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Critical Ecology is up! Social Systems + Environment! (Patreon)

Published:
2022-08-24 18:26:53
Imported:
2026-06

Content

Dr. Suzanne Pierre is a warm, hilarious biogeochemist, soil scientist, and ecologist who's collaborating with several disciplines to make a whole freakin' new -ology. You'll love her. She founded CriticalEcologyLab.org and talks all about how power structures throughout history effect the planet today. We also chat about forests on volcanoes, state mottos, and why seeing humans as individuals can help ecology. 

Hope everyone is doing well -- it's so nice to be back. Thank you all so much for the time and the space you have given me the last few months. You have no idea how much you've helped. Also: what -ologies do you want to hear? Toss some suggestions and -ologists in the comments and discuss amongst yourselves. 

(Oh, anyone have -ologists in the Montana or New York area you want me to meet?)

In arrows we trust,

Alie VonDadward

Files

Critical Ecology (SOCIAL SYSTEMS + ENVIRONMENT) with Dr. Suzanne Pierre - alie ward

How do societal structures affect the planet? Why should we get to know our neighbors? What's the ecological price we pay for ... stuff? Yep, there's an -ology for that. We chat with the founder of Critical Ecology: biogeochemist, National Geographic Explorer, researcher and plant nerd, Dr. Suzanne Pi

Comments

Stephanie Augustine

Ethology! Animal behaviour as a broader concept would be really cool.

Alie Ward

I feel like I could milk "Ethology" for every species of animal ever. Like can I do 20 different episodes on "____ Ethology?" Where do I even start though??

Alie Ward

She's so funny, too. I did not expect this topic to be such a laughy chatterfest but she's just so charismatic

Daniella Napolitano

I'm so excited to listen to this episode! I'd love a Limnology episode! Our inland water doesn't get as much attention as the ocean and it deserves its due time in the sun (and also my partner found a super old limnology textbook when we were in college and hollowed it out to hide not-so-legal-at-the-time-items so the word "limnology" is a fun inside joke between the two of us)

Alie Ward

Thank you! We actually had to record it in two separate interview sessions (one in March at the Cal Academy and one in July on Catalina Island) because we were cut short in March -- I had gotten a false positive rapid covid test that morning and rushed to get a PCR, which was thankfully negative, so our interview wasn't complete until we met up again... We worked hard to merge them together and have the sound seamless. Just some fun BTS for y'all...

Ashley Bray

As a New Hampshire Ologite, I have never felt so seen. And yes, we all know at least one person with a “live free or die” tattoo 😅

Alie Ward

Oh I LOVE hollowed out books, even though I know it's a tragedy for the book itself. But for ones that are destined for the recycling bin -- what a great reincarnation

Lynn Overmyer

SUCH a fantastically helpful conversation! I'm looking at the whole world in a new way. Thank you both!

Ashley Bray

Also, this topic really got me thinking about ecosystem services + cultural ecosystem services. It’s a framework so I’m not sure if it’d be possible to do an episode but really great topic!

Alie Ward

Ashley I kept contemplating "IS THIS ASIDE TOO MUCH" but I just couldn't cut it out. The license plate legal trivia was too precious.

G.Sil

It is such a good topic!! Excited to finish listening to it, reminds me on the subfield of Geography, Political Ecology. Similar in concept and approach I think.

Loren R.

I second this!

The Project Project

There's a US fish-hatching facility in Miles City you could probably hit up for some kind of interesting take on something. And, as always, I have to put in a plea for Metrology. Read the Simon Winchester book on The Perfectionists, and call your pal Adam Savage and have him give you his thoughts on why metrology is interesting, and why it's so important to science as a whole. He can probably put you in touch with someone at Mitutoyo Instruments, too.

Frederick Raymond-Coursol

Damn that was smooth ! I would’ve never known. All and all a very informative episode needed to know more about what we can do about our environment. I can say I’m proud to work for a company that builds electric buses and I feel like I can make a big difference that way. See you next week Alie !

Mare

I'd love a conservation primatology episode! Stony Brook University in New York has some AMAZING primatologist on their faculty. Dr. Patricia Wright is there and she's done so much in the world of conservation in Madagascar!

Lizzy Martinez

Hi Alie! Just thinking of you and wanted to send a happy early anniversary to your parents ❤️ please give your gramomward a big squeeze next time you see her! I was hoping you could do something about anniversaries or calendars.. Horology is what I could find relating to this topic.

