For as long as humans have been interacting with this animal, they've seen them in one of two ways.

You either view them as a killer or a kindred spirit. They're either a super villain or a beautiful,

emotionally relatable creature. You're either terrified of them or you want to swim with them.

We see this today among individuals who you talk to on the street,

and we see it at the level of culture. Various indigenous societies have classified this animal

variously as a war god who has enslaved the ocean, while other cultures have viewed them as

the souls of drowned humans. Again, killer or kindred spirit.

In Western culture, we've seen both.

We've seen that for most of Western history.

Orcas have been viewed as terrifying monsters.

And then recently, they've become kind of intelligent, ocean-based panda bears.

In light of this, their uneven, inky coloring, reminiscent of a Roershack test, seems quite appropriate.

Today we're going to talk about a Roershack test, the blackfish, the killer whale, the orca.

Orcanus, orca.

I'm Mackin. This is Species.

Welcome to the show. This is going to be a long one. Perhaps the longest episode I'll ever do. We'll see how it goes. I've got a lot of content in front of me, and I've already cut it down a painful amount. This should appease those of you who have been begging for longer episodes, and it should frustrate those of you who say my show is the perfect length for your commute.

Quick announcement, for those of you don't know, I've recently accepted a position as a writer for the magazine, Tenderly. So if you want more content for me, I've written three long-form pieces

there with two more pending publication, and I'll be doing two a month or so. So if you want to

read me instead of listen to me, you can find my stuff there. Thank you to all the donors who make

this show possible. Thanks for listening. Thank you, Eric and the Animals for playing me in.

And now without further ado, I present to you the Orca.

I'm going to mainly stick with the name Orca today, not killer whale, so as not to mislead anybody.

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