While we recover from our 50-episode-long first season and get ready to swim into season two in 2026, we're revisiting some of our favorite episodes since our launch back in 2024. This oldie, but certainly a goodie, focuses in on the fascinating and important work being done by our horticulture team.
Episode cast
The Podcast Aquatic is made possible by support from The Tennessee Conservationist, the official magazine of Tennessee State Parks.
Printed sustainably on 100% post-consumer recycled paper with UV ink, each issue is filled with fascinating stories about Tennessee’s native species, rich history, and unique culture. It’s also your guide to exploring state parks and planning your next outdoor adventure.
Become a Tennessee Conservationist and subscribe at tnconservationist.org.
Join other conservation enthusiasts and follow us on Facebook and Instagram.
Hard to believe we're 50 episodes deep into The Podcast Aquatic! Listen in as we celebrate this milestone by turning the tables on erstwhile host/wannabe expert Casey Phillips to put him in the hot seat for once!
Episodes we mention that you should check out:
Check out these other zoo and aquarium podcasts:
Episode Cast
The Podcast Aquatic is made possible by support from The Tennessee Conservationist, the official magazine of Tennessee State Parks.
Printed sustainably on 100% post-consumer recycled paper with UV ink, each issue is filled with fascinating stories about Tennessee’s native species, rich history, and unique culture.
It’s also your guide to exploring state parks and planning your next outdoor adventure.
Become a Tennessee Conservationist and subscribe at tnconservationist.org.
Join other conservation enthusiasts and follow us on Facebook and Instagram.
In the English language, there are few words that convey a sense of finality quite like "extinction." The notion that a species could completely disappear from the planet forever — down to literally the last individual — is incredibly sobering.
But how "final" is extinction? How can scientists be sure that an animal has, in fact, completely disappeared forever?
As sampling and surveying techniques improve and more and more eyes and camera lenses are trained on broader and broader swaths of the planet, supposedly extinct animals like the Coelacanth and Attenborough's Long-beaked Echidna have been rediscovered like Lazarus rising from the grave.
In this quick-hit episode, we pose the question to our resident biologist of how extinction is determined, whether it's reversible and, if so, why bringing an animal back might not be a morally sound path to take.
Learn more about how our intervention saved the critically endangered Laurel Dace from near-certain extinction: https://youtu.be/NPcm_d-PsXk?si=xRy63_gWZ_ktvExF
Episode cast
The Podcast Aquatic is made possible by support from The Tennessee Conservationist, the official magazine of Tennessee State Parks.
Printed sustainably on 100% post-consumer recycled paper with UV ink, each issue is filled with fascinating stories about Tennessee’s native species, rich history, and unique culture.
It’s also your guide to exploring state parks and planning your next outdoor adventure.
Become a Tennessee Conservationist and subscribe at tnconservationist.org.
Join other conservation enthusiasts and follow us on Facebook and Instagram.
Why are lemurs such messy eaters? Why would a penguin refuse to eat a delicious capelin? If a snake hasn't eaten in three months, should I be concerned?
If you think it's tough to feed your clan, consider the challenge of satiating more than 13,000 animals, all of which have different needs and preferences.
On the eve of the most glutton-y holiday of all, this Thanksgiving-special episode homes in on all the delectably meaty details when it comes to nutrition here at the Tennessee Aquarium.
Check out how many fish penguins can put down in a single sitting (waddling?) before undergoing their annual catastrophic molt: https://youtu.be/LFxelNv7Pwo
Episode cast
The Podcast Aquatic is made possible by support from The Tennessee Conservationist, the official magazine of Tennessee State Parks.
Printed sustainably on 100% post-consumer recycled paper with UV ink, each issue is filled with fascinating stories about Tennessee’s native species, rich history, and unique culture.
It’s also your guide to exploring state parks and planning your next outdoor adventure.
Become a Tennessee Conservationist and subscribe at tnconservationist.org.
Join other conservation enthusiasts and follow us on Facebook and Instagram.
When you were a student — assuming you aren't still one — did you ever imagine that your teacher lived at your school? Sometimes, educators can give so much of their time and energy (and occasionally their money) to their craft that it can certainly seem like a school is where they call home.
