In this episode, Bill and Steve dive into a tiny, bustling world - a world that’s hiding on the feathers of the birds we see every day. Joined by Dr. Alix Matthews, postdoctoral research associate in the Department of Biological Sciences at the University at Buffalo, she reveals the strange lives of feather mites — how these barely-visible hitchhikers feed and get around, and whether or not they’re helping or hurting their avian hosts. It’s an episode that proves there’s a whole world hiding on every wing.
This episode was recorded on September 4, 2025 at Walton Woods in Amherst, NY.
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In this episode, Bill and Steve dive into a tiny, bustling world - a world that’s hiding on the feathers of the birds we see every day. Joined by Dr. Alix Matthews, postdoctoral research associate in the Department of Biological Sciences at the University at Buffalo, she reveals the strange lives of feather mites — how these barely-visible hitchhikers feed and get around, and whether or not they’re helping or hurting their avian hosts. It’s an episode that proves there’s a whole world hiding on every wing.
This episode was recorded on September 4, 2025 at Walton Woods in Amherst, NY.
This month, we head to the tropics and meet the Blue Iguana of the Cayman Islands! This endangered lizard is found nowhere else on the globe save for the island of Grand Cayman in the Caribbean, and just two decades ago, it’s likely there were fewer than 25 animals remaining in the wild. This was a species that was functionally extinct, but thanks to the herculean efforts of a dedicated group of people, the Blue Iguana (Cyclura lewisi) has been brought back from the brink, with over 1000 iguanas now roaming the dry, rocky forests of Grand Cayman. In July of 2024 Bill traveled there to interview Fred Burton, the man many people credit as the main driver behind the effort to save this endemic species.
The Field Guides
In this episode, Bill and Steve dive into a tiny, bustling world - a world that’s hiding on the feathers of the birds we see every day. Joined by Dr. Alix Matthews, postdoctoral research associate in the Department of Biological Sciences at the University at Buffalo, she reveals the strange lives of feather mites — how these barely-visible hitchhikers feed and get around, and whether or not they’re helping or hurting their avian hosts. It’s an episode that proves there’s a whole world hiding on every wing.
This episode was recorded on September 4, 2025 at Walton Woods in Amherst, NY.
