50 Shades of Gray Whales

Sidedoor

Smithsonian Institution

Museum, Air And Space, Society & Culture, National Museum, Tony Cohn, Sidedoor, Natural History, African American History And Culture, Postal Museum, History, American History, History Of The World, Exhibits, Art19, Pop Culture, Smithsonian, The Smithsonian, Science, Washington, National Zoo, Zoo, Dc, Exhibit

4.6 • 2.3K Ratings

🗓️ 30 January 2019

⏱️ 27 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Happy New Year! We’re busy working on a new batch of Sidedoor episodes and while you wait, we wanted to re-share a story we like from the fall, just in case you missed it the first time around. From 6,000-year-old cave paintings to silver screen stars in movies like Free Willy, whales have long captured the human imagination. And it makes sense—they're among the largest and most intelligent creatures to ever live on our planet. This time on Sidedoor, we’ll explore our surprising relationship with whales through the lens of one species: the gray whale. Once aggressively hunted and thought to be nearly extinct, they've rebounded to become one of the North Pacific’s most abundant whale species. So, what changed?

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey side door listeners, it's Halima. First of all, a very belated, happy new year. Now that the
0:07.4	government shutdown is over, we're working on a new batch of side door episodes. I'm actually out of
0:13.3	D.C. right now, and I just finished an interview for a story that you'll hear soon. A new episode of
0:20.1	Side Door is coming your way two weeks from today.
0:23.5	But while you wait, we wanted to re-share a story that we love from the fall, just in case you
0:29.3	missed it the first time around. So here it is. This is Side Door, a podcast from the Smithsonian with support from PRX.
0:46.8	For the first time, I'm your host, Halima Shaw.
0:57.2	Where to Starboard? There she's So I've never seen a whale in the wild.
0:59.0	There she blows.
1:01.5	There go, flocks.
1:04.7	So I've never seen a whale in the wild.
1:09.3	I grew up in the Midwest, and I guess it's one of those out-of-sight, out-of-mind things.
1:14.3	The only contact I've actually ever had with a whale has been through pop culture.
1:21.2	So from the monsters of Moby Dick and Pinocchio to the really sad whales and whale rider and free willie,
1:23.9	and also free willy two and free willy three.
1:30.2	But when I heard Nick Puyanceon talk about them a few weeks ago, I could not stop thinking about whales. But I should also add that the only person who is more curious about whales
1:35.3	than I am is Side Door's producer, Justin O'Neill. Hey, Justin. Hey, Halima. And you flatter me.
1:43.5	Well, I know you went to the whale garage, Justin.
1:46.2	Tell me what it was like.
1:47.5	Yeah.
1:48.1	So the Smithsonian's whale garage.
1:49.8	It's part of the Smithsonian's behind the scenes, what people call the museum support center.
	...

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