Getting Curious With Jonathan Van Ness

This episode’s dedicated to our main squeeze: olive oil. Professor Selina Wang joins Jonathan to discuss olive oil varieties, processing, and fraud—yes, fraud! Plus, Jonathan gets clarity on why they can’t bear to eat an olive but can’t get enough of olive oil. Prof. Selina Wang is an Associate Professor of Cooperative Extension at the Department of Food Science and Technology at UC Davis. Her mission-oriented research and teaching focuses are food quality and purity; fruit and vegetable processing; and food sustainability.  You can follow her on Twitter @SelinaWangPhd and Instagram @profselinawang, and keep up with her work at selinawang.com. Her lab is on Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube @UCFoodQuality. Want to keep up with all things olive oil? Professor Wang recommends reading the Olive Oil Times. Join in on the conversation, and find out what former guests are up to, by following us on Instagram and Twitter @CuriousWithJVN.  Transcripts for each episode are available at JonathanVanNess.com. Love lis

What do you get when a biological anthropologist studying hair and a hairstylist compare notes? A stunning new episode of Getting Curious. Join Dr. Tina Lasisi and Jonathan as they explore the evolutionary history of human hair, measuring hair variation, and the twists and turns of Jonathan’s hair school textbook. Tina Lasisi is a Postdoctoral Researcher in Biological Anthropology. Her research is on the evolution and genetics of human variation in pigmentation and scalp hair. She also works on science communication and education. You can follow Tina on Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok @tinalasisi. Her website is www.tinalasisi.com, and you can explore more of her work at linktr.ee/tinalasisi. Want to support other Black Biological Anthropologists? Dr. Lasisi recommends following @BlackinBioAnth on Twitter and Instagram, and @rockstaranthro on Instagram. Join in on the conversation, and find out what former guests are up to, by following us on Instagram and Twitter @CuriousWithJVN.  Transcripts for each ep

This week on Getting Curious, Jonathan’s in the guest seat! You submitted your questions for Jonathan on social media—and we have answers. We’re talking Getting Curious the podcast and Netflix series, self-care, gymnastics, gardening, and so much more. And for those of you who wondered when Jonathan’s husband Mark would make his podcast debut? We’ve got an answer for that, too. Join in on the conversation, and find out what former guests are up to, by following us on Instagram and Twitter @CuriousWithJVN.    Keep up with our very special guest host Mark Peacock on Instagram @marklondon.   Transcripts for each episode are available at JonathanVanNess.com. Love listening to Getting Curious? Now, you can also watch Getting Curious—on Netflix! Head to netflix.com/gettingcurious to dive in. Jonathan is on Instagram and Twitter @JVN and @Jonathan.Vanness on Facebook. Our executive producer is Erica Getto. Our associate producer is Zahra Crim. Our editor is Andrew Carson. Our socials are run and curated by M

Have you ever read a headline that seems just plausible enough—when you realize it’s fake? This week, Dr. Nadia Brashier joins Jonathan to discuss how our brains process misinformation, why even one exposure to a falsehood can increase our odds of believing it, and what we can do to debunk fake news. Dr. Nadia Brashier is an Assistant Professor of Psychological Sciences at Purdue University. She studies why people fall for fake news and how we can intervene. You can follow Dr. Brashier on Twitter @nadiabrashier and read more about her research at nadiabrashier.com.   Find out what today’s guest and former guests are up to by following us on Instagram and Twitter @CuriousWithJVN.    Transcripts for each episode are available at JonathanVanNess.com. Love listening to Getting Curious? Now, you can also watch Getting Curious—on Netflix! Head to netflix.com/gettingcurious to dive in. Jonathan is on Instagram and Twitter @JVN and @Jonathan.Vanness on Facebook.   Our executive producer is Erica Getto. Our a

It’s Prue Week on Getting Curious! On the Great British Baking Show (aka the Great British Bake Off), it’s clear that Prue Leith has excellent taste. But what’s Prue up to when she’s not judging crème pat, frangipane, and the occasional soggy bottom? This week, Prue and Jonathan dish on how Prue developed her palette, their shared love of gardening, and what’s on their creative plates this year.    Dame Prue Leith, DBE, DL is a businesswoman, journalist, novelist, cookery writer and broadcaster. Her restaurant, Leith’s, had a Michelin Star, she is a past winner of the Veuve Clicquot Businesswoman of the Year and has been a Director on many boards, including British Rail and Belmond Ltd. She chaired The School Food Trust tasked with improving school meals and an education company turning round failing schools. She was the instigator of the Fourth Plinth contemporary sculpture project in Trafalgar square and is currently a judge on the Great British Baking Show, and Advisor to the government’s Review of Hospi