In reality, many teachers feel hamstrung at having to adapt their methods to their classroom facilities, working around inadequacies or equipment that doesn't quite meet their own needs or those of their students.
What if teachers were invited to help design those same classrooms, though? Wouldn't their input be a valuable asset in the learning process? Wouldn't it ease their frustration and make them more effective at their critically important jobs? As this episode goes live, the Tennessee Aquarium is just one day away from opening a major addition to its downtown Chattanooga campus: The S.T.R.E.A.M. Learning center, supported by UNUM.
This new facility sits next door to the Ocean Journey and River Journey buildings and will act as the hub of the Aquarium's previously decentralized educational efforts. Better still, its design was directly influenced by the educators who will be using it to teach and as a resource for professional development.
In this episode, we discover why we invited teachers to participate in the design process and how their input will impact the Aquarium's long-standing role as an educational resource to so many.
Episode cast
The Podcast Aquatic is made possible by support from The Tennessee Conservationist, the official magazine of Tennessee State Parks.
Printed sustainably on 100% post-consumer recycled paper with UV ink, each issue is filled with fascinating stories about Tennessee’s native species, rich history, and unique culture.It’s also your guide to exploring state parks and planning your next outdoor adventure.
Become a Tennessee Conservationist and subscribe at tnconservationist.org.
Join other conservation enthusiasts and follow us on Facebook and Instagram.
All her life, Dr. Rae Wynn-Grant was focused on one career ambition: to host a nature series like those that had so stoked her passion for animals early in life.
Decades later, Dr. Rae was an author and host to a hit podcast with a long list of academic achievements to her name. She was content and had come to terms with the thought that she might not be destined to grace the silver screen.
And then NBC came calling with an offer to co-helm one of the most well-respected, storied nature series to lead the revival of a legendary series: Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom. Alongside co-host Peter Gros, she has visited wild faces and spaces across the world for Wild Kingdom Protecting the Wild, which recently began airing its third season in October.
In this episode, Dr. Rae chats about growing up apart from nature but no less entranced by it and her hopes and ambitions as an inspiration to new generations of animal lovers.
Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom Protecting the Wild airs Saturday mornings on NBC's "The More You Know" programming block. Check local airtimes and other ways to watch at mutualofomaha.com/wild-kingdom/article/how-to-watch-mutual-of-omahas-wild-kingdom-protecting-the-wild
Learn more about Dr. Rae Wynn-Grant's many projects via her website, raewynngrant.com/
Episode cast
The Podcast Aquatic is made possible by support from The Tennessee Conservationist, the official magazine of Tennessee State Parks.
Printed sustainably on 100% post-consumer recycled paper with UV ink, each issue is filled with fascinating stories about Tennessee’s native species, rich history, and unique culture. It’s also your guide to exploring state parks and planning your next outdoor adventure.
Become a Tennessee Conservationist and subscribe at tnconservationist.org.
Join other conservation enthusiasts and follow us on Facebook and Instagram.
There are some animals that don’t deal well with change. Or rather, they seem to somehow avoid being touched by the passage of time like they’re role playing as Peter Pan or Dorian Gray.
These lurkers on the edges of the evolutionary flow are what scientists have catchingly termed “living fossils.” One of the most well-known examples of being adverse-to-change are the lepisosteiformes, the taxonomic order of fishes more commonly known as “gars.”
These toothy-snooted, predominantly freshwater predators have a fearsome appearance but have come to be much beloved. This episode arrives concurrent with the annual celebration known as “Gar Week.” This weeklong social media event is the brainchild of the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation and offers an opportunity for the citizens of Earth to pay homage to these evolutionarily stubborn fishes.
This episode features special guest Dr. Solomon David, a well-known, socially media savvy gar expert, researcher and aquatic ecology professor from the University of Minnesota. Learn more about him at solomondavid.net/
[Check out Dr. David’s gar-geous photos and videos via his Instagram (instagram.com/solomon.r.david/) and TikTok (tiktok.com/@solomonrdavid).]
Episode cast
The Podcast Aquatic is made possible by support from The Tennessee Conservationist, the official magazine of Tennessee State Parks.
Printed sustainably on 100% post-consumer recycled paper with UV ink, each issue is filled with fascinating stories about Tennessee’s native species, rich history, and unique culture. It’s also your guide to exploring state parks and planning your next outdoor adventure.
