Creature Classic: Animals Are Sick!

Creature Feature

iHeartPodcasts

Science, Education, Comedy

4.6 • 911 Ratings

🗓️ 19 November 2025

⏱️ 56 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

I'm having some minor medical shenanigans, I should return shortly! In the meantime, to stick with the theme of medicine, here's one of my favorite episodes on how animals deal with illness. I'm joined by naturalist, educator and author Heather Montgomery as we talk about her book "Sick" and the fascinating world of animal immune systems (and poop).

Guest: Heather Montgomery

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Transcript

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0:00.0	This is an I-Heart podcast.
0:02.5	Guaranteed Human.
0:10.2	Welcome to Creature Feature, production of IHeart Radio.
0:13.5	I'm your host of many parasites, Katie Golden.
0:16.6	I studied psychology and evolutionary biology, and today on the show, we are getting gooey and mucusy.
0:23.4	We are talking about animal immune systems.
0:26.9	Now, as we hopefully exit the cold and flu season, I'm sure a lot of you have had some recent experience with your immune system.
0:37.6	And despite how unpleasant it is, it is also really fascinating.
0:43.0	So today is a special episode because I have a guest who is a naturalist, a teacher, and
0:49.8	an author whose recent book, Sick is about amazing stories of the animal immune system.
0:58.0	It would be a book that if I had got my hands on this book when I was a kid, it would be
1:05.7	like my personal Bible.
1:07.4	It is really fun, even for adults.
1:14.9	Welcome, Heather Montgomery. Hey, I'm so excited to be here and talk to folks who are just as excited as I am to learn from the animal world. It's so
1:20.2	amazing what's out there. If we open our eyes and start asking questions, wow, I just get carried
1:25.2	away with it. I feel like we're very much kindred spirits because I love the grossness of biology. Obviously, I do love a beautiful butterfly. I love a beautiful bird, but I think I also enjoy appreciating just the, you know, the poop of nature. It's so interesting. And it's, I mean,
1:47.0	it's not only a great way to, I think, teach kids about it because, like, you know, you got to
1:53.8	lean in a little bit to like the gross stuff to get kids interested. But honestly, I also believe that
1:59.4	is true of adults. Like, we may not like to admit it, but I certainly have never outgrown learning stuff about poop and finding it, both kind of funny and really interesting.
2:11.0	Right. Isn't that funny that happens? Like, when we grow up, we're supposed to not be interested in the things that we're innately interested in.
2:17.8	I'm not sure why, but it's like we're always attracted and repelled at the same time by these
2:24.0	things. And those are the things that fascinate me. I'm kind of curious as to why people are so
	...

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