Since 1997, Jonathan has been haunted by a question: could a volcano erupt a la Dante’s Peak and turn a local creek into a river of hot acid? This week, Professor Chris Jackson answers all of Jonathan’s burning questions about how volcanoes are formed, what happens when they erupt, and how Pierce Brosnan’s character in Dante’s Peak would have fared against a real pyroclastic flow. Chris Jackson is Chair in Sustainable Geoscience at the University of Manchester and spent 16 years at Imperial College. Chris works in the general area of sedimentary basin analysis. When not studying rocks, Chris gives geoscience lectures to the public and schools, and he’s appeared on several Earth Science-focused television productions and podcasts. Chris is engaged in efforts to improve equality, diversity, and inclusivity in Higher Education. He runs, too! You can follow Professor Jackson on Twitter @seis_matters, and on Instagram @christopheraidenleejackson. Want to learn more about volcanoes?  Dive into resources from th

Indigenous peoples represent about five percent of the world’s population—and sustain nearly 80 percent of the world’s biodiversity. This week, Dr. Jessica Hernandez joins Jonathan to discuss the principles of Indigenous science, Indigenous land stewardship, and what it will take to heal Indigenous landscapes.  Dr. Jessica Hernandez (Maya Ch’orti’ & Binnizá) is a transnational Indigenous scholar, scientist, and community advocate based in the Pacific Northwest. In her new book Fresh Banana Leaves: Healing Indigenous Landscapes Through Indigenous Science (out now!), she breaks down why western conservationism isn’t working–and offers Indigenous models informed by case studies, personal stories, and family histories that center the voices of Latin American women and land protectors. You can follow Dr. Hernandez on Twitter and Instagram @doctora_nature, and keep up with her work at www.jessicabhernandez.com.  For more resources about Native and Indigenous lands, visit landback.org and native-land.ca.  Find o

What happens when you add JVN to E = mc²? You get an episode of Getting Curious all about physics, explored through one of Jonathan’s favorite topics: figure skating! This week, Dr. Deborah King joins Jonathan to break down the biomechanics behind skating techniques, the cutting edge technology she’s using to research ice sports, and how we can watch the winter Olympics like scientists. Dr. Deborah King is a professor of biomechanics in the Department of Exercise and Sport Sciences at Ithaca College. She began her work with figure skating in 1993 while with the United States Olympic Committee Athlete Performance Division and has continued to work with the sport for the last 21 years.  Her work in skating has included studying the biomechanics of figure skating jumps, focusing on 3D kinematics of national and internal level figure skaters, studying injury demographics in competitive and non-competitive skaters, and developing an instrumented blade to study impact forces in figure skating.      Find out wha

As the itsy bitsy spider crawls up the water spout, it dawns on her: her exoskeleton doesn’t fit. Is it a fashion emergency—or her moment to shine? This week, Dr. Maydianne Andrade joins Jonathan to share the ins and outs of spider growth, behavior, and reproduction.    Dr. Maydianne Andrade is a professor of Biological Sciences at the University of Toronto Scarborough, and president of the Canadian Black Scientists Network.   You can follow Dr. Andrade on Twitter @WidowWeb, and at maydianne.com. The Canadian Black Scientists Network is on Twitter and Instagram @canblacksci.   For more resources referenced in this episode, make sure to check out the work of Professor Karen Warentkin at Boston University, including the presentation Crossing boundaries, disrupting binaries: A queer perspective on studying behavioral diversity.   Many thanks to Dr. Senthurran Sivalinghem at University of Toronto for permission to use the amazing spider footage featured towards the end of this conversation.   And thank

We’re ending this year on a high note with none other than Brandi Carlile! She and Jonathan talk Brandi’s incredible music career, queer faith, and Dolly Parton—and Jonathan asks hard-hitting questions like, “Did you know you’d grow up to be Brandi Carlile, Brandi Carlile?” Brandi Carlile is a six-time Grammy Award-winning singer, songwriter, performer, producer, New York Times best selling author and activist. Her new album In These Silent Days was released this past fall to widespread acclaim leading to five nominations at the 64th Annual GRAMMY Awards including Record of the Year, Song of the Year and Best Pop Solo Performance for the album’s first single, “Right On Time.” You can follow Brandi on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter @brandicarlile and find more of her work on brandicarlile.com.  Find out what today’s guest and former guests are up to by following us on Instagram and Twitter @CuriousWithJVN.  Transcripts for each episode are available at JonathanVanNess.com. Check out Getting Curious merc

