Just the Zoo of Us – Details, episodes & analysis

Ellen gets the ball rolling with dung beetles & Christian jaws away about the giant moray eel. We discuss tiny boots, field trips to the planetarium, The Mummy (1999), secret jaws, why moray eels make that face, teamwork on the reef, fact checking The Little Mermaid, and more.

Links:

• For more information about us & our podcast, head over to our website!
• Follow Just the Zoo of Us on Threads, Facebook, Instagram & Discord!
• Follow Ellen on TikTok!

We're out traveling this week! In the meantime, please enjoy this episode of Bugs Need Heroes, in which Ellen joined hosts Amanda Niday and Kelly Zimmerman to settle a debate: are shrimps bugs? Are mantis shrimps shrimps? We discuss how they may or may not be turning into crabs and what they might think of sunsets. Tangents include Godzilla, weddings, pet store stories, internet memes, Sailor Moon and anime translations. Originally aired on the Bugs Need Heroes podcast on June 23, 2024.

Links:

• Find the original version of this episode, episode notes and links over at the Bugs Need Heroes podcast!
• Learn more about the podcast on their website!
• Follow Bugs Need Heroes on Instagram, Twitter and Reddit!
• Follow Just the Zoo of Us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram & Discord!
• Follow Ellen on TikTok!
• Bugs Need Heroes theme music: "Ladybug Castle" by Rolemusic

Join Ellen & special guests Owen Ever and Laine Kaplan-Levenson for a revue of gay animals! We discuss manatee wuzzles, elephant matriarchy, giraffes necking in more ways than one, eagle throuples, the impact of prejudice on science, and so much more. This episode is a celebration of love, family, and community in - as our guest puts it - the animal queendom. 

NOTE: Since a lot of this episode is about the diversity of sexual behavior in animals, naturally it does contain more discussion of sex than most of our episodes, including behaviors that aren’t just motivated by reproduction. These discussions are not graphic or explicit, but it is a focal point of the conversation so I do encourage any young listeners to please check in with your grown-ups before listening.

Links:

• Check out A Field Guide to Gay Animals!
• Follow the podcast on Instagram!
• Follow Owen on Instagram and learn more about their work on their website!
• For more information about us & our podcast, head over to our website!
• Follow Just the Zoo of Us on Threads, Facebook, Instagram & Discord!
• Follow Ellen on TikTok!

Join Ellen & special guest, illustrator and author Alexander Vidal, for a review of a tiny bird with an ambitious itinerary: the rufous hummingbird. We discuss cottagecore nests, how wildlife moves all over our continent, birds that look like bugs and bugs that look like birds, and a lesson in confidence from the world’s littlest dinosaurs. 

Get Alexander's book, Wilds of the United States: The Animals' Survival Field Guide!

Follow Alexander on Twitter and Instagram!

Hang out with Just the Zoo of Us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram & Discord!

Join the Weatherfords for a weekly animal review! This week, Christian gets salty over the marine iguana & Ellen glides along with the literally treehugging colugo. We discuss archipelagos, snot rockets, Darwin's garbage takes, Godzilla, skin parachutes and baby hammocks.

Follow Just the Zoo of Us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram & Discord!

Cover photos: Patrick_Gijsbers via Getty images (marine iguana) & Didasteph via Wikimedia commons (colugo)

Join Ellen & special guest, marine biologist Sophie Wolvin, for a review of the ocean's little jello casseroles full of live bees: moon jellyfish! We’re gonna talk about what to do if you get stung by a jellyfish, what it’s like to care for the delicate jellies, their vortex of death, jellybeans and blooms, and I confess to some heinous jellyfish crimes.

Follow Sophie on Twitter and learn more about her work at her website!

Listen to Sophie discuss young adult fiction with biologists on the Midlight Crisis podcast!

Follow Just the Zoo of Us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram & Discord!

Join the Weatherfords for a weekly animal review! In this week's episode, Ellen lets Pallas's cat out of the bag & Christian probes into the world of the sensitive kiwi. We discuss grumpy cats, spawncamping, chilly beans, buff legs and giant eggs.

Check out Benjamin Lancer's paper on dragonfly attention in Nature!

Watch Wildlife Instincts: Pallas's Cat - Master of the Plains on YouTube!

Learn more about how you can help the kiwi!

Follow Just the Zoo of Us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram & Discord!

Cover photos: Radovan Zierik via Getty images (Pallas's cat), Lakeview Images via Getty (kiwi)

Join Ellen & special guest, podcaster and invertebrate enthusiast Tom Sharpe, as we leap into the world of the tiny menace: fleas! We discuss the intersection of entomology and Pokemon, blind leaps of faith, tiny little cowboys riding their trusty steeds up cave walls, the history of fleas on leashes, and more.

For more of Tom's invertebrate podcasting, check out Grubbing in the Filth: An Invertebrate Podcast! Follow along on Twitter & Instagram.

Follow Just the Zoo of Us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram & Discord & join Ellen for weekly video game streams on Twitch!

Cover photo: Jugas via Getty images

Join the Weatherfords for a weekly animal review! In this week's episode, Christian barks about the loud wet dog of the Pacific coast, the California sea lion, and Ellen gets to know her bottomfeeding best friend, the giant isopod. In this episode, we discuss our recent trip to Monterey Bay, pinniped evolution, whale falls, and Hello Kitty Darth Vader. 

Follow Just the Zoo of Us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram & Discord & join Ellen for weekly video game streams on Twitch!

Cover photos: cwinegarden via Getty images (sea lion), Monterey Bay Aquarium via Twitter post (giant isopod)

Join Ellen & special guest, anthropologist & cetologist Drew Smith, for a review of the adorable little apex predators zipping through the waves: dolphins! We talked about animal charisma, dolphin culture and society and play, a West Side Story-style rivalry, a whale’s favorite ice cream flavor, and how these animals so different from us have flipped and whistled their way into our human hearts.

Follow Drew on Twitter!

Learn more about upcoming Paleolithic historical fiction novel Jih's Journey   here!

Follow Just the Zoo of Us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram & Discord & join Ellen for weekly video game streams on Twitch!

Cover photo provided by Drew Smith