Ashley Green

Yes!! That would be so awesome!

Jack Sparks

This was an awesome episode. I would really really love to hear from a sloth scientist, like it would make all my dreams on this earthly plane come true, I have been jonesing for some news about sloths since I finished plowing through all of the sloth science books i could find. Not sure what the ologie would be called tho

Loren R.

I'm excited to listen to this episode! An episode on crying/tears would be fascinating, as would one about manatees. As a Florida native, I feel that more visibility/understanding on these gentle creatures would help raise awareness to the various threats they face.

Nancy Kay Clark

I'm still bingeing, but to my knowledge, you haven't done a Hippology yet. I'd love to hear that one. It's the study of the horse. But what is the study of hippos, then? Hydrohippology?

Skye LeDoux

Hi! I have an incredible Fulbright winning Mycologist/ Wildfire Community Management Leader in Montana! Lily Clark! She’s an all around superhero who you will adore ❤️ I’ve spoken with her numerous times about you and Ologies:)

Alie Ward

JR: YOU are the reason Metrology will ever exist. I have the book on my nightstand and I feel like I want to be SO prepared to do it justice for you!! It's so top of mind and it will be 100% dedicated to you. 💖

Alie Ward

Oooooh, good to know! What did you think of the recent Gorillaology?

Stephanie Augustine

I mean I'm biased as a bird biologist (can talk for days about hummingbirds, Canada Warblers, and horned larks), BUT there's really cool work out there about social networking in various species, how parental care investments vary across species and other taxonomic levels and i am 100% sure there are people who study the concept broadly, i will return after I do some research and deliver names!

Alie Ward

Aw shoot -- I will be there in the end of September to see family! Still REALLY need to do whales. It's such a ...big topic. Also very much want a dolphins episode.

Alie Ward

Aw thank you so so much! I will pass it on. We DID do a Horology episode -- I think it was episode #3, in 2017 all about watches! Alieward.com/ologies/horology

Alie Ward

JACK I HAVE A SLOTH SCIENTIST ON THE BOOKS. They invited me down to their research and rehab station in Costa Rica (!!!) but covid got in the way. I need to look into what season is best to go down there because that would be so reamy.

Alie Ward

Lacrimology, perhaps? Great one. And I have never seen a manatee but you're right those loaves of love need the spotlight.

Alie Ward

I'm about to go to my friend's horse show in Montana next week and I was thinking of interviewing one of the vets there! I also feel like I want to be really careful with a horse episode to look at the ethics and ethology of it -- I'm sure people have such varying opinions! Any experts whose work you like?

Mare

I haven't been able to listen to it yet! (Sadness) but it's next on my queue and I'm so excited for it! Because of Ologies I'm hoping to return to school for conservation biology in the near future! ❤

Melissa Berger

If you’d ever like to get in touch, he’s on social media through his organization CRESLI (@cresli_inc), I’d be happy to give him a heads up that a message is coming through! I also have some whale-ologist (cetologist?) connections in southeast Alaska (which I highly recommend visiting!)

G.Sil

Sorry if this is a repeat as I tried to reply and it seems to have disappeared. Political ecology is such a interesting field with many subfields like Feminist Political Ecology (like gendered access to water) and it is just one of the many cool subfields of Geography! I wanted to say I would love the chance to be on the podcast, I’m a PhD Student and Telmatologist (wetland science) at UCSB and would love to talk to you about all the cool things geography, wetlands, and science. You can check me out at my website: https://german-sil.github.io/gds/

Jack Sparks

IM GONNA SCREAM THATS AMAZING THEres a very good YouTube doc about two baby sloths with mange who went to that rehab and their bandages look like little pajamas

Nancy Kay Clark

What about the science behind equine-assisted therapy? You could reach out to the Temple Grandin Equine Center at Colorado State University. csuspur.org/tgec

The Project Project

But seriously, talk to Adam. He knows what's up, and he's a far more talented teacher than I am.

