Since September we've met 16 scientists, in fields from neuroscience and quantum physics to archaeology and ecology, who are asking wild questions, exploring the world in different ways, wondering what if the world isn't how we thought. They've all been surprising, brilliant and creative in different ways: for me, each chat has been like a glimpse into a fascinating, hidden world.

To finish the season, this week's episode is a bit different. I've asked my lovely producer, Julian Mayers (who also happens to be a cosmologist), to join me for a look back over some of our favourite moments from the interviews, from falling whales and Neolithic virtual reality to improvising ponds and moments of utter bliss...

As we take a pause over Christmas, thanks to all our guests so far and to you for listening. This first season has been successful far beyond our expectations - we've been recommended by publications including New Scientist and Smithsonian, we were featured by Apple as a top new science show, and we've had listeners in more than 80 different countries, from Madagascar to Mongolia to Montenegro.

We'll be back in the new year with season 2, so if you've enjoyed the show do subscribe now so you don't miss that when it comes.

Bye for now! And see you next time on Where the Wild Thoughts Are.

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*** Edited highlights on YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhB4lyBDyjTliuz_h5oHwN6H8HoxS7qWL

Hosted by Jo Marchant:

https://jomarchant.com

Produced by Julian Mayers at Yada Yada:

https://www.yada-yada.net/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What happens if we let go of our expectations about nature – all the things we think it is, or isn’t, or should be – and just… listen?

Our guide into the unknown this week is award-winning sound artist and ecologist David de la Haye. I first met him at this year’s New Scientist Live in London: I was giving a talk about the science of awe and David came up to me afterwards to tell me about the awe he finds though his work with sound. Essentially he puts hydrophones into the water and records the submerged soundscapes of ponds. He calls it sonic pond dipping.

Rather than dissecting out individual noises or creatures – although that can provide valuable information – David’s work is primarily about listening to an ecosystem in an immersive and very personal way – almost like a meditation. He doesn’t stop at listening, though, he also answers back, creating music – often improvising in real time – with the ponds!

I asked him how he ended up listening underwater, and what he thinks we can learn from these tiny wild spaces that we so often overlook.

David’s home page

www.daviddelahaye.co.uk

Sonic pond dipping

https://sonic-pond.net/

With Ears Underwater

https://daviddelahaye.bandcamp.com/album/with-ears-underwater

Bionic and the Wires (a separate project where mushrooms and plants are wired up to play instruments)

https://bionicandthewires.com/

Clip 1: Pond at Wheatfen nature reserve, Norfolk, UK

Clip 2: Rockpool at Saint Abbs, Scotland

Clip 3: Underwater seals at Mingulay, Scotland

Clip 4: Pond at Wheatfen nature reserve, Norfolk, UK

Clip 5: Photosynthesising plants

Clip 6: With Ears Underwater: Plant based patterns

Clip 7: Pond session: Bliss

Clip 8: Awe response: First ever dawn chorus

*** Subscribe for new episodes every Mon

*** Follow us on Instagram @wildthoughts_pod

*** Edited highlights on YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhB4lyBDyjTliuz_h5oHwN6H8HoxS7qWL

Hosted by Jo Marchant:

https://jomarchant.com

Produced by Julian Mayers at Yada Yada:

https://www.yada-yada.net/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

People have long told stories about the moon’s power, from werewolves shapeshifting by the moon, to the belief that drinking water soaked with moonlight could help women conceive. And monthly rhythms appear across nature, from corals and cacti to gorillas.

But while there's lots of research showing that the daily cycles of the sun are crucial for biology, scientists have largely ignored the role of the moon – or dismissed it as pseudoscience, particularly in humans. That’s partly because there hasn’t been a convincing mechanism for how the moon might influence life on Earth - which is what my guest this week, Kristin Tessmar-Raible of the University of Vienna, is working to uncover. She studies lunar timing in marine bristleworms: four-eyed, many-legged creatures that swarm according to the phase of the moon and have light receptors buried in their brains.

Forget biological clocks, this is a biological calendar. And the fascinating thing is, she’s uncovering surprising parallels with human biology, which means what’s happening in the worms could help to reveal our own deep connection with the moon, from fertility to sleep to mental health. Jo and Kristin discuss just how far-reaching the moon’s influence may be, the colleagues who once thought she was crazy, and what it takes to change minds in science.

Kristin's home page

https://neurodevbio.univie.ac.at/tessmar-raible-research/

2024 review by Kristin & Andrés Ritter on lunar timing in biology

https://www.embopress.org/doi/full/10.1038/s44319-024-00196-5

Excerpt from Jo's book The Human Cosmos about the moon's influence on biology

https://www.wired.com/story/oysters-that-knew-what-time-it-was/

2021 study on lunar rhythms in women's menstrual cycles

https://www.science.org/doi/full/10.1126/sciadv.abe1358

2025 study on effect of LEDs and smartphones on timing of women's menstrual cycles

https://www.science.org/doi/full/10.1126/sciadv.adw4096

2024 review of links between lunar cycles, sleep and mental health

https://www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1073/pnas.2214756121

2021 review of links between lunar cycles and human biology

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/bies.202100054

*** Subscribe for new episodes every Mon

*** Follow us on Instagram @wildthoughts_pod

*** Edited highlights on YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhB4lyBDyjTliuz_h5oHwN6H8HoxS7qWL

Hosted by Jo Marchant:

https://jomarchant.com

Produced by Julian Mayers at Yada Yada:

https://www.yada-yada.net/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.