Celebrating 100 Episodes: A Journey Through Shark Science and Conservation

0:00 Hey Dave, your old friend Greg here. Congratulations for reaching 100 episodes of Beyond Jaws. I enjoyed being part of it and I've really enjoyed Hey, everybody, and welcome to a special edition of the Beyond Jaws podcast, where we are celebrating our 100th episode. Today's episode, we're going to be going over a little bit of the history of the Beyond Jaws podcast, because there's some things that I don't even remember what we did because we were able to accomplish so much. So I can't wait to get into the episode. And I'm here with my co-host, Dr. David Ebert. Dave, how's it Oh, it's awesome, man. I'm pretty pumped up. We got our hit 100 episodes of our podcast and, uh, that's a pretty good accomplishment, I think. So, and I believe is probably one of the most, um, popular shows. Cause I don't think too many shark episodes of podcasts have reached a hundred episodes. Um, I think we should have a lot to be happy about there and, uh, are the episodes grown as we'll talk about today. And we have a few guests on that were, uh, that come on and give us a little bit of a shout out here. We'll talk a little bit about the podcast history and kind of how we got this whole thing started and how you and I first kind of came to know each other and all that. So, um, I'm looking forward to it as well. This is going to be a lot of fun. I think, I think this is, you know, one of those episodes, you know, we talk about the 100. It's always

1:32 a big milestone in a, in a podcast because I've been podcasting for almost a decade now. And when you reach that 100th or every time you reach a hundredth, uh, you're, you, you feel something a little special because with a lot of times with, with podcasters, it doesn't matter what your topic is that you're talking about. It could be sharks. It could be the ocean. It could be. learning how to play the ukulele. It doesn't matter. If you can reach 100, you've probably outperformed or outpublished most of the podcasts that are out there. Because I think there was a study done a couple of years ago that looked at the total number of podcasts that have been launched, and there were like four million or so. The active podcasts at that time was 400,000. It just goes to show that a lot of people will start a podcast, realize how difficult it is and how time-consuming it is, and then realize that, hey, you know what? Maybe this isn't for me, which is fine. That's up to everybody else. Sometimes when you get that hundredth, you know you've outworked a lot of the people who have been on there. And, you know, shout out to all the other shark podcasts who are approaching 100 or have hit 100, because we were trying to look it up to see if we were the only ones, but there are some great podcasts out there that, you know, deal with sharks in a very different way that we do. And they're fantastic. We listen to all of them, you know, at some point in time, it's kind of hard to

3:02 listen to all of them because there are quite a few, but it's great to see them approach, you know, 50, 60, 70, 80, and if they get to 100, that's even better. We love our fellow shark podcasters out there and ocean podcasters and wildlife podcasters, because God knows, Dave, we need more people talking about the ocean to get more people aware and have the education. We can see it in some of our political leaders right now in the lack of information they have on science and conservation. So it's nice to be able to have people listen to us and just be like, hey, you know what, like we can teach you a little something or you can learn a little something from each and every one of our guests that we have on. And I think that's that's Yeah, absolutely. And I think, you know, Andrew, we kind of we started this whole idea of like, you know, kind of want to do something a little different in that Well, how, cause I certainly get this question a lot and you probably get it as well.

3:58 Like, well, how do you get into doing marine science? How do you become like a shark researcher or science communicator? And so, you know, and like, you know, we wanted basically tell, have people tell their, tell their story, tell, talk about their journey and try to get a lot of people from, from just different stages of their careers. I mean, I think. Originally, we came up with this idea this whole concept of the the beyond jaws podcast It was my initial thing was let's get some of the more senior people on there So they could tell their story in their own words because you know oftentimes you go you'll somebody will pass away an older researcher You know and and they'll know the name and yet they won't they won't you know They won't know anything other than what the old I hate to say the shark obituary or the fish obituary It's been written about them versus like having them be able to share the story in their own words. And that's kind of morphed into like, well, that's great. We'll get some of the more senior people on there. And certainly our first, you know, half dozen or so episodes focused on some of the people that have had careers and gone through that. But then as we expanded on, we went to some, looked at some of the other things to talk about.

