What The Duck?!

Mar 07 2025 135 ep. 24 mins 1.5k

What The Duck?! Podcast artwork

The show with a mission to explore the mysteries of nature - especially the ones that make you go What the Duck?!

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Why do animals have penises?

Mar 07 2025 25 mins

When it comes to sexual organs, the penis is really ‘out there.’ Name another organ that can change its form AND function in a matter of seconds! There’s a lot of variety in the animal kingdom; from spikes and nails to coils and collagen – so, this appendage is worth investigating... close up. Sex is Weird is a new series of What the Duck?! with Dr Ann Jones following t

Hollywood lied to us: Babe

Feb 28 2025 25 mins

Aussie classic Babe turns 30 this year, and its story of the little pig that achieves his dream of being a sheep dog is still as uplifting as the day it premiered. But we can't say "that'll do, pig" when it comes to the science.... By now, we know pigs aren't "definitely stupid", but how smart are they? Would an orphaned pig be taken in by a family of dogs? Could a pig really lear

Hollywood lied to us: The Birds

Feb 21 2025 25 mins

If you have a fear of getting swooped by magpies, mobbed by seagulls or blinded by crows, perhaps Alfred Hitchcock is to blame. His 1963 horror classic The Birds created a generation of ornithophobes, and played on our fears of death by feathered fiend. But how accurate are his creepy corvids? Do birds of a feather flock together exclusively? Can a bird go all 'Here's Johnny' on

Hollywood lied to us: Antz

Feb 14 2025 25 mins

Remember that 1998 film Antz? The one about an ant named Z? The one where the ants had nightmare-inducing human teeth? The one we probably have to blame for the existence of Jerry Seinfeld's Bee Movie? Considering the movie is all about ants, you'd think it'd get SOMETHING right about ants. But Hollywood has once again LIED TO US. Do male ants have any jobs outside the boudoir?

Hollywood lied to us: Cocaine Bear

Feb 07 2025 25 mins

In 1985, a real American black bear consumed a bunch of cocaine that'd been dropped from a plane into the forest, and died. Nearly 40 years later Hollywood stepped in the rewrite the story. What would happen if the bear survived? Maybe it'd go on a coke-fueled rampage. That's how it works, right? Cocaine Bear (2023) launched a lot of memes, but does it get anything right about be

Hollywood lied to us: Jurassic Park

Jan 31 2025 25 mins

Quick! Think of a ‘dinosaur movie’. Chances are Jurassic Park (1993) was first to mind. Steven Spielberg’s genetic nightmare/theme park gone wrong classic is so iconic that it inspired a generation of kids to study palaeontology, and reinvented our modern popular idea of dinosaurs. But does that idea still stack up? Could you really clone a triceratops from DNA found in a

Summer: Sex is Weird: Ep 1- The world’s first d*ck pic

Jan 24 2025 25 mins

When you really think about it, sex to make babies is WEIRD! You take an outie that has to get stuck inside an innie that links into a production line of eggs to assemble a perfect tiny being. It’s so damn complicated! So why does it work like that? Join us at What the Duck for the first episode of a series where we figure out how living things went from splitting ourselves in

Summer: Minimalist animals

Jan 17 2025 25 mins

Could a legless lizard be 'minimalist of the year' for famous podcaster T. K. Coleman? Ann Jones leads an unlikely gang of animal experts on a tidy dance through the philosophy of minimalism. There are moths without mouths, flies without wings, and a worm-lizard that will even declutter its own tail. Move over Marie Kondo, Minimalist Mother Nature is in town. Featuring: T. K.

Summer: Mother Nature does it better (ASMR edition)

Jan 10 2025 25 mins

ASMR (autonomous sensory meridian response) is a tingly sensation that can bring relaxation, and it's spawned a growing industry of videos online of whispering, tapping, mouth noises and soft speaking. But, if you wanted quiet, intimate sounds, well, Nature does it so. much. better. Ann Jones goes on an ASMR journey with vibrating caterpillars, whispering monkeys and birds who

Summer: Why do Quolls have spots?

Jan 03 2025 25 mins

Imagine you've just been cancelled for a controversial opinion about Taylor Swift's musical output, and you have to go to ground. You can act like the Olsen twins, and hide behind big glasses and a big coat. Or you could take a lesson from nature and blend in, like a proverbial spotty quoll into the bush. The animal kingdom has a lot to teach us about camouflage and animal marki