IN THE COMPANY OF HUMPBACKS S1:E3

For The Wild

Anthropocene, Land, Story Telling, Progressive, Liberation, Media, For The Wild, Decolonization, Philosophy, Religion & Spirituality, Society & Culture

4.8 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 9 April 2026

⏱️ 34 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

"The more I learn, the less I know. Sometimes learning more means accepting that we don’t really know." – Rachel Meade In the third episode of In The Company of Humpbacks, Rachel Meade joins Ayana to rethink what we mean by study, communication, and the goals of biology and conservation. What might change if we were more honest about our uncertainties and willing to admit what we don’t know? Could that openness lead to stronger relationships and better science? Rachel guides us into the vast...

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey friends, Iana here.
0:10.3	It is a crisp new season, and we are so excited to bring you a brand new series, in the company of humpbacks.
0:17.5	Over three episodes, we'll wander the waters off Alaska, exploring the lives, the thrums, and the migrations of humpback whales, with stories and insight from Fred Sharp, Rachel Mead, and Joe Olson.
0:30.7	This series is full of sonic exploration, migration, migration stories, and research discoveries.
0:37.1	But it's also about something deeper, curiosity, wonder, and the relationships we build with the more than human world.
0:45.8	Along the way, we move between science and story, the technical and the magical, between wail thrums and the questions we carry.
0:54.9	This journey came to life thanks to the generosity and care of the Five Fingers Lighthouse.
1:00.0	You can learn more about their work at For The Wild.world.
1:07.7	Episode three brings Rachel Mead into the conversation.
1:16.6	Rachel speaks candidly about what it's really like to be a scientist working in this field today, the funding realities, the pathways into the work, and the day-to-day practice of studying whales.
1:22.6	Through her perspective, we begin to see what it takes to do this work both rigorously and
1:27.8	relationally, while maintaining deep care for the animals and the waters she studies.
1:33.5	This episode invites us to think beyond observation alone, offering an honest and inspiring
1:38.9	look at the realities and the quiet joys of a life in science.
1:47.0	The more I learn in general, the less I know I know.
1:50.0	When I love being curious and wanting to know more, but I think there is a line sometimes
1:55.0	where you just have to like accept observing things and just sit in that unknown.
2:08.6	Our first step is just defining all of these sounds, because right now the only sounds that are in literature as like extremely defined are
2:15.6	blow, just like the basic blow, a weased blow, which just has a little more
2:19.1	like excitement to it. The trumpet, which is like really loud blast. There have been some notes of
2:24.3	like wheezy inhales. And then, but being out here, we've heard the blow hoot, the pew,
2:30.7	which is kind of like a just like a pew, like that's what it sounds like, and then
	...

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