A mother lode of Mexican mammoths, how water pollution enters the air, and a book on playing dead

Science Magazine Podcast

Science Podcast

News Commentary, News, Science

4.2 • 791 Ratings

🗓️ 28 August 2025

⏱️ 53 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

First up on the podcast, Staff Writer Rodrigo Pérez Ortega joins host Sarah Crespi to talk about a megafauna megafind that rivals the La Brea Tar Pits. In addition to revealing tens of thousands of bones from everything from dire wolves to an ancient human, the site has yielded the first DNA from ammoths that lived in a warm climate. Next on the show, the Tijuana River crosses the U.S.-Mexican border from Tijuana to San Diego—bringing with it sewage, industrial waste, and stinky smells. News Intern Nazeefa Ahmed talks with Kimberly Prather, an atmospheric chemist at the University of California San Diego about detecting both air and water pollution around the river and the steps needed for cleanup. Finally, the latest in our series of books exploring the science of death. This month, host Angela Saini talks with philosopher Susana Monsó about her ook Playing Possum: How Animals Understand Death. Content warning for this segment: The interview contains descriptions of dead baby animals. This week’s episode was produced with help from Podigy. About the Science Podcast Authors: Sarah Crespi; Rodrigo Perez Ortega; Angela Saini Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is the science podcast for August 28, 2025. I'm Sarah Crespi. First this week,
0:08.2	staff writer Rodrigo Perez-Otega joins us to talk about a mega fauna, mega-fine that rivals the
0:15.4	La Brea tarpits. In addition to revealing tens of thousands of bones from everything from
0:20.8	dire wolves to an ancient human,
0:22.9	the site yielded the first DNA from mammoths that lived in a warm climate.
0:28.5	Next on the show, news intern Nazifa Ahmed talks with researcher Kimberly Prather about detecting
0:34.2	both air and water pollution around the Tijuana River and the steps needed for cleanup.
0:40.6	Finally, books host Angela Saney talks with philosopher Susanna Monso about her book,
0:45.4	Playing Possum, How Animals Understand Death.
1:00.6	When I hear mammoths, I don't think hot and humid, I think frosty and cold. But researchers have actually uncovered a huge cache of mammoth fossils just outside Mexico
1:06.8	City, where warm weather would have prevailed even 12,000 years ago when they died out.
1:13.3	Staff writer Rodrigo Perez-Ortega is here to talk about what mammoths were doing so far
1:18.0	south and how these fossils came to be discovered in the first place. Hi, Rod. Welcome back to the
1:22.4	podcast. Hi, Sarah. Thanks for having again. Love to be here. Yeah, this is a rare find in a number of different ways.
1:30.9	This is thousands of mammoth bones, all in one place, a warm place.
1:35.7	How did they come to light in the first place?
1:37.7	I came very unexpected because it was right when former president,
1:43.4	Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador took power.
1:46.0	One of his campaign promises was to cancel plans of this new airport, Mexico City airport
1:53.4	that was already built. And when he became president, he fulfilled that promise. He canceled
1:59.4	these plans because of alleged corruption and many other things.
2:03.8	He said, OK, the new airport is going to be built in this military base north of Mexico City.
	...

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