Umwelt

#0 What Is Umwelt?

#1 Whales: What Are They Saying?

Tom Mustill is a biologist, wildlife filmmaker and author of the book How to Speak Whale: A Voyage into the Future of Animal Communication.
In this episode, we talk about the time a whale jumped on Tom, the unexpectedly popular album of whale song that galvanised the Save the Whales movement, and the researchers working on using artificial intelligence to understand whale communication.
Produced by Ryan Pemberton
Editing help from Alex Tighe and Cheyne Anderson
Fact checking by Caitlin Cherryh, Piyumal Demotte and Nhan Ly-Trong
Artwork by Evie Hilliar
The whale recordings on this episode are courtesy of Ocean Alliance (https://whale.org/)

#2 Mantis Shrimp: World's Fastest Punch, World's Weirdest Eyes

Justin Marshall is a neuroscientist and ecologist whose work focuses on how animals perceive their environment, particularly through vision.
In this episode, we talk about the sudden surge in the mantis shrimp's popularity (in large part due to a discovery Justin made), how what we thought we knew about mantis shrimp colour vision was upended, and the societal value of spending 3+ years staring at a worm.
Produced by Ryan Pemberton
Editing help from Cheyne Anderson and Alex Tighe
Fact checking by Caitlin Cherryh
Artwork by Evie Hilliar
Michael Webber's website

#3 Portia: The Eight-Legged Genius

Fiona Cross is an arachnologist whose research focuses on spider cognition.
In this episode, we talk about how Fiona went from being terrified of spiders to studying them, the incredible strategies that the portia spider uses to hunt other spiders, and how Fiona and her colleagues tested whether portia can count.
Produced by Ryan Pemberton
Editing help from Alex Tighe and Cheyne Anderson
Fact checking by Caitlin Cherryh
Artwork by Evie Hilliar

#4 Octopuses: Maybe We're Not So Different

David Scheel is an ecologist and author of the book, Many Things Under a Rock: The Mysteries of Octopuses.
In this episode, we talk about octopus tool use, octopus dreams, and whether octopus arms have minds of their own.
Produced by Ryan Pemberton
Editing help from Cheyne Anderson and Alex Tighe
Fact checking by Caitlin Cherryh
Artwork by Evie Hilliar