It's Monday, March 26th, 2018, and you're listening to Inquiring Minds.

I'm Kishore Hari.

Each week, we bring you a new in-depth exploration of the space where science, politics, and society collide.

We endeavor to endeavor, we endeavor, and why it all matters.

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I was recently at the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

It's one of my favorite museums in the world.

It's a massive complex of

indoor and outdoor marine exhibits, blending the close line directly into the museum. But my favorite

part is a dark hideaway tucked away in the corner of the museum, the jellyfish exhibit. The electric

lighting, the elegance of their movement, the otherworldliness

of it all. I found the jellyfish utterly captivating and much different than my childhood

impression of jellyfish of, you know, stinging menaces and that you should pee on those things,

which is totally not true, by the way. And my experience there

is why we're talking jellyfish this week with Julie Burwald. Julie is a science writer and an author

of a new book called Spineless. It's a mix of her own personal journeys and a deep dive into

the world of jellyfish weeks or everything from jellyfish as a source of food

to those huge jellyfish blooms you might have heard about in the news. So let's take a short

break when we'll be back with my interview with Julie Burwald. Julie Burwald, welcome to Inquiring Minds.

I'm so thrilled to be here.

I have to say, I don't think much about jellyfish, but I had this experience maybe, wow,

it was like two decades ago when I first went to the Monterey Bay Aquarium and saw their stunning jellyfish exhibit, which kind of expanded that idea that they were just this thing that would wash ashore and you'd have to be careful of being stung by.

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