  This week’s episode is as nourishing as they get, as chef Pati Jinich joins Jonathan to discuss cuisines along the US-Mexico border, holiday foods she associates with growing up in Mexico, and what we can learn from taking a bite out of a burrito.   Pati Jinich is a James Beard Award-winning Mexican chef who has dedicated her career to building a shared understanding between her two home countries: Mexico and the United States. Her long-running PBS series Pati’s Mexican Table has brought Mexican flavors, colors and textures into American homes and kitchens, as viewers have watched Pati thoughtfully and enthusiastically guide them through the various geographic regions of the country.    Pati is also the host of the recently released PBS Primetime special La Frontera, which highlights the unique foods and culture along the Texas-Mexico border, and has authored three cookbooks including the recently released Treasures of the Mexican Table.   You can follow Pati on Instagram and Twitter @PatiJinich, and

If you’re a regular listener of Getting Curious, you know how much Jonathan loves the Sister Act films. But how realistic were they? This week, former nuns Kelli Dunham and Mary Johnson share what it was like to serve with Mother Teresa (yeah, that Mother Teresa) in the Missionaries of Charity—and why they left the congregation. Kelli Dunham is a comic, writer, nurse, and genderqueer ex-nun. You can follow Kelli on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube @kellidunham—and at kellidunham.com. Make sure to check out Kelli’s storytelling series Queer Memoir at Caveat. Mary Johnson loves life. Her award-winning memoir An Unquenchable Thirst reveals the secret life inside her 20 years as a nun with the Sisters of Mother Teresa of Calcutta. As a Humanist Celebrant, Mary creates ceremonies for weddings, memorials, and all life’s transitions. Mary is also host of The Book Canopy and is working on a second book and a video series. You can follow Mary on Twitter @_MaryJohnson and at maryjohnson.co.  Want to hear mo

In 1903, a Frenchman and an American granted the United States ninety nine years of control over the Isthmus of Panama. No Panamanians signed that treaty. This week, Professor Kaysha Corinealdi and Jonathan explore the political history and legacy of what came next: the Panama Canal. Kaysha Corinealdi is an interdisciplinary historian of modern empires, migration, gender, and activism in the Americas. Her forthcoming book Panama in Black centers the activism of Afro-Caribbean migrants and their descendants as they navigated practices and policies of anti-Blackness, xenophobia, denationalization, and white supremacy in Panama and the United States. Her research can also be found in Black Perspectives (September 14, 2021), Caribbean Review of Gender Studies (Issue 12, 2018), the International Journal of Africana Studies (18:2, Fall-Winter 2017), and the Global South (6:2, Fall 2013).   You can follow her on Twitter @KCorinealdi, and read more of her work here.    Find out what today’s guest and former gues

This week’s episode is a cut above the rest, as we explore the history and cultural significance of scissors. Join Jonathan and design historian Teresa Collenette as they talk ancient spring scissors, Victorian-era chatelaines, Jonathan’s go-to hair shears, and Teresa’s incredible collection of more than 100 pairs of scissors.  Teresa Collenette is a design historian, curator and collector. Teresa has curated several exhibitions with the Fashion and Textile Museum, including The Secret Life of Scissors in 2018 and Beautiful People: The Boutique in 1960s Counterculture, which is up now!   You can follow her on Instagram @thehouseofscissors.   Want to learn more about scissors? Check out these resources:   Handmade scissors in Sheffield at Ernest Wright   Scissors being made at Ernest Wright   Scissors maker William Whiteley & Sons, Sheffield   Scissor Collecting Magazine Dial M For Murder   The Secret Life of Scissors exhibition in The New York Times   Find out what today’s guest and former g

Can you map out the Oregon Trail? If you just flashed back to playing The Oregon Trail video game in your sixth grade computer lab, get ready for a journey. Jonathan and Professor Margaret Huettl explore how Native knowledge systems established the Oregon Trail; how Native peoples experienced non-Native settlers moving West; and how Indigenous communities today are reckoning with this past to build a better future.   Margaret Huettl, a descendant of Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibweg, Assyrian refugees, and European settlers, is Assistant Professor in History and Ethnic Studies at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. She is a scholar of Native American history and North American Wests, and her research examines the continuities of Ojibwe sovereignty in the context of settler colonialism in both the United States and Canada, centering Ojibwe ways of knowing.    You can follow her on Twitter @historianhuettl.   Want to learn more about the Oregon Trail?    See whose land you’re living on, or learn more about th

