Stay ConnectedAustralia is full of weird plants and animals. And Dr Ann Jones is on speaking terms with most of them!
Each week Ann explores the most unusual elements of our natural world — the ones that make you go What the Duck?! Like why do quolls have spots? Who farts (and who doesn’t)? And how do snakes climb trees?
Join Ann alongside experts and ordinary Aussies alike to solve mysteries, smash myths and uncover the bizarre truth about nature down under.
Copyright: © Copyright 2024, Australian Broadcasting Corporation. All right reserved.
Quick! Think of a ‘dinosaur movie’. Chances are Jurassic Park (1993) was first to mind.
Steven Spielberg’s genetic nightmare/theme park gone wrong classic is so iconic that it inspired a generation of kids to study palaeontology, and reinvented our modern popular idea of dinosaurs. But does that idea still stack up?
Could you really clone a triceratops from DNA found in an ancient mozzie?
Did dilophosaurus really look like a frill-necked lizard?
And aren’t dinosaurs supposed to be feathery?
Ann Jones cracks into how Jurassic Park did (and didn’t) lie to us.
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This episode of What the Duck?! was produced on the lands of the Wadawarrung, Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung and Kaurna people.
If you want to hear more "What the Duck?" episodes- please like and subscribe here.
When you really think about it, sex to make babies is WEIRD! You take an outie that has to get stuck inside an innie that links into a production line of eggs to assemble a perfect tiny being. It’s so damn complicated!
So why does it work like that?
Join us at What the Duck for the first episode of a series where we figure out how living things went from splitting ourselves in half to double the population, to periodically feeling compelled to copulate in such a vigorous, sometimes highly embarrassing, manner.
Earth - this is your sexual history!
Please note that this program contains adult themes and explicit language. Parental guidance is recommended.
This is a summer repeat of Episode One - please find the rest of the "Sex is Weird" series here.
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Additional mastering: Isabella Tropiano and Russell Stapleton.
Thanks also to Will Ockenden, Belinda Smith, Corey Hague and Joel Werner.
If you want to hear more "What the Duck?" episodes- please like and subscribe here.
This episode of What the Duck?! was first broadcast in September 2024 and is produced on the land of the Wadawarrung and Kaurna people.
Could a legless lizard be 'minimalist of the year' for famous podcaster T. K. Coleman?
Ann Jones leads an unlikely gang of animal experts on a tidy dance through the philosophy of minimalism. There are moths without mouths, flies without wings, and a worm-lizard that will even declutter its own tail.
Move over Marie Kondo, Minimalist Mother Nature is in town.
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If you want to hear more "What the Duck?" episodes- please like and subscribe here.
This episode of What the Duck?! was first broadcast in March 2024 and is produced on the land of the Wadawarrung and Kaurna people.
ASMR (autonomous sensory meridian response) is a tingly sensation that can bring relaxation, and it's spawned a growing industry of videos online of whispering, tapping, mouth noises and soft speaking.
But, if you wanted quiet, intimate sounds, well, Nature does it so. much. better.
Ann Jones goes on an ASMR journey with vibrating caterpillars, whispering monkeys and birds who want to keep secrets.
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If you want to hear more "What the Duck?" episodes- please like and subscribe here.
This episode of What the Duck?! was first broadcast in Feb 2024 and is produced on the land of the Wadawarrung and Kaurna people.
Imagine you've just been cancelled for a controversial opinion about Taylor Swift's musical output, and you have to go to ground.
You can act like the Olsen twins, and hide behind big glasses and a big coat.
Or you could take a lesson from nature and blend in, like a proverbial spotty quoll into the bush.
The animal kingdom has a lot to teach us about camouflage and animal markings.
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If you want to hear more "What the Duck?" episodes- please like and subscribe here.
This episode of What the Duck?! was first broadcast in Feb 2024 and is produced on the land of the Wadawarrung and Kaurna people.
Right now, you’re probably sitting on one of the most unique things about humans. One thing that separates us from the apes, from the birds, from EVERYTHING on earth. The thing that allows us to walk upright, on two legs.We have big butts and I cannot lie,This sort of exceptionalism doesn’t deny,That when a bird walks in with a little bit of hasteAnd drumsticks in your face, you have to admit that bipedalism ISN’T what’s interesting.It's actually our peachy butts.
Featuring:
Professor Daniel Lieberman, Harvard University, US.
Professor Jo Setchell, Durham University, UK.
Dr Peter Bishop, Harvard University, US.
Lauren Thornton, University of Sunshine Coast.
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If you want to hear more "What the Duck?" episodes- please like and subscribe here.
This episode of What the Duck?! was first broadcast in Feb 2024 and is produced on the land of the Wadawarrung and Kaurna people.
How many species live around your house?
In the COVID lockdown of 2020, three housemates decided to count.
They thought there’d only be a handful, but the number kept rising and rising.
Could their simple suburban Queenslander house be the next candidate for a new national park?
Featuring:
Dr Matt Holden, Mathematician, University of Queensland.
Dr Andrew Rogers, Ecologist, University of Melbourne.
Dr Russell Yong, Taxonomist.
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If you want to hear more "What the Duck?" episodes- please like and subscribe here.
This episode of What the Duck?! was first broadcast in Feb 2024 and is produced on the land of the Wadawarrung and Kaurna people.
Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer is a Christmas classic... but how much do we really know about reindeer?
In the last instalment of "Hollywood lied to us" for 2024, Ann Jones fact-checks the festive fairytale for biological accuracy.
What would it take for a reindeer to fly? What are their noses really like? Would a glowing nose even make a decent fog light??
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This episode of What the Duck?! was produced on the lands of the Wadawarrung, Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung and Kaurna people.
If you want to hear more "What the Duck?" episodes- please like and subscribe here.
The Lion King (1994), aka Hamlet with Cats, is an iconic family classic. But would The Lion King's portrayal of a pride make biologists proud?
Ann Jones presents “Hollywood lied to us” - a What The Duck?! podcast that takes your favourite movies and puts them under the microscope to work out what would happen in the real world and what’s just Hollywood magic.
Would Simba really end up with Nala?
Would the hyena henchmen really fall in line for a lion?
They’re the big questions and Ann Jones has all the answers."
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Check out our Hyena episode here!
This episode of What the Duck?! was produced on the land of the Wadawarrung and Kaurna people.
The movie is fictional but Groundhog Day (asking a groundhog for a long-term weather report) IS A REAL THING!
But wait, what even ARE groundhogs? AND do they have any qualifications in meteorology?
Ann Jones is examining the biological accuracy of classic movies with the help of scientists and fans in the series "Hollywood Lied to Us."
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This episode of What the Duck?! was produced on the land of the Wadawarrung and Kaurna people.
If you want to hear more "What the Duck?" episodes- please like and subscribe here.
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