5:09 Well, let's find some people, let's talk to people in their middle of their career, some early career people. Like, well, how'd you, get started. Why did you get interested in it? And the younger people are kind of fun because they can tell their story now at this point in their career, whether they're doing a graduate degree or they're early postgraduate, and then they come back in 10 or 20 years and see where they are now. And so I think that's kind of cool for some of the early career people to be able to come back at a later time and and see what they said, because now we have it on tape, literally, to see what they're doing and what their thinking was. And so I think that's kind of a cool niche that we found, I think we've dispelled a lot of the biggest myth, I think, in marine science in general for careers is that everything just falls into place. You know, you go to university, you do graduate work and everything is just, let's just, it's a straight path to your career. And we know now. you and I have known that for a while, that's not true. But people just don't believe it until you see and hear it from a lot of the people who've been in it for 30, 40 years and seeing their career meander, whether they were in shark biology and shark science the entire their career, or what a lot of people have gone back and forth between sharks Maybe fisheries, maybe aquaculture like you

6:41 did, or science communication like I did. It goes back and forth a lot of the times and it really just comes up with what's the opportunity that presents yourself, what's your life situation at the time. It meanders. Path is the right path and no path is the wrong path. It's just whatever path that you get. And I think that's what's really Yeah. I mean, I think that, you know, like one thing that I think is pretty consistent is nobody has, as you just said, a direct path and people have had to do a lot of interesting jobs along the way, uh, different things. They just, but they stayed, but I think the one thing is they all stayed focused where they want to ultimately get to. And they had a lot of setbacks, a lot of things, you know, some people came to, you know, some people, you know, like myself knew early on, like I'm going to do sharks, you know, at that time, they're five years old. Other people came to the, came to sharks later on. Um, and I think another thing that too, with our podcast is that we have, we don't just have scientists on, we have people from the conservation and we have science communicators. We've had a number of people that do filming. You know, we've had, you know, a number of people like Joe Romero, Chris Fallows, people that are both behind in front of the camera for Shark Week and for the Nat Geo Shark Fest and other programs to talk about, to just talk about how, because one thing you hear a lot of is like, how do you become a wildlife photographer or filmmaker? Yeah.

8:09 So having the, so having some of these people on to talk about their journey, It all revolves around, they all wanted to eventually get into doing marine science, or not marine science, be able to capture marine science either on film or on audio or in different areas. So I think that was one of the things that we wanted to step outside just the pure science or just the pure conservation, but to get people from other backgrounds. And so it's been kind of really neat in that respect for our series we've Yeah, and you know it's interesting because we've experimented over that time too. I think we've stayed true to the overall goal and that's to, you know, you know, share the stories of different researchers, share the stories of different conservationists that are within the shark or conservation field, like in that area, shark science or shark conservation. But we started experimenting right from the beginning. We did our first number of interviews. You were technically, I guess, you were our official first guest. Um, but, but you know, technically, cause you know, we want to tell your story as well. Um, but you know, we, we, we kind of came in right off the bat with Greg Skolmo as our first, uh, as our first, you know, episode. Um, and since then he's done two episodes and I think a bonus episode as well as we were going through that, but like, you know, he was first on in July of 2021, right around shark week. which is perfect, obviously, to launch

9:39 and put out some episodes. And obviously, you've known Greg for a long time. Ever, yeah. He's always a great guest, telling us the behind the scenes of some of the stuff he's done. I remember that first episode, we did talk about Shark Week, what it's like to be on Shark Week, some of the ins and outs that scientists coming up in the field should know more about when they approach, you know, Shark Week or get approached by production companies to do Shark Week episodes, as well as any other, you know, big TV episodes like Shark Fest that's developed since then. And of course, you've been on them too, so you can share your stories as well. But then, you know, we also got to talk to him on that bonus episode of you know, the book Chasing Shadows with Rhett Talbott as well that he co-wrote that with. That was just amazing. To have him, you know, like as you mentioned, our first number of episodes were sort of dictating the history, especially of that Jaws generation. You know, do you want to just talk a little bit about the Jaws generation and a little bit about Yeah. Like I said, the first sort of six, seven episodes we had on there, we started off with Greg and these were people, these were all, we all kind of came up together, uh, you know, myself and Greg, we had Lisa Natanson on, we had, uh, Sarah Fowler, uh, and, uh, Dominic Didier. We had, we had, uh, Gavin Naylor on. And so we had a number of, a lot of these people we had on there, they were literally, we all kind of came of age

11:10 in the, in the eighties. And, and so like they had, um, you know, with Greg and Lisa, Again, we all knew each other going back to when we were all graduate students together. Somebody like Gavin Naylor, for example, who was on one of the first episodes we had, he actually was a student of Eugenie Clark's. And as anybody who listens to the episodes know, we typically have on some of the we have on the, whenever there's a winner for the American Laszlobrank Society, the Eugenie Clark award, we typically have them on the podcast. And so most recently we had Grace Castleberry on there, who was the most recent winner, but we've had, you know, we had Britt Finucci on as on an episode.