Paulina Krasińska-Sroka

What a great episode! Made me rethink some of the ideas around ecology & climate change that we tend to take as a fact! Love it ❤️

Emily Krieger

I don't know what kind of ologist she'd be but Betsy Gaines Quammen lives in Bozeman and studies basically the intersection of the environment and politics and religion in the American West, think Cliven Bundy etc. Fascinating, complex stuff, incredibly timely. Her latest book, American Zion: https://www.betsygainesquammen.com/

Lizzy Martinez

Thank you Alie! My husband is going to LOL that I didn't remember the Watch episode name!! Ologies and Ward fam fan since 2018 ❤️. Youda best!!

bee

Could you do a live ology recording in NYC??? Any topic! But I would personally love a linguistic anthropology episode, from whatever angle you want to come at that (although I’d be happy to make suggestions). 🙏🏻🤞🏻🤟🏻

Ashley Bray

And this is why we love you 😊

Jen Rigney

I would love an episode on beavers - Castorology? How they can reshape the environment as a keystone species, how to live alongside them in more urban areas, why are their little hands so darn cute?

Megan Ramirez

Really looking forward to listening to this episode as soon as I can! As for future topics, maybe crabs? Or perhaps extremophiles, like tardigrades?

Daniel J McDonald

Thank you both for this episode. Extremely interesting, moving, and empowering.

Naomi Jane

Looking forward to listening to this, I've broken my headphones and my week has been sorely podcast light! I would LOVE to hear an episode on teeth!? Odontology? I love all the body ones - give me all the weird gross facts to tell my loved ones at inappropriate times 😅

Kness (edited)

Comment edits

2026-09-06 05:00 This was an awesome episode! I'd love a ceramics topic, from an archaeological or chemical/physics and artistic perspective would be great ^^
2022-08-25 00:17

Lisa St

Topic of discussion on zoom knitting this week... from friend's teenage boys, why are penises shaped like they are? Since all questions are valid and some of us are scientists, we learned that evolutionarily it is so they can scoop out any semen that may be where you want to put yours. Which led the boys to proclaim they have cumscoops on the ends of their dicks. I thought WELL THERE's AN OLOGY! But I see you have a phallology episode. I'm still catching up w/ old episodes. Hope to listen to this new episode soon. It sounds timely. And remember to be kind to yourself. Grief comes and goes in waves.

Jamie Quinn

Still catching up on the last three weeks, but looking forward to this one of course! I was so happy to see encore episodes so you could take care of yourself and I could discover episodes I hadn’t listened my way back to yet. A topic I am yearning for with every fibre of my being: pedology. I’m really looking forward to the soil microbiology episode, but soil genesis has a special place in my heart and brain. Sadly I cannot make any recommendations on people to interview. I only know my soils professor (who is also incredible and would probably be a fun guest - but soil genesis isn’t necessarily his specialty.)

Chloe Jones

An -ology suggestion plus some -ologists you study it in Helena, Montana: Anthrozoology! It's the study of human-animal relationships and interactions. Carroll College has a good Anthrozoology program, with a bunch of really interesting professors. There's Dr. Margo DeMello (she wrote the first textbook in the field and tends to focus on the societal significance of animals), Dr. Marie Suthers (who tends to do stuff with the medical side of human-animal relationships like Animal Assisted Therapy, and veterinary stuff), and Professor Molly Sumridge (who tends to focus on canine-human relationships). They're all really cool and I would love it if you stopped by Carroll!

Alie Ward

That's not a terrible idea, actually. I'll actually be out there moderating a panel for a women's health festival. Maybe I can even record it...

Alie Ward

YES beavers. I have a few options in that category and actually I should see if any of them are near Montana...

Alie Ward

I have a GREAT targigrade person and I was looking into doing a remote interview. Have you heard of Dr. Łukasz Kaczmarek?

Alie Ward

Glad you liked it! I really wanted to give it my full attention and do the best job we could on it.

Alie Ward

Yes yes yes teeth. fuck yes teeth

Alie Ward

I wonder if there's an ology for the science behind the art. Like the firing and such...

Alie Ward

I hope you like the Phallology one. It's just chock a block o dicks.

Alie Ward

I JUST did an interview with D.r Lydia Jennings on soil! So Pedology is in the can and we're working on it!

Kevin Glover

Hands up for tardigrades!!!! Moss piglets!!! Water bears!! I’ve been contemplating (read: sourcing designs) a tardigrade tattoo for years. An ep focused on these disgustingly-cuddly little fuckers would be most appreciated—and would obviously age very well 🤦🏻‍♂️🙄

David Ruscalleda Gómez

I'd love an episode with Dr. Erica Chenoweth on Nonviolent Resistance (they're the Politologist that first proved that nonviolence works way better than violence even –and specially– against highly violent regimes).

