Hey there. You're listening to drinking from the toilet. And I'm your host, Hannah Branigan.

This week, we are getting real with, wait for it, Ken Ramirez. That's right.

You heard me right. I actually recorded this podcast sitting down. Normally I record these things

standing up, but I was so nervous when I, well, first I was super nervous when I first emailed Ken

to see if he would be willing to

come record a podcast with me. This was one of my things where I just had to rip it off fast like

a band-aid. And of course, he responded back basically instantly and basically asked, well,

how about tomorrow? And so, okay, tomorrow sounds great. But then I had to actually do it and record the podcast. And I'm

still at the stage where I'm a little bit nervous about these things, but I had to pull myself

together and breathe into a paper bag and get her done. And so that's what we did. And I think

it was worth it. So despite my ridiculous nervousness, I held it together

and I didn't pass out and I learned some things. We talk about how Ken got into animal training

in the first place all the way back, way back when he was a kid, which was a little while ago,

and how he got started as a volunteer for a guide dog organization. And then from

there, really just kind of lucked into an opportunity to work with zoo animals, which I have been

waiting for that opportunity to happen to me for quite some time. And nobody's come knocking,

but I'll keep looking for it. And from there, how he developed the training program that he used at the

Shed Aquarium, and then all the way into his new current adventure, which is, well, actually

I'll let him tell you about that. So there's a little bit of a cliffhanger there. You'll

have to wait and see. But just in case you don't know who Ken is or you've never heard

of Ken Ramirez before.

Let me tell you just a little bit about him.

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