Oh, hey, it's your mom's friend who's always vaping into his sweatshirt.

Allie Ward, in this episode, it's about putting your dukes up or curling into a ball so that you don't die.

Either or sometimes both.

Let's talk to an ologist.

I've known for years, an L.A. area animal icon who invited me to the lab down at California State Long Beach, where they're a professor,

for a visit, a tour, and a chat about armadillos, skunks, pangolins, spikes, spurs, stripes, spots,

and the will to keep living.

So we'll chat in a sec, but first thank you to all the patrons who support the show for as

little as a dollar a month at patreon.com slash ologies.

We also have brand new merch about revolutions and protests.

It's up at ologiesmerch.com designed by Andy Diaz with proceeds benefiting the National

Immigration Law Center.

That's brand new.

Again, ologiesmerch.com.

And for $0.

Thank you for helping boost the show by leaving reviews, such as this very recent one from Jordan D. Friend, who wrote five stars. It's great, but, and it's a big but. They write, it's too damn interesting. They say, I listen to the podcast as I fall asleep, and suddenly it's two hours later, I'm still awake and I'm like, damn girl, beavers are interesting. Jordan D. Friend, thank you for that.

I hope it's your real name because friend indeed. Also, thank you to sponsors of the show who let us donate

to a cause of eachologist choosing every week. Okay, this absolute gem studied biological sciences at

Cornell, then got a master's and a PhD in animal behavior from Davis and has taught at UMass, Amherst,

University of Mississippi, and Harvard, and has been a Darwin postdoc fellow. But above all that,

if you know an animal biologist in L.A., they know this guy, everyone loves him. Also, kind enough

to help coin a term for this ology, since it's so specific. So, zoo hoplology, it is. It combines

...