11:55 She was back in May of 2022 on episode 25. She came out and talked about her having received the Eugenie Clark award and talk about her research. And we also had Britt on more recently in April of this year, on a bonus episode to talk about the recent article she had that was on the cover of Science Magazine. But a lot of people, the reason you have something like a Gavin Naylor on is that most of these people, even though they might be a recipient of the Jeanne Clark Award, they have no idea that Gavin Naylor, who's been a long-time member of the American Algebraic Society, actually was a graduate student of hers. And so you can share stories like that. And that's really kind of the essence of the whole reason that we wanted to do the podcast is to be able to have people on like Gavin and the others, and of course, Greg Skomal, who's never short of stories to tell and stuff and some of his adventures back in the day. And so they can, there's a, this is kind of set up a connection between, you know, the, you know, the current, you know, people starting out and some of the maybe mid-career, some of the earlier people have been around for a while and then, but they can be like a link, like in Gavin's, It's a connection to Jeanne Clark. Recently, Leonard Campagno passed away, and we've done a couple things by talking about Leonard, having been a graduate student of Leonard's, and talk about what it was like. And I knew Leonard for about 40 years, over 40 years actually. And so to be able to talk about what

13:26 it was like working with Leonard Campagno, I was like, well, sit down buddy and pull up, have a beer and pull up a chair and let's talk. And so it makes a connection. And I think it's important, you know, for people to know the history of the field they're into and what they're doing. And so, you know, a lot of the people we had, like I said, our first sort of group of people were all literally pioneers Well, I think also too, yeah, these pioneers become heroes of people who, you know, read their papers and watch their careers and know, you know, what academic institutions they're at or government institutions they're at. And they see the people and they, you know, we've probably all done it.

14:09 where you read a number of research papers by a particular person and then when you first interact with them you just don't know what to do because they're celebrities in the field and you're just like oh my gosh like I'm so intimidated I have imposter syndrome and so forth. But then you know one of the benefits of doing the podcast was to have them on and you can hear their voice you can hear their personalities and a lot of the times you know for me you know hearing and meeting some of the people that we've been interviewing It's kind of cool. They've been on TV. They've published numerous papers. They've done some amazing things in the field of shark science and conservation. And it just kind of brings everybody to an equal playing field, as they would think, too.

14:49 You know what I mean? They're easy to interact with. They're just regular people. And you get to hear their voice. You get to connect with them on a deeper level. And that's what I've always loved about podcasts. It's raw. It doesn't have to be professionally done. Uh, it's, it's one of those things where you just hear the person. We don't, we don't edit out any of the, the interviews unless there's a connection issue or something like that. So it's, you, you get, this is what you get. This is who they are as, as guests and as scientists and conservationists. And you hear the passion in their voice. A lot of times from a journal article or maybe an article in a, uh, you know, a society magazine or something like that, you don't get that passion coming through that tone. And so you're able to get that through the podcast, which is a lot of fun. And then I think that's what you and I have enjoyed over the last, you know, four years to be able to do to Right. And, you know, we started off, as you mentioned, we started off in July of 2021. And, you know, right after we, you know, we did a series of people that have been around kind of from the Jaws generation, as you mentioned, But then we, we, we, we went into, uh, we, I, I actually with, uh, uh, Pete kind and Paula Carlson have also been on the podcast. We did a, uh, uh, the three of us, uh, uh, uh, coordinated, ran a, uh, a symposium. It was a global symposium on wedge fish and guitar fish, which are probably the most critically endangered group of, of, uh, of sharks or rays in the world. And we did a series of,

