One Wild World

Summer 2023
By Hilary C. Ritz

Biologist Scott Solomon is, at heart, a science communicator. He says, “I am very passionate about sharing my knowledge and enthusiasm for science with as many people as possible.” In recent years, he has produced documentaries, created online courses, and written a notable book and numerous articles for major magazines, but his podcast, “Wild World with Scott Solomon,” is giving him a completely new way to reach an ever-growing audience.      

Each episode focuses on an expert doing field work in a remote location. The first season includes episodes about a biologist working with macaws in Belize, an underwater cave diver studying lemur skeletons in Madagascar and an entomologist digging deep in the Brazilian Cerrado to study ants. “There’s just all these different perspectives on science,” Solomon says, “and each [researcher is] doing something out in the field that is fascinating.”      

Solomon is no stranger to field work. A big part of his research background has involved travel to remote places, and one of his favorite classes is his summer course on tropical field biology. “We go for two weeks down to Belize and spend a week at a field station in the rain forest and another week on an island off the coast doing coral reef ecology,” he says. “An integral part of the experience is seeing and touching and doing and experiencing nature.”      

In each episode, I ask the guests to tell us a little bit about their career journey. And in almost every case, people have these very nonlinear paths. ... I think it’s important for young people to know that you don’t always know where you’re going to end up, and pursuing your passion and your interests can take you to really amazing places.

While Solomon knows from experience that this kind of hands-on research can be life-changing for students, he laments, “It's only a small number that gets to do that.” His podcast is inspired in part by a desire to give more people a sense of field work, even when they lack the opportunity to go in person.      

The idea came to fruition soon after he was invited to write and record episodes of “The Engines of Our Ingenuity,” a radio program about inventive minds presented by the University of Houston. “The audio engineer that recorded those episodes with me is a guy named Mark DiClaudio,” Solomon says, “and he and I started talking.” They first pitched the idea to UH, which wasn’t taking any new shows at the time, then decided to produce it with DiClaudio’s own podcast production company, 3Wire Creative.      

Another motivator for Solomon is the desire to expose students to the vast range of science careers. “In each episode, I ask the guests to tell us a little bit about their career journey. And in almost every case, people have these very nonlinear paths. And I find that to be fascinating, and I think it’s important for young people to know that you don’t always know where you’re going to end up, and pursuing your passion and your interests can take you to really amazing places.

So, with that in mind, I hope that we can cast an even wider net with our guests in the next season and beyond.”      

“Wild World” has already established relationships with the Houston Zoo, the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History and the Wildlife Conservation Society, and they hope to find additional sponsors and partnerships for future seasons.

Season 1 of “Wild World with Scott Solomon” was released in early 2023, and Season 2 will become available in 2024. Episodes can be found anywhere podcasts are available.

Scott Solomon is an associate teaching professor in biosciences, focusing on ecology and evolutionary biology.