"I love my job. I’m a total science geek so it suits me perfectly to go nerd out with other nerds and then make stories to share with you. Here are a few of the Our Changing World episodes from 2023 that I’ve particularly enjoyed putting together. Load them up in your podcast player and prepare to be intrigued and entertained by Aotearoa’s fascinating researchers" - Claire Concannon, host of RNZ's award-winning science and nature podcast Our Changing World.
Claire Concannon interviews DOC principal technical advisor Richard Maloney about tagging southern New Zealand dotterels. Photo: © Oscar Thomas
Positive emotions in animals
How do you know whether an animal is happy? I mean if it’s a dog, sure, they wag their tails. But if it’s a wild bird, or a rabbit, or a rat? Can they even be happy? Professor Ximena Nelson explored this question by studying wild kea. We caught up in her office where she showed me the impressively kea-proofed speaker she and her team had designed, after several prototypes failed the kea-curiosity-test. Listen to find out whether kea might experience joy.
Photo: Karl Anderson/Unsplash
The puzzle of the silent mind
When I first heard about anauralia – the variation of human experience in which people don’t have an inner voice – it blew my mind. I couldn’t stop thinking about it and telling people about it. So, I knew it had to be an episode. It was fascinating to speak to the researchers, but my favourite was talking to anauraliac Sang-Hyun Kim about how he experiences the world so very differently to me. Find out why one particular scene from Friends was totally confusing for him.
Photo: Burst/Pexels
Dotterels: The Southland underdog
There are two reasons I made this episode on southern New Zealand dotterels. First, they are one of Aotearoa’s most endangered birds, down to 126 individuals at last count. Second, they’ve got this amazing champion in a young DOC ranger called Daniel Cocker. He’s been fighting in the Southern New Zealand dotterel corner ever since he first came across them on Rakiura’s mountaintops when he was 14 years old. Now he works full-time as a ranger on their conservation team. Plus, I got to learn all about wading birds from another young bird enthusiast Oscar Thomas. Join me and the team for a day in Southland’s beautiful Awarua Bay.
A southern New Zealand dotterel is equipped with a tag for tracking where it goes during the summer. Photo: © Oscar Thomas
Retraining the tinnitus brain
This story generated the most emails from listeners. Most who got in touch had suffered from tinnitus for many years without being aware of any therapies they could try. I really feel for those who have chronic tinnitus on loud, all the time. It must be tough. In the episode, I played with sound to give the listener an inkling of what it’s like to experience tinnitus. Have a listen.
Professor Grant Searchfield is head of Audiology at the University of Auckland Photo: University of Auckland
Why are penguins so cool?
Initially I was going to fit two penguin-related stories into one episode. But then I sat down with Dr Daniel Thomas and he spoke in non-stop fascinating penguin facts for an hour! The story of how a bird flying in air evolved into the formally attired sea-flyers we have today is totally enthralling. Keep an eye out for part two about modern-day penguins coming in 2024.
Concept image of the giant extinct penguin Kumimanu fordycei towering over other extinct penguins that were closer in size to modern-day emperor penguins. Photo: Simone Giovanardi
The sex life of spiders
The University of Waikato media release read ‘extreme monogyny with spontaneous male death and sexual cannibalism’, so naturally I had to learn more. Cue a nighttime spider hunt in Hamilton with Dr Chrissie Painting and her enthusiastic PhD student Simon Connolly. Simon is a truly passionate spider nerd (and yes he has a Spiderman t-shirt collection) and this was one of the most fun recordings I did all year. It’s a fun listen too!
Simon Connolly and Chrissie Painting catching spiders. Photo: Claire Concannon / RNZ.
