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Discussion thread: SEAWEED episode is up! (Patreon)

Published:
2025-06-12 00:53:37
Imported:
2026-06

Content

This episode is up and published, ready to hear wherever you get podcasts!

Hello from Los Angeles where things are ... calm and normal. Really. Everything is business as usual in the giant sprawl of LA, except a few blocks downtown of mostly peaceful protests and a few people vandalizing billionaire property and journalists getting detained and shot. I'll get to the seaweed episode in a minute, but it's been an awful week. Not just for Angelenos, not just for immigrants, not just for families, but for all Americans dismayed at basic constitutional rights being so flagrantly shit upon.

So this week has involved keeping one eye/ear on the news and our friends and neighbors, and the other making a stunning, wonderful, rich seaweed episode with not one but FIVE Macrophycologists. I love this one, and I hope you enjoy.

(Also, as we uploaded this past midnight last night with a blaring headache and heavy eyes, we published a file that had a few seconds of silence at the 14 minute mark, but it's since been fixed. )

Please enjoy and let's talk amongst ourselves in the comments about algae, kelp, ruined wedding photos, pet bacteria, salad dissection and climate solution propositions.

As always thank you for listening, and encouraging me to use my voice and platform those of others'. It's the best job in the world. Safe safe, and protect and enjoy each other,

Yours always,

Father Ward

Files

Macrophycology (SEAWEED) with Dr. Patrick Martone, Dr. Charles Yarish, Danielle McHaskell, Angela Jones, and Becky Swerida - alie ward

Moonlit seaweeds. Dreamy underwater forests. Mounds of beach debris. Not plants. Let's talk about where seaweed grows and whether or not it will save us all. Macrophycology means "big-ass algae" so let's join five dazzling seaweed enthusiasts: guest-in-chief Dr. Patrick Martone of the University of

Comments

Keerat Singh

This episode took me back to the lovely california beaches i enjoyed when i lived there. Sending well wishes to everyone in LA❤️

Nicole S

When I tell you my mind was blown by the (lack of) genetic relationship between plants and seaweed…. My family occasionally mocks me for sharing all the fun facts that I learn on Ologies, but even my just-turned-16-today daughter dropped her jaw when I told her that one. Thanks for helping me to be the cool mom. Or at least the surprising one. Love from Canada.

Mr. Pulley

Just joined, and hot damn did this topic made me glad I did.

Garnet

My childhood neighbor and family friend created a company called Symbrosia which developed a sea weed supplement for livestock that reduces their methane emissions drastically! Thought I would name drop in case anyone wanted to check it out! This episode was so interesting and exciting!! Learning about the chloroplast origins and the oxygenation of the atmosphere had me gasping!!

Colby Evans

It may have been a struggle getting this out, but amazing job with the narrative... I loved your transporting from one coast to another. And as someone with Irish blood, the tidepooling comment since we need SPF 90 really hit home

Elinor Wahl

Just a heads-up: the audio of this episode cuts out between about 15:21 and 15:28

Emily Wrubel

I am a retired middle school science teacher and I wished I’d known about brown algae consuming red algae which consumed cyanobacteria when I was teaching! I am visualizing the cartons kids could have made!

Matt Schmidt

Can’t wait to listen. There is all kinds of crazy seaweed down here.

ButternutPGH

this episode was legit the best. I NEVER KNEW it wasn't a plant. goodness me! I was so excited about it I very much shared with so many folx via text! lol

Carter Hawkins

I cannot tell you how long I have waited for this episode!! I always told myself I would recommend one of my phycology professors (he wasn’t on the show but the selection was stellar!) I was shaking with excitement when my partner told me there was a seaweed episode out, she is a phycology grad student at moss landing marine labs :) I am a community ecologist about to finish my thesis on giant kelp restoration in Monterey so this was so surreal for me!! Me and two phycologists listened to this episode and we were AMAZED at all the info you got in, stellar job with your background research and the folks you had on the show! UGH I am so stoked for this episode

Sunflower star

Thank you - I loved all the places this episode went, from the dawn of life on earth to the individual cells of seaweeds, to unexpected smells in wedding photos! Being from the pacific northwest I'm very familiar with the rotting scent of seaweed at the wrack line. Seaweeds are so diverse and interesting, such rich habitats for life in the intertidal zones and at sea! We have to protect the rights and homes for sea life just as we have to protect our own freedoms and democracy! Stay safe and take a look at your local beaches during low tides. You never know what you'll find.

