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Subscribe and prepare to root for the slowest athletes on Earth.

In this Niche Scientists minisode of Wildly Curious, Katy Reiss and Laura Fawks Lapole dive into the bizarre but brilliant world of snail racing—and the scientists who study it to unlock secrets of movement, slime, and survival.

Every summer in England, snails compete in the World Snail Racing Championships. It sounds ridiculous… until you realize researchers are using these races to study animal locomotion, non-Newtonian fluids, and biomimicry.

🐌 Why snail slime is both sticky and slippery
🧪 How snail mucus behaves like a non-Newtonian fluid
🏃‍♂️ How snails move using muscular waves instead of steps
🩹 Why snail-inspired adhesives could revolutionize wound closure and surgery
🤖 How snail movement is inspiring soft robotics for medicine and rescue tech

Scientists from engineering, biomechanics, and ecology use snail racing data to understand friction control, climate adaptation, and even how future robots might crawl through collapsed buildings or blood vessels.

It’s slow science. It’s weird science. And it turns out… it’s incredibly important.

🎧 This episode is part of our Niche Scientists minisode series—short episodes spotlighting the wonderfully specific research quietly shaping the future.

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Subscribe and rediscover a skill humans were never meant to lose.

In this episode of Wildly Curious, Katy Reiss and Laura Fawks Lapole explore natural navigation—the ancient human ability to find direction by reading the land, sea, sky, plants, and animals instead of relying on GPS.

Long before maps and satellites, humans navigated forests and oceans using patterns, movement, and observation. And the wild part? That ability never disappeared—we just stopped practicing it.

🌿 How plants and trees reveal direction through sunlight and wind
🕷️ Why spiders, lichens, and grazing animals act as natural indicators
🌞 How the sun, stars, and seasonal patterns guide movement on land
🌊 How Polynesian wayfinders navigated the open ocean without instruments
🧭 Why navigation isn’t about knowing where you are—but knowing how to move

From reading asymmetry in trees to feeling ocean swells beneath a canoe, this episode reframes navigation as presence, pattern recognition, and attention—not coordinates on a screen.

🎧 Whether you’re an outdoor enthusiast, birder, hiker, paddler, or just someone craving a slower, more grounded way of moving through the world, this episode will change how you look at nature forever.

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Subscribe and prepare to learn something you will never un-know.

In this Niche Scientists minisode of Wildly Curious, Katy Reiss and Laura Fawks Lapole spotlight two researchers whose work sounds ridiculous… until you realize it’s brilliant.

Meet Dr. David Hu and Dr. Patricia Yang, engineers who study fluid dynamics by asking the questions no one else would:

• Why do almost all mammals pee in the same amount of time?
• Why is wombat poop shaped like a cube?
• And how can studying animal waste improve engineering, medicine, and early cancer detection?

🚽 Why mammals over 3 kg empty their bladders in ~21 seconds
🐘 How urethra length turns gravity into an efficiency tool
🧊 The real reason wombat poop is square (and it’s NOT the sphincter)
🏆 How this research earned two IG Nobel Prizes
🧠 Why “weird” science often leads to the biggest breakthroughs

What starts as slow-motion videos of animals peeing ends up influencing biomimicry, manufacturing, plumbing systems, and colon cancer diagnostics.

🎧 This episode proves that curiosity-driven science—even the gross kind—can quietly change the world.

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Subscribe and unleash your inner science goblin. We see you. We respect it.

DNA isn’t magic—but it is one of the most powerful instruction systems in the universe.

In this deep-dive episode of Wildly Curious, Katy Reiss and Laura Fawks Lapole break down genetics, DNA, and inheritance in a way that actually makes sense—no lab coat required. From the tiny molecular code inside your cells to the ethical questions surrounding modern gene editing, this episode connects the science to real life.

🧬 What DNA actually is (and what it doesn’t do)
🧠 The difference between DNA, genes, RNA, and proteins
🧬 How traits are inherited—and why genetics isn’t destiny
🧪 How modern genetics is used in medicine, conservation, and forensics
✂️ What CRISPR can do—and why ethics matter more than ever

Along the way, we untangle common myths, explain why humans are more just as similar as we are complex and explore how environment, stress, and experience interact with your DNA.

