Natural Selections: Audio

Males defending real estate - audio edition

Heather Heying — Wed, 24 May 2023 15:00:57 GMT

I had fun with this one. Deep-in-the-weeds biology always ends up being a bit niche, but I’m okay with that. It’s one of my favorite things to think about, write about, and spend time doing, so I gave myself this gift of writing about frogs as if they were humans. Plus there’s some truth about white-throated sparrows, too, since the …

Apparently, We're the Bad Guys - audio edition

Heather Heying — Fri, 17 Feb 2023 16:00:00 GMT

Here is the text of the original essay, which I posted on February 28, 2023.

Audio posts are for paying subscribers, but if you think that this would be appreciated or useful outside of that circle, please share.

Hunter-Gatherer's Guide

Me, She, He, They - audio edition

Heather Heying — Thu, 16 Feb 2023 16:00:00 GMT

Here is the full-text of the original essay, posted on Natural Selections on March 7, 2023, and originally published in Iconoclast, by Academica Press, in 2022.

It’s a long one—buckle up.

How Now Cow of Brown? - audio edition

Heather Heying — Wed, 15 Feb 2023 16:00:00 GMT

Here is the original written post, published on March 14, 2023.

And a quote from therein:

What language policing does is raises to consciousness the most mundane aspects of communication. This has at least two broadly negative effects. First, it makes it far more difficult to engage with people as the individuals that they are, rather than as an aggregati…

The Domestication of City-Dwellers - audio edition

Heather Heying — Wed, 25 Jan 2023 16:01:21 GMT

Full text of original article is here.

Public Service Announcement to the Mama Bears - audio edition

Heather Heying — Wed, 26 Oct 2022 16:20:20 GMT

Audio episodes are usually for paying subscribers only, but this week’s post is public. This piece struck a nerve, and I hope to see it shared far and wide, with mama bears everywhere.

Be a mama bear. Be ferocious in protection of your children, and then, ferocious in protection of all children. Act out of love for your child, not fear of what will happen if you don’t follow the fashion, or the authorities. Do not affirm that which is dangerous. Do not comply with that which is dangerous. Do not let your agreeable nature put your own children in harm’s way.

Please share widely, with anyone whom you think would welcome or benefit from these words.

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Dementia and the modern research universe - audio edition

Heather Heying — Wed, 19 Oct 2022 17:15:51 GMT

I didn’t expect to be writing about dementia this week. I have been, gratefully, largely untouched by it. My paternal grandfather suffered from it in his final years, but he was 93 when he died, and (actually) well taken care of in a small care home in northeastern Iowa, near the farm where my father had grown up. Some of the friends of my parents and i…

What Do Girls Do? - audio edition

Heather Heying — Wed, 05 Oct 2022 15:01:04 GMT

What Do Girls Do? was originally posted on October 4, 2022.

I was thinking, again, about how regressive “gender ideology” is, how very backward it is. There was a moment, not so very long ago, when we were all encouraged to be whatever we wanted, irrespective of sex. I was three years old when the now-classic “Free to Be…You and Me” album came out, in th…

On Fraud - audio edition

Heather Heying — Wed, 24 Aug 2022 15:00:47 GMT

This essay, originally published in written form on August 23, 2022, critiques Big Science, and the propensity for some researchers to engage in fraud.

The practice of science, once understood to be messy but extraordinarily powerful, the best route we have to revealing what is true in the universe, has become instead a social game, one in which the rew…

The trivia of days - audio edition

Heather Heying — Wed, 17 Aug 2022 15:00:42 GMT

This was originally posted in writing on July 12, 2022.

This post is for paying subscribers, but please feel free to share if you are so inclined.

I like to go back and look at the lists that I made here, the stanzas, if you will. What other fundamental, non-trivial activities might you list, or might we list together?

Before, the mundane was also the fund…

Flower shop vignette: audio edition

Heather Heying — Wed, 10 Aug 2022 15:01:07 GMT

The written text of this short piece is here, published on July 5, 2022.

I loved the moment, in the story I recount here, of being told that the woman I was speaking with did not in fact love dearly the houseguests whom she was thinking of so carefully. We can treat people so well, even if they are not our nearest and dearest. And we should do so.

