Hello, everyone, and welcome to Talk Nerdy. Today is Monday, June 9th, 2025, and I'm the host of the show, Dr. Kara, Santa Maria. And as always, before we dive into this week's episode, I want to thank those of you who make

Talk Nerdy possible.

If you would like to pledge your support on an episodic basis, all you've got to do is visit

patreon.com slash Talk Nerdy.

This week's top patrons include Anu Badovaj, Daniel Lang, David J.E. Smith,

Joseph Lamore, Mary Neva, Brian Holden, David Compton, Gabrielle F. Harmeo, Joe Wilkinson,

Pasquale Jalati, and Ulrika Hagman. Thank you all so much.

So what's on deck for this week?

Well, I have the opportunity to chat with Dr. Lisa S. Gardner.

She is a geoscientist, an educator, and of course a science writer,

and she has a new book out called Reefs of Time,

what fossils reveal about coral survival. So without any further ado, here she is,

Dr. Lisa Balder. Well, Lisa, thank you so much for joining me today. It's great to be here.

I'm excited to talk about your new book, Reefs of Time, What Fossils Reveal Reefs of Time, What Fossils Reveal Survival.

So I think that this is a topic that I've touched up, maybe brushed up against on the show

before, kind of talked in different ways with like maybe one or two scientists in the past,

more like ocean acidification modern stuff.

And then I've done a little bit of talk. I remember having a scientist on the show who studied

like fossilized shark teeth and sort of what that can help us understand about climate change.

So, you know, around this topic, but not directly at this topic. But before we even get

into the book itself and what you wanted to highlight in the book, I would like to learn a little

more about you. So would you consider yourself a science writer first and foremost? Would you

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