🎧 Whether you’re a science nerd, a biology student, or someone who just wants to understand how their body works, this episode gives you the basic tools to think critically about genetics—and why it matters far beyond the classroom.

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Subscribe and prepare to learn something you absolutely did not know existed.

In this Niche Scientists minisode of Wildly Curious, Katy Reiss dives into one of the strangest—and most important—jobs in science: whale earwax archivist.

Yes. That’s a real thing.

Certain whales build massive earwax plugs over their lifetime, adding a new layer every six months. And scientists have learned how to read those layers like tree rings—revealing a whale’s age, stress levels, exposure to pollution, and even the history of human impact on the ocean.

🐋 What whale earwax is actually made of
📏 Why these plugs can grow over 10 inches long
🧪 How scientists read them like biological timelines
🌍 What they reveal about climate change, pollution, and industrialization
📉 And why whales are basically the ocean’s canaries in a coal mine

It’s gross. It’s fascinating. And it turns out to be one of the most powerful tools we have for understanding long-term ocean health.

🎧 This episode is part of our Niche Scientists minisode series—short episodes spotlighting the wildly specific research that quietly changes how we understand the world.

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Subscribe and let your curiosity swear a little. We won’t tell. 😉

In this Wildly Curious minisode, Katy Reiss and Laura Fawks Lapole kick off their new Niche Scientists series with a deep dive into Dr. Richard Stephens—a psychologist who studies something we all do (sometimes loudly): swearing.

From pain tolerance to powerlifting, Dr. Stephens’ research shows that strategic cursing can actually make you stronger, tougher, and maybe even a little bit smarter about when to drop an F-bomb.

🤬 Can swearing really reduce pain?
💪 Does cursing make you physically stronger?
🧠 What happens in your brain when you let it fly?
🚫 And why swearing too often makes it less effective?

It’s the perfect mix of science, psychology, and sass—because sometimes the best way to say “ouch”... is to not say “ouch.”

🎧 This is our first episodr of our Niche Scientists minisodes—short, weird, and full of science you didn’t know you needed.

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Subscribe and stuff your brain before you stuff your turkey. 🦃🥧

In this Wildly Curious Thanksgiving special, Katy Reiss and Laura Fawks Lapole serve up the surprisingly scientific and hilariously human history of America’s favorite feast. From how pumpkins nearly went extinct after the Ice Age to why turkeys were almost wiped out (and then made a comeback), this episode is a buffet of weird facts, origin stories, and seasonal science.

🍂 How mastodons helped evolve pumpkins
🦃 Why Benjamin Franklin thought turkeys were “more respectable” than eagles
🥧 The secret history of pumpkin pie (and the rise of pumpkin spice)
🇺🇸 How Thanksgiving became a national holiday—and a marketing goldmine

It’s history, biology, and nostalgia all rolled into one big, slightly chaotic, pumpkin-scented audio pie.

🎧 Listen in for the laughs, the learning, and the reminder to use your pumpkins wisely.

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Season 13 is here… and it’s fight night. (Hypothetically, of course.) 🥊

Katy Reiss and Laura Fawks Lapole are back with Could You Fight That? Part 2, the follow-up to one of Wildly Curious’ most beloved (and ridiculous) episodes.

This time, the matchups get even wilder—from kangaroos and cassowaries to anteaters and octopuses—as the duo debates whether they could theoretically survive these encounters.
It’s all fun, all hypothetical, and all rooted in animal science and pure chaos.

⚠️ DISCLAIMER: This episode is 100% for fun. Do NOT approach or engage with wildlife—ever. Be smart, be respectful, and please don’t be the next person trending for trying to hug a bison.

🐜 Giant anteater vs. human tactics
🐺 Lone wolves, red kangaroos, and cassowary chaos
🦑 Octopus escape plans and questionable chokeholds
😂 Laughs, science, and bad life choices (imagined only!)

🎧 Kick off Season 13 with science, strategy, and sheer nonsense.

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🎉 Support us on Patreon to keep the episodes coming! 🪼🦤🧠 For more laughs, catch us on YouTube!