16:20 and we did a series of, of, of seven episodes had 29 people on. which was a lot of work for us, but it was, but everybody was able to come on and talk a little bit about their, share a little bit about their story. And of course we, you know, everybody on there, we can have on again for a full on episode and we'll eventually, um, but we had, you know, we were able to have some people on there and a couple of people we had on there was, uh, Adriana Gonzalez Pastana who, uh, talked, who's from Peru and talked a bit about some of the work she's doing. And then of course we had, uh, Benaiah Simone, who's on episode 13 from the same time. She's from Indonesia. Both are now doing their PhDs at Charles Darwin University under Peter Kind. And I actually just had a great experience in Indonesia with both of them on that. And they're going to be on a future episode here again. But it was very, for them, from Peru, from Indonesia, to be able to come on a podcast that has a global reach, I think, is really Helpful and I think that in and I encourage people to go back and listen to that because a lot of the people That were we young people we had on those Symposium podcasts. It was our first Podcast experience. It was the first time they had a chance to speak to an international audience you know, we have we have people who've had downloads from over a hundred and forty countries and we had we've had guests on from over 40 different countries, which I think there's probably not too many Sharkey podcasts that can say they have had

17:53 guests on from 40 different countries. There are over 40 countries. And Adriana and Naya are a couple of examples of that. could talk about their experiences. And again, I'm sure in the future, they'll be able to go back and listen to what they said at the time. But part of that from a science communication standpoint, Andrew, and you could comment more on this, but here we're running this symposium that's within the shark community was fairly well advertised, but with the podcast, this is kind of this synergetic compliment to it. We're able to get out to a more global audience, to people even outside the field that want to learn about these groups. And I don't, I'm not aware of anybody that's ever done that. And I think that's, what's kind of cool about what we do is we're been being you and I doing it. We come up with some innovative things to do and some try some stuff, some stuff works. And I think that worked really well in some stuff, maybe not so much, but at least we're able to try some things in that, that podcast we did with the symposium, I think was, was And yeah, I think it was too. I think I've been a long believer and supporter of sharing these symposiums with sort of a different audience. there's a lot of information that is passed on through those symposiums. It's always great to hear from each of the contributors to this, like the presenters that we interviewed, and have them, you know, talk about what they've done, you

19:25 know, in terms of contribution, what they're going to be talking about at the symposium. Because You know, our audience is not all just scientists. It's everybody. It's a make-up of a number of different people. Shark enthusiasts, I would say. And to be able to bring that information of a symposium that you wouldn't normally get access to, where it would be written up as a technical report that may not be of interest to shark enthusiasts or may not get distributed to shark enthusiasts, Now we have it in a way where you hear it directly from the person, like you're in the audience yourself, and it's not in a presentation mode, they're in a relaxed mode, they're talking about some of the cool things they did, and it's amazing. But Dave, I don't know if you remember the amount of work we put on to do those episodes. There was, I think what is it, seven episodes, and you were talking about before, 29 different people on each episode, or on the total of seven. So that averages about three to four, 20 to 25 minute interviews we did for each of those episodes. We decided to, you know, put it in, condense it into seven episodes. The amount of work that we did for that, and we were talking to people all over like Bangladesh, South Africa, I think we did Sri Lanka. Yeah, like it was it was everywhere and I remember just different time zones. We were juggling and we were going on and we were trying to remember where these go and But it was it was so much fun to learn all of these different uh, you know, just just the different information that's coming out of of

20:58 Yeah. No, I think I think a thing that you touch on like, you know A lot of these things tend to be very North American-centric or Western European-centric, and yet we have people on from Bangladesh, from Sri Lanka, from the UAE, from Tanzania, Mozambique, South Africa, Namibia, Angola, all over Latin America. We actually developed quite a good following in Latin America now because we feature a lot of people from Central and South America. Who come on the show, you know, we had we had, you know, Francisco concha poncho as we know him by I was on an episode in March of 2023 episode 42 and if you want to catch a funny a real funny guy, he's a professor at the University of Val Valparaiso He's a great. He's a great guest. He knows everybody and he just shared what is you know, like a lot of the types of research going on in in South America and in Chile there. And so here's a guy that had a chance to reach out and connect with people. And so it's been really wonderful to just get these people from different countries. And we have to say we have a good following in South America and Central America just because we have a lot of people on from those episodes to talk about, to share their story and talk about their journey. And you find out Even in these countries, most of these people, no one's had a very straight trajectory in how they got to where they were. And of course,