Mark Wilkes

Great ep. My brother worked with Charlie Yarish years ago. Now he studies estuary seaweeds…in a hovercraft. Seaweed is glamorous, folks!

Lindsay Malone

Alie and the Ologies Team this episode is AMAZING! Thank you for the hard work to weave all the content together like a beautiful basket for collecting seaweed. It came out the very day I was tidepooling off the North Olympic Coast (looking out to Vancouver Island). The gorgeous seaweed gardens and diversity of species funneled me down a (tube)worm hole to understand seaweed and algae. Patrick's and your explanations about the different kinds of seaweed and their evolution (starting around 17:22) are excellent! Hinting at the nuances and complexities but also helping the seaweed-curious to have some organization and a holdfast on the basics was so helpful. I don't feel as lost now as I did prior to listening. The vibrancy and intensity of life in a tidepool or seagrass garden is profound. 💖🌊🧂🐙🪼🪸 It's been a heck of a first half of 2025 for Los Angeles County. May the thousands of protests over weekend invigorate action, enlighten perspectives, and help us all choose to make a kinder, safer world for all beings. ☮️🦋☮️🦋☮️

Kris Burnell

Loved this episode. Well, truth be told I love all of them. But I was inspired to comment on this one because I taught biology at SBCC for 28 years and had greatest pleasure in being able to work with Bob Cummings. He was a great teacher and is a truly wonderful person. It made so happy to hear how much you enjoyed his class.

Spencer Parks

The PSA about bad things at a wedding: brilliant. Laugh about it later and everyone will die!

Jamie

I never really thought of seaweed as algae and never really considered just how big of a role they play in their ecosystems. Especially being someone who lives far from any coast, my attention is always grasped by the “bigger” things. This episode was amazing as always and I walked away from it with a much deeper appreciation for seaweed <3

Ja Jo: Art & Craft

Went to my parent’s house after listening to this episode and mom had a big pack of river weed from Laos. It’s pressed into a sheet like seaweed. You fry it and season it to get a seaweed-like snack. It’s fascinating. It’s nuttier and texturally, it’s both crisp and spongey. You can clearly see the algae strands.

Ellie Jessee

Alie, your podcast truly keeps me going, learning, and growing. I’m an Idahoan and have been tuned in since your Birds of Prey episode, and haven’t stopped obsessing. I’m a welder and always have both headphones in when I listen to you at work. I’ve always been interested in ecology, insects, and conservation, but your pod has made me realize that I love and care about these things so much and need to pursue them as a career! I’m working my way there but in the meantime I’m working with the local fish and game dept as a volunteer in their monarch and milkweed survey. It’s so incredible that I can apply things I’ve learned from your pod to this huge survey. 💗❤️💗❤️ You’re the coolest

Mamie Brouwer

The krill component of salmon feed (makes them pink) is a keystone species of the Antarctic gyre. I forget the actual tonnage quota is, but up to this year, approximately 200,000 tons were left on the table annually. I learned in January 2024 the Chinese were currently building trawlers to take that 200,000 tons. Those may be operational now. Oh, I learned one Norwegian man owns the entire krill export. And that’s the legal quota, we all know, everyone abides by international fishing treaties. Looking at you Japan. Imagine the consequences to the entire ocean when the krill population collapses. Goodbye Happy Feet and Shamu. All for artificially pink ATLANTIC salmon. Not even real salmon. One last note, my husband was known as “Octopus Man” by the radiation oncology staff during his cancer treatments. He will never eat octopus because of one ingenious octopus and studying after hours. Basically, this octopus escaped his tank and grazed all the fish in surrounding tanks requiring an across conference room hike in eight legs.

PO

Yes, and of just a couple days America has gotten even Shittery. Thanks Alie for your podcasts as they cover such true topics in truth and your guests and yourself bring back the reality that there are so many great people fighting the good fight to unshitty the Country. Unshittyologist- can this be a real name soon??