No Such Thing As A Fish · No Such Thing As A Fish

Little Fish: Juan Trippe

December 14, 2025·30 min·2 clips

An ant queen clones a different ant species using stored sperm, even though that species no longer exists.

This episode of Little Fish features hosts James Harkin, Andrew Hunter Murray, Anna Ptaszynski, and Dan Schreiber reading listener-submitted facts. They open with a fact from Gleb about Juan Trippe, the founder of Pan American Airways, who commissioned transatlantic mail planes in the 1930s. Bjorn Hauger contributed a fact that a quarter of the iron in the ocean's top 20 meters is locked in krill, citing the book *The Curious Life of Krill*. A study in Antarctica's Prydz Bay found krill contain 19 milligrams of iron per kilogram, which is not magnetically significant. A blue whale consumes four tons of krill daily, yielding only enough iron for a single table knife if extracted. Conan from Singapore shared that Hong Kong sells a breast-shaped dumpling named after actress Amy Yip, which can weigh up to 350 grams. Amy Yip was known for suggestive roles but avoided full nudity, leading to industry jokes about "Yip teases." Sandeep Jandu, a biology student, submitted a fact about *Messor ibericus* ants that produce workers of a different species via sperm parasitism. The queen ant removes her own DNA from eggs, creating clones of another ant species whose sperm she stored. That other ant species no longer lives in their area, suggesting the queen cloned sperm obtained long ago. Scientists coined the term "xenoparity" for this two-species reproduction. James connected this to "devil's gardens" in the Amazon, where lemon ants kill plants with formic acid to create clearings lasting 800 years. Harrison Lee wrote that Mozart chocolate balls were invented 100 years after the composer's death and are now made by German company Reber. Kerry from Queensland shared that 1873 bushranger Harry Redford was acquitted of cattle theft because the jury admired his desert crossing feat. Redford stole hundreds of cattle and crossed harsh terrain, a journey that had killed explorers Burke and Wills. Ary Toon Samuelson noted the Henley-on-Todd dry riverbed regatta in Australia was canceled in 1993 due to actual water in the river. Dave Rule listed unexpected eponyms, including Google's PageRank (Larry Page) and Taco Bell (founder Glen Bell). The tone is conversational and humorous, with hosts bantering and adding personal anecdotes to the facts. Listeners who enjoy quirky trivia, surprising animal behaviors, and historical oddities will appreciate this episode. Those seeking deep analysis or a single narrative topic might find the rapid-fire fact format less engaging.

Listen to the show on

Apple Podcasts Spotify

Play clips from this episode More from No Such Thing As A Fish