Allison Muller

Excited for this episode!! I’ve always wanted to hear about food toxicology. Not sure if that’s the exact ology…but I feel like a lot of food is wasted for the wrong reasons and out of fear of something being spoiled to the point of making you sick if you eat it. Examples: wilted/slightly slimy spinach, bug gnaws on radishes, charcuterie board life span at room temperature just to name a few. Have you heard of Zero Waste Chef on Instagram? She’s the only one I can think of who may attempt tackling this one. Thanks for everything Alie!

Lucas waterbody

Wow 😳 imagine getting your PhD and then deciding to go completely outside of the system to study what you think is important and being independent. That is such a bold and inspiring move.

Lucas waterbody

I was getting the sense that Dr. Pierre was the first person to study how power relations influence the environment, but then I found the Wikipedia on 'political ecology' and it is actually an existing field already! I'm probably missing how critical ecology is different from political ecology, but it is good to know that people have been working in this area already. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_ecology

The Mad Hapa

Ditto the whale idea, and perhaps a bathypelagicologist? <-- Probably just made that up. There are fascinating stuffs way down deep, including creatures that don't need oxygen to survive. Unrelated idea: music supervisoricologist? Full disclosure: this is what I (retroactively) want to be when I grow up. I imagine there's a science to the music selected for films and ads. Like, why does Peter Gabriel's Salisbury Hill automatically tell us this movie's gonna end up alright (even if it's The Shining https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KmkVWuP_sO0)

Alie Ward

Yes, she was asked that on Twitter sand said "For sure! Political ecology is a useful field using a similar analytical lens, but is mainly disconnected from the biophysical measurement and analysis involved in ecosystems ecology or biogeochemistry. Critical ecology is my approach to critically doing ecological science."

Alie Ward

That IS an interesting field -- how do people usually end up doing that?

Lucas waterbody

That's really cool! I wonder whether 10 years from now students will learn about all the different social-soil types and oppression-forest types

Cat Kessler

Sally Warring, the microbiologist who studies pond life — loved following her on IG when she was still posting!

The Mad Hapa

Music supervision? I think start with an internship (or peon job )with a production company or music supervision company. In case it's helpful, there's a Guild of Music Supervisors (guildofmusicsupervisors.com)

Jamie Quinn

I am so looking forward to it!

Leila Laco

I loved this ep! I think Developmental Biology or Stem Cell Biology would both make really interesting episodes.

Alyssa Benson

Ologies ideas - owls? I don't know what Ology that would be, and I know you've already done a birds episode but my friend Cassidy and I were talking about owls and she said she wished there was an Ologies episode about them. Also, I know there is an episode on concussions, but I wasn't sure if there was one on migraines? I've recently been diagnosed with vestibular migraines, and I'm doing more research about migraines in general and it is fascinating how many systems of the body migraines interact with!

Jess EyeballSurgeon

NYC episode on laryngology (otolaryngology) with Dr. Ronda Alexander @yourvoicemd on twitter! PLEASEEEEE, shes a brilliant, hilarious badass black lady surgeon, and would be perfect for an episode.

Alie Ward

Thank you! Also great question this week!

Alie Ward

Urgh, you're so right! Also can you remind me how to pronounce your name? I tried it two different ways this week because I choked in the moment!

Alie Ward

I don't have one on migraines but I need one! Great idea! And I'm so sorry you get them. I do too (but not as bad as my sister) but they wipe me out.

Leila Laco

First name lay-luh, like in the Eric Clapton song Layla , second name lack-oh (not lake-oh) :)

Raven Wilbur

This episode KINDA changed my life. I’m in a bit of a hole career wise and trying to figure out what I wanna be when I grow up. Listening to this episode was like listening to my own thoughts about science, and it reignited that love in my heart for it. I emailed and dmed dr Pierre and still waiting to hear back, but I hope I get a chance to talk to her! I want to be involved in that work… so bad lol. Send prayers that she replies because I was only able to hit the “contact us” field on their website and I’m not sure that goes to her directly 🫶🏼

Marianne Thomas

I just listened to this episode and LOVED it! Tysm for always finding the coolest scientists asking the most interesting questions, & pouring them into our ear holes. You are excellent

terry goss

best ep yet?… 🧐

Kim Morell

This episode was AMAZING! Thanks for bringing us such cool people doing cool things!