Become a Tennessee Conservationist and subscribe at tnconservationist.org.
Join other conservation enthusiasts and follow us on Facebook and Instagram.
Appalachia is an ancient place. That's a fact. Whether your roots in this part of the world run deep, you just moved here or you're merely passing through, the feeling of age in this rippled, time-worn landscape is palpable, especially when you find yourself traipsing off the trail.
The animals that dwell in the deep lakes and far-flung hollers betwixt Appalachia's mountains have birthed many tall tales and legends. And as it turns out, some of them might even have a kernel of truth to them.
In this special episode of the show, we swap tales and shine a light of scientific truth on our old home place. A team of the Aquarium's in-house experts bring their experience to the task of debunking — or possibly lending credence to — common Appalachian animal myths, from rumors of mountain lions haunting the hills to literal big fish stories of giant catfish lurking at the bottom of rivers.
Episode cast
[Disclaimer: The song used in the introduction to this episode was created through the generative audio platform Suno.]
The Podcast Aquatic is made possible by support from The Tennessee Conservationist, the official magazine of Tennessee State Parks.
Printed sustainably on 100% post-consumer recycled paper with UV ink, each issue is filled with fascinating stories about Tennessee’s native species, rich history, and unique culture.
It’s also your guide to exploring state parks and planning your next outdoor adventure.
Become a Tennessee Conservationist and subscribe at tnconservationist.org.
Join other conservation enthusiasts and follow us on Facebook and Instagram.
For a fish that first appeared alongside dinosaurs and survived the calamity that wiped them out, the Lake Sturgeon has had a hard last half-century in Tennessee.
Once abundant in the state's waterways, wild Lake Sturgeon were last seen in Tennessee in 1963.
In 1998, the Tennessee Aquarium was among the organizations that founded the Lake Sturgeon Working Group. Since then, the group members have been hard at work raising and releasing baby Lake Sturgeon in hopes of re-establishing a stable wild population in the Tennessee and Cumberland rivers.
This year, that effort celebrates 25 years of releasing sturgeon raised in human care, and recent findings by wildlife managers suggest those years of effort may finally be bearing fruit.
Watch our scientists help with spawning wild Lake Sturgeon in Wisconsin: https://youtu.be/ew_4yDb3Ccw
Episode Cast
The Podcast Aquatic is made possible by support from The Tennessee Conservationist, the official magazine of Tennessee State Parks.
Printed sustainably on 100% post-consumer recycled paper with UV ink, each issue is filled with fascinating stories about Tennessee’s native species, rich history, and unique culture. It’s also your guide to exploring state parks and planning your next outdoor adventure.
Become a Tennessee Conservationist and subscribe at tnconservationist.org.
Join other conservation enthusiasts and follow us on Facebook and Instagram.
To the general public, the acronym "AZA" might be largely meaningless, but in the zoo and aquarium world, it's associated with the gold standard by which all aspects of a zoological organization is measured, especially the animals' well being.
The Association of Zoos and Aquariums was founded more than 100 years ago in 1924. It now comprises more than 9,000 individual members and has accredited more than 250 institutions worldwide.
In this episode — recorded live at AZA's annual conference in Tampa, Florida — AZA President & CEO Dan Ashe talks about what it means to hold zoos and aquariums to this incredibly high standard, how it (like its member institutions) has had to change over the last century and the pride he takes in AZA's many global conservation-focused efforts around the world.
Learn more about AZA's Saving Animals From Extinction (SAFE) Program: https://www.aza.org/aza-safe
Episode cast
The Podcast Aquatic is made possible by support from The Tennessee Conservationist, the official magazine of Tennessee State Parks.
Printed sustainably on 100% post-consumer recycled paper with UV ink, each issue is filled with fascinating stories about Tennessee’s native species, rich history, and unique culture. It’s also your guide to exploring state parks and planning your next outdoor adventure.
Become a Tennessee Conservationist and subscribe at tnconservationist.org.
Join other conservation enthusiasts and follow us on Facebook and Instagram.
From impossibly flexible, boneless bodies and mastery of camouflage to an over-abundance of brains and hearts, octopuses are like aliens come down from on high to boggle the minds of biologists.