22:31 one of the things that's kind of funny is sometimes after we interview some people, we'll be off air talking and I'll find some little nugget about them and I'm like, oh man, I wish I'd We should have recorded that. because that would have been really good to include in the episode. Oh yeah, for sure. Oh yeah, so it's pretty good to be able to get on there and talk about some of the people. Some of the people, we've had some young people on, like Josh Moyers, who's a lecturer at, I think it's Yale University, actually. It's Yale, yeah. Yeah, it was Yale. And he talked about the shark mook, which there was a thing that him and Willie Bemis, who's also been on the episode, podcast talked about it was a, it was an hour, it was an educational thing that they're able to communicate with people from all over the world. And, uh, it was a really good program. And I, I, uh, uh, and so being able to have someone like Josh on, who's just kind of launching his career. And of course, Willie is kind of at more of the, I'd like to say the tail end for those of us that kind of at the tail end of our kind of the latter part of our career, but, um, but if you kind of get that, have that, the golden years, exactly. uh...

23:43 but uh... have josh come on their shares uh... thoughts and everything with the on the Shark Mook and where his career is going. He's going to be another one that's going to be great to have on again in the future and see where it's gone, you know, or see where his career is going and how it's going and, and share some of his stories. So again, that's some of the difference, the kind of the cool things that it's nice to have on some of these people. And again, he is another one that, you know, he doesn't, you know, he's, he'll be in North America, he gets a little more opportunity, but again, some of the people we have on don't have much opportunity and especially Especially going on with the English-speaking community. A number of the people we had on, even just this year, we had on Elisa Arreno from Guatemala.

24:29 We've had Maria Cristina Doni, who's originally from Uruguay, also works as a professor in Brazil. I think it's one of the first sort of English-speaking podcasts they've ever been on. I know for sure it was for Cristina. And they just don't get invited on many of these things. And they're both very accomplished women. Yeah, I completely agree. And I think it takes also a lot of courage for people whose English is not their first language to come on an English speaking podcast and be able to communicate the way they've been able to do that and to put themselves out there. I think that is something that I know I never thought about before we started this podcast and then seeing them come on. And they did a great job. Every single one of them did a great job in coming on and telling us and it's allowed us to share their story, which is really nice that they shared their story with us and the audience because we don't get to hear from them, as you mentioned. That often but can I also talk a little bit about some of the groups that you know? It's the groups within the shark world that we've been able to share So for instance like Lindsay Marshall and and Mark Dando who have been on the podcast. They're they're illustrators we never really get to talk about what goes into book illustrations and textbook illustrations and digital illustrations and how sort of that market just kind of builds up, right? And we don't hear from people like that. And we're able to kind

26:02 of get an idea. There are people out there who are really great artists and they want to know how to get into that type of career. We've been able to share their stories and they've been able to share them with people who are looking forward to starting their career in that as well. And even just being like, if you're new to this, if you're new to illustrations and you don't know anybody else who's done those types of illustrations, where do you go? How do you begin? You don't wanna just repeat the same mistakes that they did. They can provide you with a little bit of mentorship through their story or even you can reach out to them afterwards because we always put the connections to there as well. I think that was always great. And then there's also the, which I thought, I never thought we were gonna do this, but when we started to do this, it was a lot of fun, is talk about sort of the, Shark like productions that were done in the behind the scenes. So we had like Andy Casagrande on we had Jesse Khaleesi Who's been on the podcast we had Joe Romero who've been on?

27:09 Jeff Kurt yeah yeah so like we've had and we've gotten a sort of an indication and a behind the scenes look at how you begin a career like that where does it go how do you even get like a little bit of that take your personality and being on camera camera person you know and yeah and develop that and I think it's really interesting just to see the different backgrounds of people, where they came from, where they go. You know, the fact that Joe Romero from Portugal originally, when he came to the US, learned English through Godzilla movies, of all things, like, you know, and got into the big monster movies and stuff. And I think that's one of the episodes, Dave, where after the recording, he was showing us his, like, collection of the different monsters he had in the background, which would have been really fun to be able to show on camera during a recording, but we were like, damn it, we should have just, we should have kept going. Should have rolled the camera for that, yeah. Showing the, yeah, I think showing the niches within the science world, the shark science world and conservation world is really cool to bring to an audience. And we're going to continue to do that, I think, with people who now, even people who have been big in social media and big influencers, who are developing their career at the same time and showing people What it's like to go through a PhD like Jalen Myers who's on episode 61 like in December of 2023 she was like a huge fan of the podcast and She kind of came on and gave her story which which is great, and we've been getting