On not being a contrarian - audio edition

Heather Heying — Tue, 09 Aug 2022 15:00:31 GMT

Written text of this short piece is here, first published on June 27, 2022. I realized, upon looking for a photograph to go with this post, that I wrote on the same broad topic on my Patreon back in October, 2018. I have unlocked that post: Faith, Cynicism, and Skepticism as Pre-, Post- and Modern Approaches to Life.

Excerpt from the June original:

I have, during Covid, sometimes been called a contrarian, even by friends. It has been invoked by way of defending me, even, as if to be a contrarian were a cute personality quirk, or even a positive one. But when I map “contrarian” on to the framework above—cynic, skeptic, or faithful—to be a contrarian is clearly to be in the domain of the cynic. A contrarian simply disagrees. A contrarian may well avoid making eye contact with any evidence that doesn’t suit them, so as to be assured that their “everything the authorities say is wrong” worldview can persist.
I am not a contrarian….I am a scientist. Scientists should be neither faithful nor cynical. Scientists are skeptics. Scientists do not accept what authorities say simply because the authorities have said it. Scientists do not accept what anyone says simply because a particular person or institution has said it.

Excerpt from the 2018 Patreon piece:

The modern approach, the one most deeply and accurately informed by an evolutionary world view, is based on skepticism. Be open to new solutions, but absent a good reason to change, stick to what has worked before. Seek out authorities in fields about which you want to know more, or about which you need to know more, and question everything that they say, at first. Ultimately you will either arrive at a near steady state, in which you accept much but not all of what they say; or, conversely, you will discover that the authority tends to be wrong, and is not worth paying much attention to at all.

Man does not live by welfare alone - audio edition

Heather Heying — Fri, 05 Aug 2022 15:00:22 GMT

This piece, originally published on May 31, takes Portland, Oregon, and its indulgences to task. When a Portland school requests that nobody camp near its campus, a local politician declares the request homophobic. When a homeless weed trimmer in drag asks for a space whip as a gift from said school, Portland’s free newsweekly notes that “no gift basket…

Maybe you don't need enemies - audio edition

Heather Heying — Thu, 04 Aug 2022 15:00:30 GMT

This is brief. So brief. Originally posted here on June 9, it emerged from observations of others and of myself, that when I or others am angry, or sullen, or feeling alienated or isolated, we look for reasons to be upset with other people. We are quick to respond, and to retort. But how much more lovely our lives can be when we see our commonalities, r…

You are not alone - audio edition

Heather Heying — Wed, 03 Aug 2022 15:00:40 GMT

Here is the text of this piece, originally posted on August 2, 2022.

Thank you, dear subscribers, for putting up with an erratic publishing schedule of late. Some of what I have posted, including especially pieces that are not my own words, I will not be turning into audio posts. But I have a few more to post in the next few days, and will do the same ag…

What has cultural appropriation done for you lately? - audio edition

Heather Heying — Sun, 22 May 2022 15:00:53 GMT

…So, what has cultural appropriation done for you lately?
Well…it did give us written language, algebra, astronomy, agriculture, and a diversity of extraordinary musical traditions (and instruments!). To name just a very few things. Also: pottery, carpentry, and metalworking. And plumbing, antibiotics, and surgery. And cuisine, theater, and cocktails.

Her…

If You Don’t Agree, You Must Be Ignorant - audio edition

Heather Heying — Sat, 21 May 2022 15:00:30 GMT

A bit delayed, but here is the audio read of the post from a weeks ago, on the “fallacy of equal knowledge.” Full written text of this audio read is here.

Enjoy!

In Want of a Geologist - audio edition

Heather Heying — Wed, 27 Apr 2022 15:00:40 GMT

This week’s written post, about biological exploration and geological musings in The Bahamas, can be found here. There you will also find photographs, a short video clips, and footnotes. Enjoy!

Audio reads are usually reserved for paying subscribers, but I’m making this one freely available. Consider joining as a paying subscriber to get access to all such reads.

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Coming of Age in a Brave New World - audio edition

Heather Heying — Wed, 13 Apr 2022 15:00:31 GMT

The written text of this post can be found here.

Naturalists in Sonora - audio edition

Heather Heying — Wed, 06 Apr 2022 15:00:46 GMT

Here is the essay in written form, first crafted in 2012.

Dawn in Navopatia. Photograph from Navopatia’s site.