063: Slugs and Snails and Squid, Oh My! with Malacologist Jann Vendetti
A Sustainable Mind - environment & sustainability podcast
Marjorie Alexander
4.6 • 588 Ratings
🗓️ 14 April 2019
⏱️ 62 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Jann Vendetti is the Twila Bratcher Chair in Malacological Research at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. Malacology is the study of mollusks (snails, clams, octopus), and Jann's focus is snails. She was a postdoctoral researcher at California State University, Los Angeles and received her Ph.D. from UC Berkeley's Department of Integrative Biology and Museum of Paleontology. She is interested in urban biodiversity of snail and slug species, both introduced and native.
In this episode we cover:
- What are the different types of terrestrial and marine mollusks?
- How is climate change impacting various mollusk populations?
- How do mollusks compare to and differ from more familiar taxa such as mammals?
- Jann's favorite mollusk - the purple sea snail!
Jann Vendetti & The Natural History Museum of LA Online:
- Jann Vendetti on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jann-vendetti-455b4412/
- City Nature Challenge 2019 - April 26, 27 & 28: http://citynaturechallenge.org/
- Natural History Museum of LA (NHMLA): https://nhm.org
- Snails and slugs Living in Metropolitan Environments (SLIME) Project: https://nhm.org/site/activities-programs/citizen-science/slime
- iNaturalist (app used in the City Nature Challenge):
Suggested Resources from Jann:
-
Who do you look up to?
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Dr. Eugenie Clark, the "Shark Lady": https://ocean.si.edu/ocean-life/sharks-rays/eugenie-clark-shark-lady
-
Sylvia Earle - Mission Blue Foundation: https://mission-blue.org/
- Mission Blue, the documentary on Netflix: https://www.netflix.com/title/70308278
-
-
Suggested online resource:
Books:
- Shark Lady: The True Story of How Eugenie Clark Became the Ocean's Most Fearless Scientist
- Stephen Jay Gould:
- The Unofficial Stephen Jay Gould Archive: http://www.stephenjaygould.org/
- Stephen Jay Gould's books on Amazon: https://amzn.to/2X4C2pc
- Natalie Angier:
- Natalie Angier's books on Amazon: https://amzn.to/2Xh79y9
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is a Sustainable Mind, episode 63. |
| 0:04.0 | Today's episode features Jan Vendetti, a malacologist from the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles. |
| 0:11.0 | Malacology is the study of snails and slugs and other slimy and squishy creatures, |
| 0:16.0 | and I think that this is one of the more interesting conversations you'll be hearing about such things for quite a while. But before we get into that, I wanted to mention two things. This spring, we will be |
| 0:26.4 | hosting our first panel discussion with multiple experts and activists all tackling one topic, |
| 0:32.6 | live and online. It is free, but there is limited seating. So if you want to get more info, head on over to our homepage at asustainablemind.com and sign up to receive automatic updates. |
| 0:45.3 | Also, I want to thank our ongoing donors. |
| 0:48.8 | Amanda from Laramie, Wyoming, Zane from Lakewood, Washington, Elizabeth from Oak Park, Illinois, Vincent from |
| 0:57.0 | Las Vegas, Nevada, and Jessica from Topeka, Kansas. Thank you all so much for your continued support. |
| 1:06.0 | Welcome to A Sustainable Mind, where we delve into the minds behind today's most impactful |
| 1:12.0 | environmental campaigns, organizations, and startups, inspiring the environmental change makers |
| 1:18.8 | of tomorrow. |
| 1:19.8 | I'm your host, Marjorie Alexander. |
| 1:25.7 | Jan Vendetti is the chair of malacological research at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. |
| 1:34.1 | Malacology is the study of mollusks, snails, clams, octopi, and Jan's focus is snails. |
| 1:41.0 | She was a postdoctoral researcher at California State University, Los Angeles, |
| 1:45.6 | and received her PhD from UC Berkeley's Department of Interactive Biology and Museum of |
| 1:51.5 | Paleontology. She is interested in urban biodiversity of snail and slug species, both introduced |
| 1:57.3 | and native. Jan, welcome to the show. Thank you. And one pronunciation thing, |
| 2:03.9 | is it mollicology or malacology? Now, like evil. Like bad. How? Good. Okay. Very good. |
| 2:13.8 | Because I'm like mollusk, molecule.ol? I know. So this is so weird. |
| 2:18.2 | Right. |
... |
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