28:41 to know her Throughout that so I think it's it's a lot of fun to show sort of the different Areas of like growing areas like in terms of social media, you know video production and and doing a production like a high-end production Like we talked to force as well right right off the bat Those have been always the fun areas to get into the illustrators, right? And even the book writers to like you sharing your stories of book writing as well As as Greg Skomal and others who have been on to be able to say hey, look we've done this pretty cool stuff Yeah, we've had Dean Grubbs on to talk about the books he's done. We've had his co-author, Dan Abel, was on recently to talk about one of his books. And of course, they had a bit of a funny story that I met Dan in a bar in Catalina Island about 40 years ago with Lisa Natanson. So if you want to know more, you have to go back and listen to that particular episode. But, you know, we had, but you know, some of the people are like, you know, someone like, uh, we had Jesse Colosi on and he's like, he does the editing. I mean, everything you see on there, he does all, he's one of the guys who's bought kind of literally behind the scenes. Um, and he'd work. So he does a lot of stuff with Forrest Golan. He was another friend of the podcast and full course forces out there and the complete opposite where he's, he's basically the host and, you know, main person on the, he's had his own TV series and he's done, does a number of these shark week shows. And he's obviously on the other extreme, he's out in front there in front of the camera. Uh, all the time doing the stuff, but then it's Jesse who takes the stuff and does all the

30:14 editing behind the scenes that puts it all together and the music and the music. Yes. That was a big, there was some insights again. If you're, it's a whole area. I never, well, I've been, cause I've done some of the shows. I got a little bit of insight, but I really haven't them on. I even learned a lot just hearing him talk about just how much time and energy goes into doing these, uh, doing these episodes. I mean, it takes him months and months and he only does like one or two a year. And I didn't really think about that, just how much. time and energy it takes to be able to do one of these episodes. And so Jesse really provide a lot of insight. And I, uh, yeah. Plus he was just, he was just a great guest. He was one of those guys. They need to put him in front of the camera here sometime and let him like, just turn him loose.

30:58 I think so. Yeah. Just a shout out to forest. Next time you have Jesse out in the field, um, you might have to put them on camera for a little bit to, uh, capture some of his personality. It was pretty, it was really good to have him on. and to be able to highlight some of that stuff. And then, yeah, so I think it's been really, it's been a great opportunity and a great vehicle to be able to share some of this stuff with people. And again, I think, I know for me, doing science all the time, it's like, I love doing it, but getting to know some of the people, kind of their behind the scenes and what they're doing is really kind of- It's my favorite part. Yeah, totally. It is. It is absolutely, it's absolutely one of the favorite things to be able to do. And I think we've been able to help connect people too. They kind of come on, they listen to what somebody tell their story and then, you know, they feel like they get to know them. I think on a, almost on a personal level too. So they feel like they can, if you run into some of these people, if you're right, if you're a young person in the field, you run into a conference, go up and say hi to them. You know, now that you know a little bit about some of these people and everything, and I hope I'm kind of hoping like, you know, we have like every four years have like a sharks international. I'm kind of hope with our podcast now that we're at a hundred episodes and growing that we'll be able to start help people connect when they go to these, some of these international conferences, they can connect. A lot of these people that we've had on our podcast. And You can even do a couple of live episodes there at the conferences as well. I think that's the place to be where you get all the content that

32:33 Yeah. And we've got to also give a real big shout out to Save Our Seas Foundation, which has been a tremendous, really helped get us off the ground initially with the initial sort of seed funding to get us going. And I just want to thank, initially it was Michael Scholl, was the executive director, I initially approached that, then he left and James Lee came in, and James has been super supportive of us, as well as Sandrine Griffiths, and Jade Schultz, and of course, Isla Hodgson, who does the World of Sharks podcast for Save Our Seas. It was very good for them to appreciate them for helping us get off the ground and get going, which has kind of led to where we are today. From initially starting out as just audio only, now we've got our own YouTube channel. So I guess to save our seats, thank you guys so much.