In this short-form, Mic Droplet episode of the podcast, the Aquarium’s resident octopus specialist helps celebrate World Octopus Day by ticking off a few of the most-noteworthy facts about these amazing cephalopods and explains how in the actual heck you weigh a 50-pound octopus.
See what a morning in the life of an octopus caretaker looks like: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMw9NkkqkmY
Episode cast
The Podcast Aquatic is made possible by support from The Tennessee Conservationist, the official magazine of Tennessee State Parks.
Printed sustainably on 100% post-consumer recycled paper with UV ink, each issue is filled with fascinating stories about Tennessee’s native species, rich history, and unique culture. It’s also your guide to exploring state parks and planning your next outdoor adventure.
Become a Tennessee Conservationist and subscribe at tnconservationist.org.
Join other conservation enthusiasts and follow us on Facebook and Instagram.
When it comes to the most impressive migrations in the animal kingdom , there are a few obvious standouts: the pole-to-pole voyage of the Arctic Tern; the horizon-spanning race of Wildebeests across the Serengeti; the bear-dodging spawning runs of Chinook Salmon.
In the insect world, however, pretty much everything pales in comparison to the daunting voyage of Monarch Butterflies from Central Mexico to Canada and back again. Every year, these tiny, beautiful insects embark on this trip, which takes multiple generations to complete ... except when it doesn't.
At the onset of fall, a single generation of butterflies completes the entire trip back to Mexico, a task that sounds laughably impossible for a featherweight insect with gossamer-delicate, three-inch wings. Yet they do it, every ... single ... year.
The Tennessee Aquarium sits squarely in the middle of the migration route for the eastern population of Monarch Butterflies, making it a prime viewing location for these orange-and-gold beauties as they make their way northward each fall. In this episode, the Aquarium's senior entomologist talks about Monarchs set people's hearts a-flutter, the biological processes that allow them to undertake their unbelievable trip and steps society is taking to protect Monarchs from the greatest threat of all: us.
Episode Cast
Additional Resources
The Podcast Aquatic is made possible by support from The Tennessee Conservationist, the official magazine of Tennessee State Parks.
Printed sustainably on 100% post-consumer recycled paper with UV ink, each issue is filled with fascinating stories about Tennessee’s native species, rich history, and unique culture. It’s also your guide to exploring state parks and planning your next outdoor adventure.
Become a Tennessee Conservationist and subscribe at tnconservationist.org.
Join other conservation enthusiasts and follow us on Facebook and Instagram.
It’s pretty much inarguable that sharks get a bad rap.
In a given year, a handful of humans are bitten by sharks, and of these, an even smaller number result in serious injuries or fatalities.
Flip the script, however, and sharks are far more likely to be the victims of "human attacks." Most data suggest about 100 MILLION sharks die each year due to intentional harvest, commercial by-catch or other human activity.
Yet despite this decidedly lop-sided relationship, many of us continue to fear sharks due to reports of shark bites that over-emphasize the aggressiveness of these sleek marine predators.
In this episode, Cristina Zenato -- a self-described "shark listener" -- talks about her and other ecologists' quest to understand how sharks behave, a view informed by countless positive interactions with them as a lifelong diver and researcher. She also discusses her role in the new giant-screen film, Shark Kingdom 3D, which is now playing at the Tennessee Aquarium IMAX 3D Theater!
View a trailer of Shark Kingdom 3D at: https://youtu.be/YQndv-lBy1g?si=jJybdwvk1VQUKK7b
To purchase tickets to see the film at the Tennessee Aquarium IMAX 3D Theater , visit https://tnaqua.org/imax
Learn more about Cristina's educational nonprofit, People of the Water, at http://pownonprofit.org/
Episode Cast
The Podcast Aquatic is made possible by support from The Tennessee Conservationist, the official magazine of Tennessee State Parks.
Printed sustainably on 100% post-consumer recycled paper with UV ink, each issue is filled with fascinating stories about Tennessee’s native species, rich history, and unique culture. It’s also your guide to exploring state parks and planning your next outdoor adventure.
Become a Tennessee Conservationist and subscribe at https://tnconservationist.org
Join other conservation enthusiasts and follow us on Facebook and Instagram.
At the Aquarium, we have animals of all sorts, from the beautiful and benign to graceful and powerful. Some of our residents could even, in some circumstances, be considered "dangerous."
