Delphinology (DOLPHINS) with Dr. Justin Gregg

Giant brains! Communication mysteries! Infamous sensuality! Dolphins are here to blow your relatively tiny mind with their squeaks, clicks, cliques, history, lore, zany evolutionary path, psychedelic experiences, and so much more. Learn why some dolphins are pink, why NASA poured cash into groovy research, what it’s like to touch a dolphin, if they can learn to speak English, their mating strategies, captivity, and the researchers that made our culture obsessed with them. Also: how a screensaver can save your life. Stay tuned next week because the questions only get weirder.

Listen to Part 1 via Stitcher, Apple, Spotify, Google, Podbay, Podcast Addict, Overcast, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Wow. It gets weirder. Military dolphins, dolphins on drugs, sensory deprivation, deciphering dolphin language, the search for alien life, and more with the affable and knowledgeable Delphinologist Dr. Justin Gregg. Should you cuddle a dolphin? Can one kill you? Should you hire dolphins as midwives? Why do they follow boats? And what’s Drake got to do with it? 

Listen to Part 2 via Stitcher, Apple, Spotify, Google, Podbay, Podcast Addict, Overcast, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Visit Dr. Justin Gregg’s website and follow him on Instagram, Twitter and TikTok

Buy Dr. Gregg’s books: If Nietzsche Were A Narwhal: What Animal Intelligence Reveals About Human Stupidity, Are Dolphins Really Smart?: The Mammal Behind the Myth, and 22 Fantastical Facts About Dolphins

He also has a Substack newsletter

A donation went to Dolphin Communication Project


Links to things we discussed:

Part 1 Links:

Dr. Gregg’s PhD dissertation, Joint attention and echoic eavesdropping in wild bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops aduncus)

Note sur l'origine et la signification du terme «dauphin» (de Viennois) – Note on the origin and meaning of the term "dolphin" (from Viennese)

Thermal tolerance in bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus)

Denise Herzing: Could we speak the language of dolphins?

Dolphin Dialogues – A Conversation between Dr. Denise Herzing and Dr. Lori Marino

Call of Chicago: John C. Lilly, One-Man Mythos

“On “modified human agents”: John Lilly and the paranoid style in American neuroscience. History of the Human Sciences”

Teaching a dolphin to speak English - The Girl Who Talked to Dolphins: Preview - BBC Four

Among John's favorite jokes (he had a wonderful sense of humour) was flashing the Vulcan sign for "Live long and Prosper".

Margaret and Peter: a sensual but not sexual partnership

Long ass movies

How Kate Winslet held her breath for 7+ minutes

Whale and dolphin brains produce more heat than those of humans. What exactly does that mean?

Depressed dolphin who played Flipper 'drowned herself' in trainer's arms when TV hit ended

Humans and Dolphins: If Brain Size is a Measure, We're Not That Different

A few images from the life of Dr. John C. Lilly

On 'modified human agents': John Lilly and the paranoid style in American neuroscience

Some Observations on Behavior of Two Orinoco Dolphins (Inia geoffrensis humboldtiaba [Pilleri and Gihr 1977]), in Captivity, at Duisburg Zoo.

Cetacean Welfare in Professionally Managed Programs

WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE? DOLPHIN VS. PORPOISE

Happy the Elephant Isn’t Legally a Person, Top New York Court Rules

The dolphin who loved me: the Nasa-funded project that went wrong

Part 2 Links:

The Simpsons S12E01 - “Killer Dolphins Attack Springfield” 

Pufferfish clip: BBC’s “Dolphins - Spy in the Pod”

Preliminary Report of Object Carrying Behavior by Provisioned Wild Australian Humpback Dolphins (Sousa sahulensis) in Tin Can Bay, Queensland, Australia

Tanks for the Memories: Floatation Tank Talks (Consciousness Classics)

Kankudti, A. (2014, January). Nature and narcotics: Dolphins use puffer fish toxin to achieve trance-like state. Retrieved from 

Sorry to harsh your mellow, but dolphins aren’t regularly getting high on pufferfish

The Cove - Official® Trailer [HD]

The nose of the sperm whale: overviews of functional design, structural homologies and evolution

Pouchet G. and Beauregard H. (1885) Note sur “l’organe des spermaceti”. Comptes Rendus de la Socie´te´ de Biologie Paris 8, 342–344.

Cross-modal perception of identity by sound and taste in bottlenose dolphins

A Phenomenon Discovered While Imaging Dolphin Echolocation Sounds

Comparative Anatomy of the Nasal Cavity in the Common Dolphin Delphinus delphis L., Striped Dolphin Stenella coeruleoalba M. and Pilot Whale Globicephala melas T.: A Developmental Study

Functional Morphology of the Nasal Complex in the Harbor Porpoise (Phocoena phocoena L.)

HOW DO DOLPHINS COMMUNICATE?

5 surprising facts about dolphin sex from their love of eels to having bisexual tendencies

Evidence of a functional clitoris in dolphins

Dolphin Kills Swimmer Who Tried to Catch Ride

Final Rule to Prohibit Swimming With and Approaching Hawaiian Spinner Dolphins

“Altered States” trailer

The Order of the Dolphin: SETI’s Secret Origin Story

JOHN C. LILLY: FATHER OF LSD IN THE SENSORY DEPRIVATION TANK

1994: Dolphin Kills Swimmer Who Tried to Catch Ride

The late founder of Hawaiian-based dolphin births, Star Newland of the Sirius Institute

Male dolphin makes love to a beheaded fish

How dolphins protect the US nuclear arsenal

Controversial birth guru charged with sex assault


Other episodes you may enjoy:

Functional Morphology (ANATOMY)

Phonology (LINGUISTICS)

Ichthyology (FISHES)

Primatology (APES & MONKEYS)

Corvid Thanatology (CROW FUNERALS)

Biological Anthropology (SEXY APES)

Gorillaology (GORILLAS)

Selachimorphology (SHARKS)

Screamology (LOUD VOCALIZATIONS)

Laryngology (VOICEBOXES)

Speech Pathology (TALKING DOGS... AND PEOPLE)

Lutrinology (OTTERS)


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Editing by Mercedes Maitland of Maitland Audio Productions, Jarrett Sleeper of MindJam Media and Mark David Christenson

Transcripts by Emily White of The Wordary

Website by Kelly R. Dwyer

Theme song by Nick Thorburn

MarineAlie Ward