33:30 You guys really helped get our whole podcast Yeah, absolutely. I mean, that's the, you know, it's always the people, not only the people who've been guests, who have helped, you know, share their stories, but also Save Our Seas, who's helped us start off. They provided us funding for the first couple of years, which was great. And now we're off and running, and we've been off and running for the last couple of years, and it's been absolutely phenomenal to be able to continue this journey. You know, we're going to continue on Dave, right? We're going to continue on with our regular episodes, you know, sort of helping people share their stories and learning from them. And hopefully we all learn from each of those stories. And we're going to be kicking it off the 101st episode with Alexandra McInturff. from the Big Fish Lab at Oregon State University. That was a great interview.

34:25 Looking forward for people to hearing that in the next episode. And of course, like you said, we're on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, we're on YouTube, we're on all the podcast apps, audio podcast apps, as well as Spotify Video Now. We started to post our videos on Spotify. We're on YouTube. We're pretty much everywhere you can listen to a podcast or any of our content. And it's always great. And so always check those out, share those with people that you think would enjoy hearing about the different aspects of shark science and conservation, the different careers. And of course, we almost forgot too, we've been doing some bonus episodes of Sort of timely things that have come out. We did an episode on the report of Ocean White Tips. We did, like you said, your dedication and sort of going over and paying respects to Dr. Lennon-Campagno. And we've done a number of other episodes where people have done something. So always check out and come back, you know, once a week, once every two weeks, we post episodes and it's always a lot of fun. So before we go, Dave, do you have any last Yeah, I just like to say, you know, it's been, I've, you know, Andrew, it's been really, it's been a joy working with you. And I got to say, you're, you're the reason I'm even doing podcasts because I, it all started about, What about seven or eight years ago when I came on your podcast? Speak up. Yeah speak up for blue. That was literally my first podcast and

35:56 then after that we did you know, we started doing it we had some real good synergy together and And I just I can't help it's for me. It's just kind of a fun new phase of my career to be able to do this you know I've been been in this field now for 40 years over 40 years now and so the podcast and be able to actually share stories we have people on uh from different walks of life it's just been amazing and uh excited I owe it all to you Andrew for really for kind of introducing me to this whole world and uh I'm I am looking forward to it as well. Hey, look, on the How to Protect the Ocean podcast, I'm at over 1,600 episodes. There's no reason why we can't do it for the Beyond Jaws podcast. And there'll be some iterations. There'll be some experimentation as we try and do different things. And we're always trying to connect with other shark researchers, shark scientists, shark conservationists, enthusiasts. people who bring in big productions, small productions, all that kind of stuff. It's always great to connect with a number of people, and we will connect with everybody. And so yeah, that's pretty much our 100th episode. Dave, it's been a pleasure for me to not only do the last 100 episodes, but continue on to the next 100 plus episodes with you. It's going to be a lot of fun. I'm looking forward to it.

37:22 It's been fun so far and I know it's going to get even better. So for all those of you who have been with us since the beginning or since the middle or even just started this journey with us, thank you so much for supporting us. You know, the amount of people that have been listening to this podcast and connecting with us has been a real pleasure. It's definitely been a highlight of my career to be able to talk about sharks. and meet some of the great shark scientists that we've been able to meet. And so it's a lot of fun. So we thank you for sharing this episode and others and helping us grow and getting more people involved in sharks so that we can get better shark policies, better shark education out. It's just one cog in the wheel, right, of this whole thing we call shark conservation and shark science. And of course, Dave, it's been like, you know, I've said it before, it's been a pleasure, but you are like a giant in this field.

38:19 And, you know, I definitely don't take that for granted. And I learn from you each and every day that we do this podcast. And of course, people don't hear about our conversations after we record and the three plus hours at a time that we talk. you know, multiple times a week, and it's always a pleasure. So looking forward to doing more of that in the future. But everybody else, thank you so much for listening to this episode and the 100 episodes before that. We All right. Okay. Well, thanks, Andrew. And again, just want to thank everybody for making this journey possible for Andrew and I. And please go to our YouTube channel and subscribe. We're just shy of 500 subscriptions.

