Hey there, friends, and welcome to episode 226 of Just the Zoo of Us.

This week, I am joined by a science educator and nature hype man to sing praises for some of our

favorite true bugs, cicadas.

We discuss how and why cicada choruses, sing the song of the summer, why they spend so

much of their lives underground before emerging,

and what's so special about prime numbers anyway, the real parasitic fungus that inspired a cicada-themed

Pokemon, and so much more. Just the Zoo of Us presents cicadas with Nick Van Hacker.

Music with Nick Van Hacker. Hello, everybody. This is Ellen Weatherford. I'm here with your favorite animal review podcast, just the zoo of us. I'm so excited this week to have a new friend. This is Ellen Weatherford. I'm here with your favorite animal review podcast,

Just the Zoo of Us. I'm so excited this week to have a new friend. This is Nick Van Acker. Say hi, Nick. Hi, how are you doing? I'm so good. I'm so excited to talk to you. Nick, what are your pronouns? My pronouns are he, him. Nick, I'm so excited to talk to you. Before we talk about our little bug buddy, let's talk about Nick. Nick, you mentioned to me that you work in a museum, educating people about the really cool critters that you work with there. Let our friends listening know what it is that you do with these cool little critters. Absolutely. So these cool little critters that you mentioned are children.

I worked at a children's museum. I haven't been working there for very long. I've been there for about

the last year and a half now. But before I started working at a children's museum, I have been working

in informal science education for about the last decade. So I've done all sorts of things with

critters across the board, both done all sorts of things with critters

across the board, both animal critters and also human critters as well.

Having kids of my own in my house, it is a critter wrangling position.

It really is very similar.

You've got to wrangle some critters.

Yeah. I worked at a zoo for a little while and the parallels between cleaning up after animals and cleaning

up after children. I have a son of my own, so I can say this. It's okay. But yeah, the parallels are

a little uncanny sometimes. And sometimes very similar training regimens too, right? It's like,

offer a treat when a desired behavior is performed.

Oh, absolutely.

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