We Know What Rom Whitaker Did That Summer (and now you will too!)

Romulus Whitaker has spent close to seven decades following snakes into the larger worlds around them: forests and rivers, laboratories and hospitals, and the deep ecological knowledge of the Irulas. In this conversation, he tells us how the Snake Park and Croc Bank became informal universities, why India’s “Big Four” antivenom model no longer fits the science, and what is lost when traditional knowledge disappears. At 83, his unfinished work remains urgent: preventing snakebite deaths among India’s farmers and defending Great Nicobar, a landscape he asks us to regard not as real estate, but as a place of worship.CONTACT US:Rom Whitaker on Instagram:   / romulus.whitaker  Rom Whitaker on X: https://x.com/romuluswhitaker/Arati Kumar-Rao on Instagram:   / aratikumarrao  Arati Kumar-Rao on Substack: https://postcardsfromomelas.substack....Prem Panicker on X: https://x.com/prempanickerPrem Panicker on Substack: https://prempanicker.substack.com/Email us: marginlands‪@gmail.com‬ BOOK: Snakes, Drugs and Rock and Roll by Rom Whitaker and Janaki Lenin: https://www.amazon.in/Snakes-Drugs-Ro... ROM WHITAKER'S PRINCIPAL INSTITUTIONS:Chennai Snake Park, founded in 1972: official website and history: https://chennaisnakepark.in/about/Madras Crocodile Bank Trust and Centre for Herpetology: https://madrascrocodilebank.org/Irula Snake Catchers’ Industrial Cooperative Society: https://www.irulasnakecatchers.com/The Irula Co-operative Venom Centre, India (Paper by Rom Whitaker and Harry Andrews: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journa...Agumbe Rainforest Research Station: https://agumberainforest.org/arrs/Andaman and Nicobar Environment Team:  https://anetindia.org/about/history/Gharial Ecology Project: https://madrascrocodilebank.org/ROM'S FILMOGAPHY:Rom's wildlife films (archive): https://madrascrocodilebank.org/film_...UPCOMING EVENT: The World Congress on Snakes, Kandy, Sri Lanka, October 1-4: https://www.worldsnakes26.com/ADDITIONAL MATERIAL:Beyond the Big Four: https://journals.plos.org/plosntds/ar...The python hunters: https://indianexpress.com/article/ind...Rom on working with the Irulas: https://indianexpress.com/article/ind...The gharial going extinct again: https://journals.ku.edu/iguana/articl...For the full Show Notes, see:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yiContact us:Email the PodcastArati Kumar-Rao on Instagram Prem Panicker on X (Twitter) Prem on SubstackFrom The Marginlands on Instagram