How, then, do you see to the needs of species whose adaptations present a serious risk to their caretakers? What tools do you need? What mindset do you have to adopt?
In this episode, three caretakers of animals such as Electric Eels, Pacific Sea Nettles, American Alligators and ... River Otters? ... talk about how they approach ensuring the health of animals that pose a risk to theirs.
Episode Cast
The Podcast Aquatic is made possible by support from The Tennessee Conservationist, the official magazine of Tennessee State Parks.
Printed sustainably on 100% post-consumer recycled paper with UV ink, each issue is filled with fascinating stories about Tennessee’s native species, rich history, and unique culture. It’s also your guide to exploring state parks and planning your next outdoor adventure.
Become a Tennessee Conservationist and subscribe at tnconservationist.org.
Join other conservation enthusiasts and follow us on Facebook and Instagram.
Every year, hundreds of thousands of visitors explore the galleries of the Tennessee Aquarium. The hope is that those experiences help guests to form a meaningful bond with the natural world and to better understand the importance of freshwater and how our behavior impacts it. That aim is the same for every guest, regardless of their sensory challenges or whether they are a person living with an impairment.
In this episode, we talk about the efforts the Aquarium has made to improve accessibility, including being one of the first organizations in America to be certified as sensory-inclusive by Birmingham, Alabama-based nonprofit KultureCity.
We'll also hear directly from an Aquarium member about how those efforts to improving accessibility have directly benefited his son, who lives with autism, by making the Aquarium a safe, inspiring, joy-filled place to visit.
Episode Cast
For more information on the Aquarium's accessibility efforts, visit: https://tnaqua.org/plan-a-visit/accessibility-inclusion
Learn more about KultureCity at https://www.kulturecity.org/
Download the KultureCity app for:
The Podcast Aquatic is made possible by support from The Tennessee Conservationist, the official magazine of Tennessee State Parks.
Printed sustainably on 100% post-consumer recycled paper with UV ink, each issue is filled with fascinating stories about Tennessee’s native species, rich history, and unique culture. It’s also your guide to exploring state parks and planning your next outdoor adventure.
Become a Tennessee Conservationist and subscribe at tnconservationist.org.
Join other conservation enthusiasts and follow us on Facebook and Instagram.
If you're ever in the wild and encounter an animal that looks ghost-like — pale skin, scales or fur — your immediate thought might be that this is an example of albinism. Look a little closer, though, and there may be some tell-tale signs that you've actually chanced on something different, if just as interesting.
In our first-ever Mic Droplet, a shorter-format version of The Podcast Aquatic you know and love, we chat about leucism, how it differs from albinism and an exciting new opportunity to see it during your Aquarium visit.
Episode Cast
The Podcast Aquatic is made possible by support from The Tennessee Conservationist, the official magazine of Tennessee State Parks.
Printed sustainably on 100% post-consumer recycled paper with UV ink, each issue is filled with fascinating stories about Tennessee’s native species, rich history, and unique culture. It’s also your guide to exploring state parks and planning your next outdoor adventure.
Become a Tennessee Conservationist and subscribe at tnconservationist.org
Join other conservation enthusiasts and follow us on Facebook and Instagram.
Because many of the animals are on the other side of a layer of soundproof acrylic, exploring an aquarium is an experience that is intensely visual for most guests. Combined with the ever-increasing capabilities of the cameras in most phones, it's no surprise, then, that some of the most cherished souvenirs taken home by most visitors are selfies and snapshots.
But what if you want to level up your photography game so those images truly shine? In this episode, two Aquarium staff photographers — one relatively new, the other with images almost as old as the Aquarium itself — offer tips on how to overcome dark galleries and mirror-like exhibits to capture images that you'll cherish AND be proud to share with friends and your Insta followers.
See plenty of examples of Doug Strickland's images on the Aquarium's Instagram account: https://www.instagram.com/tennesseeaquarium/
Episode Cast
The Podcast Aquatic is made possible by support from The Tennessee Conservationist, the official magazine of Tennessee State Parks.
Printed sustainably on 100% post-consumer recycled paper with UV ink, each issue is filled with fascinating stories about Tennessee’s native species, rich history, and unique culture. It’s also your guide to exploring state parks and planning your next outdoor adventure.
