280 - Chatting with Chirpers

00:00:00 - Ben and Ryan are joined by Ben's actual friend Miya Warrington. Miya studies the behavioral ecology of animal communication, which we spend the first segment discussing the generalities of the research and why this type of research is important. You can learn more about her research at her website or by checking out the comic Jorge Chan did about her work in Ph.D. Comics.  00:44:24 - Talking about talking is thirsty work, so Ben and Ryan enjoy a drink. Ben has a Thai basil soda from Portland that doesn't sound all that great, but Ryan really enjoys his Two Claw Rye IPA which, of course, leads to a discussion about crabbing.  00:59:27 - For the second part of our chat with Miya, we discuss her recently published paper about how noisy equipment in the grasslands of Canada changes how birds are able to talk to each other, and what conservation implications this might have for the future. Important stuff! You can follow along with Miya on Twitter @miya_warrington 01:15:19 - PaleoPOWs are a lot like diesel-powered oil pumps, they don't inherently seem to make sense. First up is a thesis for Patreon supporter Alex K., which Ben absolutely nails on the first try with Descalate the alarms: A silencing method for counter-measuring early rising chirpers. Great job, Ben and congrats Alex on your BSso degree! Next, Ben and Ryan discuss an e-mail from Harper with a link to an article about a guy trying to predict the origin of life using entropy, which is a fun thing for a physicist and a paleontologist to discuss. More cool rewards await you if you decide to support us on Patreon! Music for this week's show: Bird Problems - Limbeck Crabbuckit - K-OS Bird On The Wire - Leonard Cohen