You may have seen tear gas marketed as a “non-lethal” or “less lethal” weapon. The truth is more dangerous. This week, Professor Anna Feigenbaum breaks down what’s in tear gas, who manufactures it, and what its poisonous history reveals about profit motivation and modern policing. Professor Anna Feigenbaum works at Bournemouth University in the South of England. She is the author of Tear Gas (Verso 2017). Her recent project The Data Storytelling Workbook (Routledge 2020) provides a guide to telling more effective, empathetic and evidence-based data stories.   You can follow Professor Feigenbaum on Twitter @drfigtree.   Want to learn more about tear gas? Here are some recommended resources:   Tear Gas: An Investigation — Amnesty International   RiotID (@RiotID on Twitter)   Welcome to Omega Research Foundation | Omega Research Foundation   Chemical Weapons Research Consortium   DTP   Physicians for Human Rights: Through evidence, change is possible. Transcripts for each episode are available

Have you ever met a redhead? Someone with green eyes? Someone with intersex traits?  If you answered yes to the first two questions, you can likely answer yes to the third: being intersex is as common as having red hair or green eyes. And that’s almost definitely an undercount.  This week, Alicia Roth Weigel lays out what it means to have intersex traits, why so many intersex children face medical abuse, and what justice looks like for intersex people. Alicia Roth Weigel is a Forbes and New York Times published change agent, working to improve the political and social landscape for marginalized populations in the South through her consulting firm Intrepida Strategy. As a Human Rights Commissioner for the City of Austin, she has contributed to legislation to reduce sexual assault and human trafficking, mandate paid sick leave and abortion funding, decriminalize and alleviate homelessness, and target other social determinants of health.  Most notably, Alicia continually advocates for the rights of intersex

Chances are, you’ve been exposed to vaccine misinformation. And you could be at risk of believing it. This week, Dr. Kolina Koltai joins Jonathan to explore how vaccine misinformation travels online, why it’s so dangerous, and how you can stop it from spreading.   Dr. Kolina Koltai is a postdoctoral fellow at the Center for an Informed Public at the University of Washington. Her research focuses on the anti-vaccine community’s use of sociotechnical systems to find, share, and assess vaccine misinformation. She received her PhD in 2020 in Information Studies from the University of Texas at Austin.   You can follow her on Twitter @kolinakoltai. Transcripts for each episode are available at JonathanVanNess.com. Check out Getting Curious merch at PodSwag.com. Listen to more music from Quiñ by heading over to TheQuinCat.com. Jonathan is on Instagram and Twitter @JVN and @Jonathan.Vanness on Facebook. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Dams, what’s their story? Are they scenic sites? Harmful structures? This week, Professor Heather Randell and Jonathan go on a journey through dam history, ecology, and sociology. Listen in to learn about why dams are built; who they serve; and how they can cause displacement, change river ecology, and contribute to climate change. Heather Randell is an Assistant Professor of Rural Sociology and Demography at Penn State. She studies how dam construction affects local communities as well as the health and social impacts of climate change.   You can follow her on Twitter @HeatherFRandell, and at www.heatherrandell.com   Want to learn more about dams? Here are three short films worth checking out:   Guardians of the River Belo Monte: After the Flood (2016) A River Runs Through Us   And here’s a recent article from the New Yorker on the Glen Canyon Dam and Lake Powell. Transcripts for each episode are available at JonathanVanNess.com. Check out Getting Curious merch at PodSwag.com. Listen to more mu

You know those hangout episodes of your favorite TV shows? This episode’s like that, but in podcast form. Grab a seat and spend an hour with Jonathan and comedian, producer, writer, actor (and more!) Amanda Seales. The two explore their shared passion for gymnastics, how Amanda crafts her Instagram-famous comedy songs, and why it can be a compliment to be called “difficult.”  Want another round with Amanda and Jonathan? Head over to Amanda’s podcast Small Doses for the second half of their conversation!   For more on Amanda and her work, including upcoming performance dates, make sure to follow her on Instagram and Twitter @amandaseales, and head to smartfunnyandblack.com.     Find out what today’s guest and former guests are up to by following us on Instagram and Twitter @CuriousWithJVN.  Transcripts for each episode are available at JonathanVanNess.com. Check out Getting Curious merch at PodSwag.com. Listen to more music from Quiñ by heading over to TheQuinCat.com. Jonathan is on Instagram and Twi