Month: May 2019

Ep. 17 – Fabrice Schnoller on free diving with sperm whales

Ep. 17 – Fabrice Schnoller on free diving with sperm whales

In 2007, our guest, Fabrice Schnoller, was sailing off the coast of Mauritius when he had an encounter that would change his life and open a new frontier in marine biology. As his boat neared land, huge pillars of steam burst out of the water. When Schnöller jumped in to investigate, he was overwhelmed by a crashing, creaking sound. It was the echolocation clicks of sperm whales, the bearers of the largest brains ever known to have existed on Earth. In addition to helping whales navigate, some evidence suggests that these clicks also function as a language. To investigate this possibility, Schnöller founded DAREWIN, the first initiative devoted to studying whale click communication and exposing it to the wider public. In the nine years since the project launched, Schnoller and his team have amassed the largest database of sperm whale vocalizations in history — all collected non-invasively, through free-diving. We speak with Schnöller about DAREWIN’s work, its pioneering methodology, and what it’s like to be X-rayed by a whale.

Arielle Johnson: Making Flavor Work For You

Arielle Johnson: Making Flavor Work For You

What happens when chefs and scientists work together? On this episode of Chewing the Fat, flavor chemist Arielle Johnson chats about how her work has blended the kitchen and the laboratory. Understanding flavor, it appears, might not just help us push the boundaries of cooking, but also deepen our commitment for how to affirm food cultures and knowledge around the world. Plus, a few notes about good science and myth-busting the paleo diet!

about us:

website: sustainablefood.yale.edu/podcast-series
facebook: @yalesustainablefoodprogram
twitter: @ysfp
instagram: @ysfp

Chewing the Fat is a podcast from the Yale Sustainable Food Program. We cover people making change in the complex world of food and agriculture. We’re home to brilliant minds: activists, academics, chefs, entrepreneurs, farmers, journalists, policymakers, and scientists (to name a few!). Taken together, their work represents a reimagining of mainstream food movements, challenging myths and tropes as well as inspiring new ways of collaborating.

The podcast is an aural accompaniment to our on-campus Chewing the Fat speaker series, aiming to broaden our content beyond New Haven. Episodes are released every two weeks, featuring interviews, storytelling and more.

On the farm, in the classroom, and around the world, the Yale Sustainable Food Program (YSFP) grows food-literate leaders. We create opportunities for students to experience food, agriculture, and sustainability as integral parts of their education and everyday lives. For more information, please visit sustainablefood.yale.edu.

12 Angry Men (1957) w/ special guest Aaron Tracy

12 Angry Men (1957) w/ special guest Aaron Tracy

Today we’re posting the most recent episode of Classic Movie Musts, which Aaron guested on. Aaron does a deep dive on one of his favorite movies, 12 Angry Men, with the show’s host, Max Baril.

Follow Classic Movie Musts at: https://twitter.com/MovieMustsPod

And find Aaron at https://twitter.com/aarondtracy

Ep. 16 — Thomas Seeley on the lives of bees

Ep. 16 — Thomas Seeley on the lives of bees

In the spring of 1963, when our guest Dr. Thomas Seeley was not quite 11 years old, he lived — as he still does today — in a wooded stream valley just east of Ithaca, New York. One day, he heard a loud buzzing sound and saw a bread-truck-sized cloud of honey bees swarming an ancient black walnut tree near his family’s house. From a distance, he watched as the bees took up residence in a cavity in the tree. Why, he wondered, did the bees choose that particular tree cavity for their home? Humans have lived with bees for our entire existence as a species, but the vast majority of studies have focused on how bees live in managed colonies, whether the clay cylinders used to keep bees in the Iron Age or the white boxes of neighborhood beekeepers. But here, in the black walnut tree, were wild bees — living without human supervision or human understanding. Their lives present great mysteries. That 11-year-old grew up to become the world’s leading authority on honey bees, and a magnificently gifted writer about their worlds. Dr. Seeley joins us to discuss his research about wild honey bees’ behavior, social lives and ecology, and his new book: “The Lives of Bees: The Untold Story of the Honeybee in the Wild.”

Thomas Lovejoy: Biodiversity on a Changing Planet

Thomas Lovejoy: Biodiversity on a Changing Planet

Thomas Lovejoy, university professor in the Environmental Science and Policy department at George Mason University and dedicated conservation biologist, joins Alix Kashdan (FES ’20) and Liz Bourguet (FES ’20) to talk about the importance of biodiversity in the face of climate change.

Wanqing Zhou: Plant-Forward and Backward in China

Wanqing Zhou: Plant-Forward and Backward in China

As the way China eats transforms, food activism and education are rising to address these changes. This week’s episode of Chewing the Fat collaborates with Kate Logan of Beijing Energy Network podcast Environment China to interview Wanqing Zhou to learn about her research and grassroots organizing in China. Starting with an overview of the country’s food system, we then discuss the ways Chinese people have historically eaten, and what this means for a trend like a plant-forward diet. In other words, in what ways should place and culture inform or complicate our approaches to food and agriculture, even ones seen sometimes as universal? How do collaborations then emerge to transform the relationships between people, food, farming, and the environment?

about us:

website: sustainablefood.yale.edu/podcast-series
facebook: @yalesustainablefoodprogram
twitter: @ysfp
instagram: @ysfp

Chewing the Fat is a podcast from the Yale Sustainable Food Program. We cover people making change in the complex world of food and agriculture. We’re home to brilliant minds: activists, academics, chefs, entrepreneurs, farmers, journalists, policymakers, and scientists (to name a few!). Taken together, their work represents a reimagining of mainstream food movements, challenging myths and tropes as well as inspiring new ways of collaborating.

The podcast is an aural accompaniment to our on-campus Chewing the Fat speaker series, aiming to broaden our content beyond New Haven. Episodes are released every two weeks, featuring interviews, storytelling and more.

On the farm, in the classroom, and around the world, the Yale Sustainable Food Program (YSFP) grows food-literate leaders. We create opportunities for students to experience food, agriculture, and sustainability as integral parts of their education and everyday lives. For more information, please visit sustainablefood.yale.edu.