April 12, 2022

EP. 260 — What’s A Day In The Life Of A Coral Reef? with Dr. Juli Berwald

Coral are teeny tiny animals just two layers thick, and yet they create the biggest structures made by any biological creatures on the planet—like, the size of Italy big. Literally HOW! This week, Dr. Juli Berwald and Jonathan dive deep on all things coral, from their mating behaviors to their “badass merger” with algae to coral reefs’ critical importance to life in the ocean and on land.

Juli Berwald received her PhD in ocean science from the University of Southern California. She’s the author of Spineless: The Science of Jellyfish and the Art of Growing a Backbone and a contributor to The New York Times, Nature, National Geographic, and Slate. Her new book Life on the Rocks: Building a Future for Coral Reefs is out now.

You can follow Dr. Berwald on Twitter and Instagram @juliberwald. Her website is www.juliberwald.com.

Interested in learning more about coral reefs and sunscreen? Discover more here!

Join the conversation, and find out what former guests are up to, by following us on Instagram and Twitter @CuriousWithJVN.

Jonathan is on Instagram and Twitter @JVN and @Jonathan.Vanness on Facebook.

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.

Our executive producer is Erica Getto. Our associate producer is Zahra Crim. Our editor is Andrew Carson.

 

Our socials are run and curated by Middle Seat Digital.

 

Our theme music is “Freak” by QUIÑ; for more, head to TheQuinCat.com.

 

Getting Curious merch is available on PodSwag.com.

Transcript

Getting Curious with Jonathan Van Ness & Dr. Juli Berwald JVN [00:00:00] Welcome to Getting Curious. I’m Jonathan Van Ness and every week I sit down for a gorgeous conversation with a brilliant expert to learn all about something that makes me curious. On today’s episode, I’m joined by Dr. Juli Berwald, where I ask her: What’s a day in the life of a coral reef? Welcome to Getting Curious, this is Jonathan Van Ness. We have such an interesting episode for you today. So welcome to the show, Dr. Juli Berwald, who is a science writer living in Austin, Texas. Yes, Austin, Texas! She’s the author of “Spineless: The Science of Jellyfish and the Art of Growing a Backbone.” Her new book “Life on the Rocks: Building a Future for Coral Reefs” is out now. Our guiding question for today is: how deep can we dive in coral reefs? Or on coral reefs, really, however you want to think about it! But first of all, how are you, Dr. Juli?  JULI BERWALD [00:00:53] I’m so fantastic

Recent Episodes

See All

March 22, 2023

Ninety-five years ago, the world’s first television station launched in upstate New York. And this week, we’re celebrating the small screen with a TV legend: World of Wonder’s Fenton Bailey!

March 16, 2023

We’re back with the second half of our special two-part episode about algorithms and artificial intelligence, featuring returning guest Meredith Broussard.

March 15, 2023

Every time you interact with a targeted advertisement, use a drop-down menu, or scroll through TikTok, you’re engaging with an algorithm. And these algorithms are anything but objective.