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Dire wolves and bullshitters
Manage episode 479036364 series 3595139
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More reading & sources:
- Fantastic article which echos many of our arguments here: https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/04/18/wildlife-extinction-dire-wolf-endangered-species/
- Science article which summarizes dire wolves news & science: https://www.science.org/content/article/what-s-deal-dire-wolves-iconic-predators-may-have-been-neanderthals-wolf-world
- Article which leaked an internal memo from US interior secretary which said, “Pick your favorite species and call up Colossal.”: https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2025/04/10/trump-endangered-species-protections-dire-wolves/
- ... which is also discussed in this very good Vox reporting: https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/407781/dire-wolves-deextinction-colossal-biosciences
- Updates on recent cuts to NSF: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-01263-0
Notes:
- Ashley said bioRxiv is federally-funded, she meant to say the Sequence Read Archive (SRA) archive, where Colossal posted the dire wolf genome, is federally funded
- Here’s what Embark does tell you about “Wolfiness”: https://help.embarkvet.com/hc/en-us/articles/360053867714-What-is-Wolfiness
Learn more about Ashley:
Learn more about Cat:
Chapters
1. Dire wolves and bullshitters (00:00:00)
2. Details on Colossal's "dire wolves" (00:02:38)
3. Who owns science? (00:07:14)
4. What real conservation looks like (00:10:15)
5. What kind of world are we barreling towards? (00:17:57)
6. The role of glam science (00:22:06)
7. How much wolf is there in our dog? (00:26:16)
8. Are we just visitors to the zoo, or are we scientists? (00:37:01)
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