39:03 Maybe you can help us get over 500. And catch up on some of the old episodes too. We have a lot of stuff now. We've got 100 episodes. And again, just thank everyone for joining us on this journey. And we look forward to hearing from you. And by the way, please leave any comments too. We're always looking forward to any comments. We appreciate it. And we're on all the major social media platforms, as well as LinkedIn. So thanks again, everybody. Andrew, it's been fun, and we'll see you next week. We start our 101st episode with Alexandra McInturff. Congratulations, Dave and Andrew. We are celebrating 100 episodes of the Beyond Jaws podcast. I cannot wait for more episodes to come. Hello, I am Naya from Indonesia. Again, congratulations for the 100th episode of the Beyond Jaws Hi, Dave. Hi, Andrew. This is Steve Goudreau from Florida Atlantic University. Just wanted to say congratulations on achieving 100 episodes of your Beyond Jaws podcast. I'm delighted that there's so many different elasmobiologists that you've been able to talk to, and I hope you have great success in your next 100 episodes. All right. Thanks so much, guys, and Hi Dave, hi Andrew. I'm calling in to you from Fiordland National Park at the end of the world in southern New Zealand.

40:31 We're out fishing for seven gill sharks which I know hold a special place in Dave's heart. I just wanted to say congratulations on Hey Dave and Andrew, this is Josh Moyer. I just wanted to say congratulations on 100 episodes of the Beyond Jaws podcast. It's one of my favorite ways to start the morning. I put it on when I'm driving to work in the car, and it's wonderful to listen to the stories, the adventures, and the science of both preeminent established shark biologists and some of the best up-and-comers that the field has to offer. So I, and all of your listeners, owe you a debt for putting that right there on our stereos, in our smartphones, and on our computers, where we can learn about not just sharks, but the discipline of shark biology. So for that, I just wanted to say Thank you, congratulations, and I look forward to the next 100 episodes.

41:27 Hello, Andrew and Dave. I just want to send you all my greetings and congratulations for these 100 chapters in your podcast. I felt great and honored to be part of it, of one of the chapters, and Hi, hello, Dave and Andrew. Congratulations, 100 episodes of Beyond Jaws podcast. It's Lindsay Marshall here from Stick Figure Fish Illustration. It's no surprise to me that you guys have come this far. You're both fascinating to talk to, great people. There's no shortage of awesome, interesting, inspiring people in the Shark and Ray world. It was a privilege to be on one of your episodes and I very much enjoyed listening to all the rest of them. And also I think, you know, Dave won't stop talking so I'm sure you'll be doing it for us. Another 100. Congratulations. Well Hi, Andrew. Hi, Dave. This is Jalen Myers coming to you from Townsville, Australia. I just wanted to personally congratulate you on reaching 100 episodes of Beyond Jaws. It is an incredible achievement. In those 100 episodes, you've brought on so many amazing voices from the shark science field. and I speak for myself and I'm sure everyone else who listens. This has really helped us understand the amazing complexity of shark science that's happening right now and the champions

42:58 who are making that happen. It has greatly helped with networking and just gaining some perspective on future career paths. Without Beyond Jaws, I wouldn't have such direction with where I'm going today. And it's been such a pleasure listening Hey, Dave and Andrew, congratulations on your 100th episode. to me that not only speaks volumes about your dedication to the field of study, but science communicating in general. Like, uh, I think everybody needs a good science communicator in their lives. Um, I've certainly been on the receiving end of that. Um, no, having both of you, but when Dave and I, um, first worked together back in 2020 on Land of the Lost Sharks for Shark Week, um, that, time sparked an obsession. I went home from that shoot and bought four copies of your book and I have taken that obsession into absolutely every animal show and wildlife show I've done since then, including like eight or nine shark weeks since then. And it has been just wonderful knowing you guys. I think that there is a wonderful future ahead for Beyond Jaws podcast. I can't wait to see what the next 100, 200, 300 episodes brings. And just too many more. Nothing but the best for you guys. I am so thankful to have both of you in my life and to

44:31 have become the shark obsessed. All Hey, Dave and Andrew, Alex McInturff here. Congratulations on your 100th episode. And in honor of that, I actually just wanted to share my favorite story about Beyond Jaws. So you all asked to interview me in the middle of a training cycle I was in for my next running race. And in order to kill two birds with one stone, I decided to listen to a few of your episodes during a training run that same day you were supposed to interview me so I could sort of prepare for the questions you might ask. And as I'm sure most people know, running, particularly for me, can be painful at times. But as I was listening, I found myself smiling and laughing like an idiot by myself while I was on my run.

45:19 And I think it put me in exactly the right headspace for our interview. And as a result, I had such a blast chatting with you guys. So what I've learned from that is that folks should really just listen to Beyond Jaws on more runs. Congratulations again, and I look forward to