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:
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
Teaching a dolphin to speak English - The Girl Who Talked to Dolphins: Preview - BBC Four
Margaret and Peter: a sensual but not sexual partnership
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
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”
Tanks for the Memories: Floatation Tank Talks (Consciousness Classics)
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
Cross-modal perception of identity by sound and taste in bottlenose dolphins
A Phenomenon Discovered While Imaging Dolphin Echolocation Sounds
Functional Morphology of the Nasal Complex in the Harbor Porpoise (Phocoena phocoena L.)
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
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)
Corvid Thanatology (CROW FUNERALS)
Biological Anthropology (SEXY APES)
Screamology (LOUD VOCALIZATIONS)
Speech Pathology (TALKING DOGS... AND PEOPLE)
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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