple years off! For the first episode of the new season, I have Dr. Bolton Howes on to give a geologist's perspective on the history of the Earth that I hope will give context for all the other episodes of this show. We discuss everything from the origin of the planet 4.5 billion years ago to the first life, when plants and animals evolved, the two times Earth turned into a

en

51:11

Life is beautiful - with Ursula Goodenough

Tiny Living Beings ·

2023/07/24

Dr. Ursula Goodenough has a scientific career that spans six decades, numerous accolades, and is a writer of both textbook and popular science books. But her crowning achievement is being a guest on this podcast. This week, Ursula and I have a conversation that covers topics like algal research, work-life balance, science communication and story telling, life-changing microscopy finds, why sex is so prevalent in nature, and relatedly--Richard Gere. We also discuss her book, The Sacred Depths of

en

54:19

Choanoflagellates and animal evolution - with David...

Tiny Living Beings ·

2023/04/17

Choanoflagellates are unicellular protists but they also happen to be the closest living relatives to animals. This week, David Booth discusses what choanoflagellates are, where you can find them, and the connection to animal evolution. He also talks about how these microbes are interesting in their own right, impacting whole food webs and ecosytems and interacting with bacteria. We talk about the fossil record and cover a bunch of major evolutionary transitions and how microbial life was the

en

46:22

Getting to know lichens - with Dennis Waters

Tiny Living Beings ·

2023/04/10

Do you ever walk past an old building or a tree or a big rock and notice splotchy green or orange or yellow blobs growing all over it? Well, these are probably lichens! Lichens aren't plants and they aren't even technically just fungi. They are actually many organisms living together and functioning as one unit. These "composite" organisms are fungi with symbiotic algae or cyanobacteria living inside them, providing them with sugars produced by photosynthesis. On this episode, Dennis Waters explains

en

55:37

Fungi are everywhere - with Kaydubs the hiking scientist

Tiny Living Beings ·

2023/03/20

Is fungi everywhere? Is it on our eyeballs and in our nose hairs? Yes, yes, and yes! This week I talk to Dr. Kristen aka Kaydubs about fungi in general and forest fungi in particular. We discuss what these organisms are made of, why they're only now being studied in depth, and the devastating outcomes of American chestnut blight. We also talk about how to become a master naturalist and why it's okay to be weird and/or join a mushroom club!Dr. Kristen, PhD is a plant pathologist and an amazing

en

43:39

Tardigrade takedown - with Chloé Savard

Tiny Living Beings ·

2023/03/13

Tardigrades aka water bears aka moss piglets are extremely popular! This is due to their tolerance of harsh environments and because of their perceived "cuteness". This week, I speak with Chloé Savard (@tardibabe) about what tardigrades are, what it actually means to "survive" in extreme conditions, and how to find them in nature. We also talk quite a bit about some of the tardigrade misinformation that's constantly circulating that paints these animals as indestructible or even immortal. Chloé

en

58:38

The gut microbiome - with Haley Hallowell

Tiny Living Beings ·

2023/02/27

What are the microbes in our gut up to? And how does their life affect our lives? This week, Dr. Haley Hallowell teaches us all about the gut microbiome and virome, that is, how microbes and viruses inside us affect each other and our own health! We also play a game on this episode where I make some bold claims that have gained traction on social media recently-some true, some ridiculous, some in between-and Haley becomes a professional myth-buster, using the latest science of course. Make sure to

en

51:51

Polar microbes - with Jaz Millar

Tiny Living Beings ·

2023/02/20

Did you know there are microbes living in holes in glaciers? What are they doing there and what can we learn from them? Quite a lot actually! This week, Dr. Jaz Millar and I talk all about cryoconite holes which house polar microbial communities, how they're forms, and what they tell us about the past, present, and future conditions of life on Earth. We also learn that when a topic related to something unmicrobial like gasp animals gasp comes up, I'm totally clueless. Jaz tells us the harrowing tale

en

43:52

The Great Oxygenation Event - With John Encarnacion

Tiny Living Beings ·

2023/02/13

How do we know what the Earth was like billions of years ago? And where did all the oxygen come from? Spoiler alert: it's microbes! This week I speak with Dr. John Encarnacion about the Great Oxygenation Event (GOE) that changed our planet forever and is the reason we breathe today. We talk about the detective work of geologists and the evidence found in rocks that teaches us about ancient biological and geological processes!Dr. John Encarnacion, PhD is a professor at Saint Louis University where he

en

42:24

Hobby microscopy - with Lena Struwe

Tiny Living Beings ·

2023/02/06

How can you get started with hobby microscopy? What products and practices do we recommend? Why do we have a conflict with the Unicode emoji consortium? And what on earth is a vinegar eel??? Find out all these things and more on this week's episode where I talk to Dr. Lena Struwe about our shared love of microscopy, answer questions from instagram followers, and cover topics that range from iNaturalist to community science to why I refuse to swim in a pond.Dr. Lena Struwe, PhD, FLS is a professor at

en

49:43

Hot springs archaea - with Arthur Charles-Orszag

Tiny Living Beings ·

2023/01/30

Why don't we ever talk about archaea? What can we learn from this domain of life? Why would someone want to cook a chicken in a Yellowstone National Park geyser? Find out about these things and more on this week's TLB episode. Dr. Arthur Charles-Orszag is here to teach us about Sulfolobus acidocaldarius, a sulfur-oxidizing archaeon that lives in super hot and acidic environments. We discuss Arthur's work studying DNA segregation in this microbe and we also unpack many common misconceptions about

en

59:09

Genetic engineering of algae - with Kyle Lauersen

Tiny Living Beings ·

2023/01/16

What can we get algae to do for us (other than be beautiful and produce half of our oxygen)? How can we engineer different algae to create products and services we need? And what do algae SMELL like? Which smell like feet and which smell like "milky grass"? Dr. Kyle Lauersen is on this week's episode answering these questions and more! He explains all about his research on algal biotechnology and how we can engineer these tiny green cells to produce chemical products that are useful to us and clean

en

28 results

Similar Podcasts

Classic Radio Science Fiction

solgoodmedia.com

Mission to Mars

Inception Point Ai

The 365 Days of Astronomy

365DaysOfAstronomy.org

Creek Devil

william Jevning

UFO Chronicles Podcast

Nik Hunter