Curiosity Daily Podcast: What People Get Wrong About Evolution (w/ Neil Shubin)
Learn about the “superhabitable” planets that may have conditions better for life than Earth. Then, biologist and best-selling author Neil Shubin will explain a common misconception about how animals evolve.
November 24, 2020
Episode Show Notes:
Two dozen planets have been identified that may have conditions better for life than Earth by Grant Currin
- Some planets may be better for life than Earth. (2020). EurekAlert! https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2020-10/wsu-spm100220.php
- In Search for a Planet Better than Earth: Top Contenders for a Superhabitable World. (2020). Astrobiology. https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/10.1089/ast.2019.2161
Additional resources from biologist and author Neil Shubin:
- Pick up "Some Assembly Required: Decoding Four Billion Years of Life, from Ancient Fossils to DNA" on Amazon: https://amzn.to/36mmaF1
- Neil Shubin's website: http://www.neilshubin.com/
- Neil Shubin on Twitter: https://twitter.com/NeilShubin
Subscribe to Curiosity Daily to learn something new every day with Ashley Hamer and Natalia Reagan (filling in for Cody Gough). You can also listen to our podcast as part of your Alexa Flash Briefing; Amazon smart speakers users, click/tap “enable” here: https://www.amazon.com/Curiosity-com-Curiosity-Daily-from/dp/B07CP17DJY
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Next Up
Get Ready for Puppy Bowl XXII on Animal Planet!
Puppy Bowl XXII premieres Sunday, February 8, 2026, at 2:00PM ET/11:00AM PT with more adoptable puppies from shelters and rescues than ever before.
Get Ready for Puppy Bowl XXI on Animal Planet!
Puppy Bowl XXI premieres Sunday, February 9 at 2P ET/11A PT with more adoptable puppies from shelters and rescues than ever before.
An Astronomical Review of “Don’t Look Up”
In our annual New Year’s family tradition of struggling to stay awake until midnight, we decided to watch “Don’t Look Up,” the Adam McKay satire starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Lawrence, and other fabulously good-looking people.
Get Ready for Puppy Bowl XX on Animal Planet!
Puppy Bowl XX premieres Sunday, February 11 at 2P ET/11A PT with more adoptable puppies from shelters and rescues than ever before.
Shark Week: The Podcast - How To Have A Career in Shark Science
Shark Week’s Luke Tipple tackles the question “How can I work with sharks?” alongside two experts in the field – and their answers are not always the obvious ones. Luke is joined first by Kelly Link, Associate Curator of the Georgia Aquarium who talks about what it’s like to be an aquarist, how it differs from field work, and how to get yourself noticed. The second guest is Dr. Neil Hammerschlag who goes into detail on what it takes to become a prominent scientist, and what other paths you can take if a PhD isn’t for you. And at the end, researcher Sierra stops by to tell us about the world’s smallest shark.
Shark Week: The Podcast - Why is Tagging Baby Great White Sharks So Important?
Luke Tipple speaks with Dr. Riley Elliott, a marine biologist from New Zealand who recently tagged baby great white sharks, which are rarely seen in the wild. They talk about how climate change is affecting shark pupping grounds, why fishers are wrong to think there are “too many sharks,” and about Dr. Elliott’s Great White App, which allows users to track great white sharks in the ocean.
Shark Week: The Podcast - Do Scientists Need to Kill Sharks?
Host Luke Tipple welcomes two guests to discuss how researchers can kill sharks in the name of science – and whether they need to at all. The first is Dr. Neil Hammerschlag, shark researcher and founder of Atlantic Shark Expeditions, and an expert on data-gathering in the field. He’s followed by explorer Fred Buyle, a world-record-breaking freediver whose innovative methods of shark tagging are explored. Plus, our researcher Sierra tells us about how a 50-year study changed our understanding of tiger sharks – and much of the work wasn’t even done by scientists.
Shipwrecked & Surrounded by Sharks
This week, we do things a little differently, as Shark Week’s Luke Tipple invites Adventure Aaron into the podcast studio to talk about his incredible near-death experience on the open water. Adventure Aaron gets into what it takes to circumnavigate the world in an ocean rowboat, what it’s like to stare eye-to-eye with an oceanic white tip that probably wants you for lunch, and everything else that happened to him when his boat was capsized, and he was lost by himself at sea.
Bobcat on the Hunt
Nature photographer Ian Shive gets a rare close-up of a bobcat hunting ground squirrels in California's Central Coast.
Curiosity Daily Podcast: Nobel Prize Winner Richard Thaler on How Nudge Changed the World — Plus, Squirrel-Inspired Robots
Nobel Prize-winning economist Richard Thaler explains how “Nudge” has changed the world. Plus: squirrel-inspired robots!