If you think you like sea turtles, get ready to become wildly obsessed with them. Cheloniologist Dr. Camryn Allen met up with Alie on a tropical island (ok, in a hotel room on a tropical island) to chat about flipper slappings, nesting BBs, current surfing, sleeping under water, boopable noses, eggs, hatchlings, mind-boggling navigation, what you can do to help them, and the many mysteries that still remain. Take a deep dive into the world of seartles. Or is it surtles?

What's a tortoise? What's a turtle? Why do they live so dang long? What's up with their shells? Wildlife biologist and testudinologist Amanda Hipps studies gopher tortoises and dishes about turtle nomenclature, cliques, roommates, behavior, burrows, evolution and more. If you don't dig tortoises yet, you're about to fall deep into a turtle tunnel in love with them.

Sweet! Salty! Sour! Umami? Why do some people love their greens more than others? Can something taste “hot?” Come down to flavortown and let’s talk tongues. Gustologist Dr. Gary Beauchamp is a chemosensory scientist and an expert in taste. We chat about tastebud flim-flam, celebrity grade hot wings, super tasters, how much of taste is really smell, acquiring a taste for foods, and whether our four-legged companions have a sweet tooth. Delicious facts, served up hot.

Ancient dogs! Domestic wolves! Anthropology! Archaeology! It’s all Ethnocynology: when and why humans and dogs became BFFs. The wonderful and iconic David Ian Howe is an educator and professional archaeologist whose focus is canines and people. So let’s curl up and be cute – like dogs – as we listen about breed histories, how wolves tamed themselves, why our relationships with canines make us what we are, talking dogs, if it’s fair to ask your dog to love you back, and why your dog is trying to make fetch happen.

Secret ciphers. Hidden treasure. Mysterious manuscripts. And … hog Latin. Cryptology expert and author of “The Code Book,” Simon Singh finally lets me ask him about Indigenous code-talking war heroes, hidden messages, extinct languages, the oldest of codes and the mathematical padlocks keeping the internet secure. Also: the personalities of letters and words??

CAPYBARAS! Blocky faces. Chill vibes. Spa days. Finally. Hydrochoerologist, Dr. Elizabeth Congdon, leads us into the muddy pond of these beloved giant rodents. We chat weird feet, smelly noses, pet questions, interspecies hangouts, natural habitats, and a fossil record that will rock you. An instant classic that you’ll want to enjoy on repeat. Y’all, CAPYBARAS. I repeat: Capybaras.

It beats. It throws blood. It breaks – but not if Dr. Herman Taylor can help it. Cardiology is a vast field but Dr. Taylor joined for a 101 on how the heart works, and how to take care of it. Get pumped for valves, tubes, electrical shocks, heavy metal hearts, what to do in an emergency, and what your heart wants you to eat. Also: the worst heart-themed art out there.

They’re acrobatic fliers with long bodies and veined wings and their babies breathe through their butts: dragonflies. Let’s get into the difference between a damselfly and dragonfly, how fast they dart around, how big they were in the age of the dinosaurs, and lots more with scholar, American Museum of Natural History curator, and dragonfly expert: Dr. Jessica Ware.

Spears! Sharp rocks! Ancient tools, bows and arrows and ...atlatls? What’s an atlatl? Experimental archaeologist and decades-long ancient tool enthusiast Angelo Robledo is as passionate as an ologist can get. You likely have never heard of an atlatl, but by the end of the episode you’ll be carving one out of old lumber. Also covered: the earliest stone tools, neanderthal hunting strategies, Indigenous traditions, ancient action figures, what to do if you find artifacts on a hike, and the physics of how far you can lob ancient weaponry.

A long snout. Hundreds of teeth. Scales that could slice you. What is a gar and should we fear it? Should we hug it? One of the world’s most passionate and knowledgeable experts on this ancient, mysterious fish joins to make you fall in love with these slimy longbois. Dr. Solomon David is affable, charming, enthusiastic and absolutely shameless when it comes to fish puns. Slip into some hip waders and jump in the muck to learn all about a creature that -- despite decades of mudslinging -- is not a gar-bage fish. Also: why gar caviar is a very bad idea.