Become a Tennessee Conservationist and subscribe at tnconservationist.org
Join other conservation enthusiasts and follow us on Facebook and Instagram.
From loss of habitat to collection to supply the pet and medicinal trade, turtles all over the world are in serious trouble. Fortunately, turtles have organizations like the Turtle Survival Alliance looking out for them.
From its home in Charleston, South Carolina, to operations in more than 30 countries, the TSA is on the frontlines of breeding and protecting critically endangered turtles. They're also a long-time collaborator with the Tennessee Aquarium, which partners with the TSA in the Association of Zoos and Aquariums' Saving Animals From Extinction (SAFE) American Turtles program. You can also see some of the offspring of critically imperiled turtles raised by the TSA in the Aquarium's working turtle nursery.
Learn more about the Turtle Survival Alliance at https://turtlesurvival.org
Learn more about the AZA SAFE American Turtles program: https://youtu.be/fdnQ7Kd8czk?si=kgPG4XpIE3UNTysU
Episode Cast
The Podcast Aquatic is made possible by support from The Tennessee Conservationist, the official magazine of Tennessee State Parks.
Printed sustainably on 100% post-consumer recycled paper with UV ink, each issue is filled with fascinating stories about Tennessee’s native species, rich history, and unique culture. It’s also your guide to exploring state parks and planning your next outdoor adventure.
Become a Tennessee Conservationist and subscribe at tnconservationist.org.
Join other conservation enthusiasts and follow us on Facebook and Instagram.
Invasive Lionfish have been a big problem in the Gulf for decades. These beautiful, venomous visitors from the Indopacific wreak havoc on native fish populations. A single female is capable of producing 50,000 eggs every three days for her entire life, and once grown, Lionfish lack any natural predators to keep their populations from spiraling out of control.
Like many ecological conundrums, the presence of Lionfish in the Gulf is thought to be the result of human activity and may require human intervention to correct it.
For the last 10 years, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has led the Lionfish Invitational, a Lionfish culling event designed to prevent the species' spread into the Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary, a series of deep-water reefs off the coast of Louisiana and Texas.
In this episode, four Tennessee Aquarium aquarists invited to take part in the Lionfish Invitational recount their time actively working to stave off an invasive species while also experiencing the real-life inspiration for the Aquarium's largest exhibit: the Secret Reef.
Watch a video of the Tennessee Aquarium's participation in the 2023 Lionfish Invitational: https://youtu.be/_FW_M_ebFZM?si=b8hCyz6v_L5bKDZR
Additional resources:
Episode Cast
The Podcast Aquatic is made possible by support from The Tennessee Conservationist, the official magazine of Tennessee State Parks.
Printed sustainably on 100% post-consumer recycled paper with UV ink, each issue is filled with fascinating stories about Tennessee’s native species, rich history, and unique culture. It’s also your guide to exploring state parks and planning your next outdoor adventure.
Become a Tennessee Conservationist and subscribe at tnconservationist.org.
Join other conservation enthusiastsand follow us on Facebook and Instagram
In this episode, meet two of the minds behind the design of the Aquarium’s many exhibits. Whether it’s prioritizing an animal’s wellbeing in its future home or ensuring a habitat has the best sightlines for guests, seeing an exhibit from an artistic concept to a walkable, explorable space is alengthy one, if often as invisible as it is hugely important.
Learn why the poison dart frog exhibit is our exhibitdesigner’s favorite habitat in the aquarium: https://youtu.be/a-qDFRaxUEo?si=eX8QCeWPz1TzMRlW
Check out our previous deep-dive episode focusing on thedesign, construction and ecological success of our large stream exhibit: https://open.spotify.com/episode/3pwR614ev4iW98NxGQXBiq?si=d185a2897c984ace
Episode Cast
The Podcast Aquatic is made possible by support from TheTennessee Conservationist, the official magazine of Tennessee State Parks.
Printed sustainably on 100% post-consumer recycled paperwith UV ink, each issue is filled with fascinating stories about Tennessee’s native species, rich history, and unique culture. It’s also your guide to exploring state parks and planning your next outdoor adventure.
Become a Tennessee Conservationist and subscribe at tnconservationist.org
Join other conservation enthusiasts and follow us on Facebook and Instagram.