How to Fall in Love with Birding

Culture Study Podcast

Arts, Society & Culture

4.5 • 789 Ratings

🗓️ 3 December 2025

⏱️ 65 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Do you need an episode that's the equivalent of a big, deep, inhale and exhale? GREAT NEWS, TEAM, WE HAVE THE EPISODE FOR YOU. Journalist and urban birder Ryan Goldberg joins me to talk about the recent spike of interest in birding (particularly amongst young people), but we go a lot deeper than "wow seems like millennials are taking up old people hobbies." We talk about the intergenerational magic of birding clubs, bird list gamificiation (and how to avoid it), and how apps like Merlin have changed birding culture. But the real heart of this episode is what makes people fall in love — and stay in love — with a hobby that's really, at heart, about listening. I'm not a birder, so this episode will be accessible to anyone in my shoes (or who's birding-curious) — and if you are a birder, get ready to nerd out. I hope your blood pressure drops a few points while listening, because my mine sure did while recording.If you're a paid subscriber and haven't yet set up your subscriber RSS feed in your podcast player, here's the EXTREMELY easy how-to .And if you're having any other issues with your Patreon subscription — please get in touch! Email me at annehelenpetersen @ gmail OR submit a request to Patreon Support. Thank you for making the switch with us — the podcast in particular is much more at home here!We're experimenting with producing our own (moderately polished) transcripts. They'll be uploaded here within 24 hours of publishing. Thanks to the sponsors of today’s episode!Take the guesswork out of your dog's well-being. Go to ollie.com/culture and use code culture to get 60% off your first box!Upgrade your sleep with Miracle Made! Go to https://trymiracle.com/CULTURE and use the code CULTURE to claim your free 3-piece towel set and save over 40% OFF.Get better sleep, hair and skin with Blissy and use CULTUREPOD to get an additional 30% off at blissy.com/CULTUREPOD Get an exclusive $35 off Carver Mat at https://on.auraframes.com/CULTURE, promo Code CULTUREShow Notes:Buy Bird City here! Learn more about Ryan's work here — also noting two upcoming events (learn more on his website) An Eastern Towee in action (with its call!) A lovely birding guide to Central ParkJoin the Brooklyn Bird Club! All about the Merlin app Black Birders Week!Feminist Bird ClubThe Macaulay Library of Bird SongsThe hungover birdwatcherWe're currently looking for your questions for future episodes about:WEIRD ENGLISH WORDS (where do they come from!) with Colin Gorrie, who writes explainers like this one on the word DOGQuestions About How to Respond When People Ask/React To the Knowledge That You're Not Having KidsThe Wild Largely Unregulated World of IVF (and IVF Bureaucracy) Audiobooks!!! (with MVP audiobook narrator Julia Whelan)'90s Movie Soundtracks How we think about the morality of money and taxes — who should pay taxes, who shouldn't, who "deserves" money, who doesn't, how we came to decide that religious organizations shouldn't pay taxes (and how that belief is changing), SO MUCH PEOPLE'S NAMES and what they signify (and how it changes with time) Anything you need advice or want musings on for the AAA segment. You can ask about anything, it’s literally the name of the segmentAs always, you can submit your questions (and ideas for future eps) hereFor this week’s discussion: Tell me about your experience with birding culture — or something about this episode that made you want to get into it! (I bet it was me laughing like a 5 year old about birds named tits)

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is the Culture Study Podcast, and I'm Anne Helen Peterson.
0:10.0	And I'm Ryan Goldberg, journalist and author of Bird City Adventures in New York's Urban
0:15.5	Wilds.
0:16.5	So let's start out.
0:17.5	Can you tell me the story of your spark bird, but also tell me what a spark bird is?
0:24.5	So a sparkbird is the bird that really catalyzes your interest in birding. It's sort of like
0:33.7	you almost have like a before and after moment and the spark bird is the bird that
0:38.8	excites that moment. It's the bird that once you see that, you think to yourself, how have I
0:44.7	not been seeing birds this whole time? And it becomes, it's sort of like the start of your
0:52.0	birding journey really begins that with that one bird
0:54.9	my spark bird is an eastern towee it's a type of sparrow it's sort of russed in black
1:01.5	it's not uncommon it's quite common in like the eastern half of the u.s and it kind of roots around
1:08.1	in the leaf litter and kicking around for bugs and things like that.
1:12.9	And I saw on Eastern Toey in the spring of 2016.
1:18.5	I was out birding actually with my aunt who had introduced me to it with my girlfriend at the time,
1:24.6	now wife, and also my parents.
1:27.4	My aunt in the family is like the
1:29.3	oar birder. She's the one who's introduced all of us to it. And so we were birding at a place
1:35.0	just outside New York City, which is where I live in New Jersey at a place called Sandy Hook.
1:40.3	And I saw this eastern toey actually come out of the leaf litter where it normally resides,
1:47.0	and it perched up on a little cedar tree and started singing.
1:50.0	And this bird was, so it was a male because the male songbirds are typically the ones that do the singing in the spring.
	...

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