Our story this week on the podcast is very much a product of this current moment in American history, in which race and racism are at the front of all of our minds. It’s a story about acknowledging and addressing the disparities that exist for people of color in the field of entomology – and in science generally.In this episode we’re talking with Dr. Jessica Ware and Ph.D. candidate Stephanita Sallqa Tuwa BondocGawa MaflaMills. They are both members of Entomologists of Color, a group that’s s...

This week on the podcast we're talking about mowing lawns - or rather not mowing lawns - and the impact it can have on urban bees.You may have heard about No Mow May, an initiative from Plantlife in the United Kingdom which encourages people to stop mowing for the entire month. One of the communities participating in the initiative was Appleton, Wisconsin.And Israel Del Toro, an assistant professor at Lawrence University, went out and surveyed the bees of Appleton at the end of No Mow May. So...

Thank you very much for allowing me an additional week to work on the many projects I have going on right now, including today’s story for the podcast. Never a dull moment here.I promised you a story about flowers, pathogens and bees, and that’s exactly what I have to share with you today. I had the incredible good fortune of speaking with both Lynn Adler from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and Laura Figueroa from Cornell University on the exact same day about the role flowers play i...

This week on the podcast we have a story about a last resort in bee conservation. It’s a story about the steps we might need to take to prevent a bee species from winking out of existence for ever. It’s a story about the captive breeding and intentional reintroduction of bees into the wild.This is an idea I first heard about in my conversation with Sheila Colla a few weeks ago (Episode 4, if you want to check it out). It’s an idea that I’d never heard anyone talk about for bees. But it’s an i...

This week on the show I have a story about an effort to rescue a community of native bees in Pennsylvania: Anthophora abrupta. And this story of protection and conservation might seem a little strange to you – because everything seems to go just right.It's good to be back after a couple weeks spent getting this story ready for you. I certainly had fun doing it. So I hope you enjoy it.WEEKLY UPDATE• Virus-infected honey bees more likely to gain entrance to healthy hives (University of Illinois...

This week on the podcast I'm joined by Zach Portman, a bee taxonomist at the University of Minnesota in the Cariveau Native Bee Lab. For a while now I’ve been wanting to talk with a bee taxonomist about the impending taxonomic bottleneck we’re facing. So Zach and I chat about that. We chat about how taxonomy is a living science and why people in this profession deserve to make a living wage.Zach Portman:• Twitter @zachportmanWEEKLY UPDATE• Coronavirus may prove boost for UK's bees and rare wi...

This week on the podcast I'm joined by Kristen Brochu, a postdoctoral researcher at Penn State University. We discuss her recently published work about how harmful pumpkin and squash pollen is for bumble bees. But why is this? And what exactly can we learn from this? Kristen and I talk about what we currently know (and don't know) about bee nutrition, and how understanding species-specific nutritional needs could be another tool for assessing which bees are at the greatest risk in our climate...

This week on the podcast I am joined by Scott McArt, assistant professor of pollinator health in the department of entomology at Cornell University. He and I discuss three recent news stories about pesticides and bee health. We break down the stories and get Scott's expert thoughts, opinions and insights on the issues.Scott also gives us his Top Three List of the most important things that the public and policy makers should keep in mind about bees and pesticides.Scott McArt:• Website http://...

This week on the podcast I'm talking with Joe Wilson, associate professor of biology at Utah State University. The very same Joe Wilson who you likely know from The Bees in Your Backyard – the book, the website and the prolific social media presence.He and illustrator Jonny VanOrman have just published a brand new children's book called Bees are the Best. It's a whimsical little tale about discovering the diversity of bees in the world. And while Joe and I talk about creating the book itself,...

This week on the podcast I'm talking with Karin Gastreich, professor of biology at Avila University. Her recent work surveying the native bee communities in the remnant prairies around Kansas City was just published in the March issue of Ecological Restoration. She and I chat about the bees, the prairie ecosystems of yesterday and today, and the difference between restoration and reconstruction.If you haven't yet spent time in the gently-waving tall grass of a modern prairie, surrounded by th...