Snake science from fieldwork to fearlessness.
Snake Talk brings herpetology into plainspoken, research-heavy conversations with students and specialists working around snakes, amphibians, venom, and field ecology. Recent episodes follow Cape Cobra thermal biology, tropical rainforest conservation, antivenom research, gopher frogs, indigo snakes, and graduate-school paths.
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Snake Talk is a specialist science show with an unusually generous sense of scale. A conversation might begin with one snake, one wetland, or one student project, then widen into conservation, physiology, graduate training, and the messy realities of field biology. Dr. Chris Jenkins keeps the pace conversational. He asks guests to start at the beginning, which gives recent student perspective episodes a clear arc from early interest or early field courses to thesis work and professional direction. The show is grounded in snakes, but it does not stay fenced in. Cape Cobras, black mambas, boomslangs, prairie rattlesnakes, bushmasters, gartersnakes, gopher frogs, salamanders, dwarf geckos, and spotted rocket frogs all appear as living study subjects rather than spectacle. The science can get specific fast. Guests talk through thermal biology, occupancy models, canopy cover, hydroperiod, venom-gland gene expression, antivenom research, snake fungal disease, captive breeding, and IUCN work. The show trusts listeners to follow the details. It also slows down when the details matter. That patience is part of its appeal: methods, sample sizes, relocation ethics, field-course decisions, lab meetings, grants, and restoration techniques are treated as the real machinery behind conservation headlines. The recent episodes have a strong mentoring thread. Undergraduates, graduate students, and a high school student describe how they found opportunities, built projects, worked with advisors, and learned from field sites in North America, South Africa, Costa Rica, Guyana, and beyond. There is adventure here, but it is not inflated. The best stories involve live television cobra captures, rainforest surveys before possible gold mining, rattlesnake collection days, bushmaster encounters, and the small comic moments that come from fieldwork. Snake Talk’s steady premise is that understanding changes the emotional charge around snakes. It does not scold fear. It replaces it with anatomy, ecology, behavior, and lived experience. The result is a show for listeners who want wildlife science close to the ground, with enough technical substance for herpetology students and enough narrative warmth for curious naturalists.
Made for: Snake Talk is for naturalists, biology students, herpetology enthusiasts, and conservation-minded listeners who want more than animal trivia. It especially suits people interested in how field research, lab work, and graduate training actually happen.
What sets it apart: The show pairs deep snake and amphibian science with career-level detail from emerging researchers, making the research process as important as the species. Its recent student perspectives series gives technical herpetology a candid, early-career view rarely centered in wildlife podcasts.
Faced with a world that instinctually persecutes snakes, Dr. Jenkins talks with the foremost experts on snake biology and conservation. The discussions range widely including topics such as snake ecology, snakebites, and captive breeding. All of the conversations have the same goal, to help the listener increase their knowledge and leave behind any irrational fears of snakes.
A rattlesnake's facial pit might turn your 'absolutely not' into 'wait, how does that work?'
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A grounded field-aware look at Cape cobra thermal biology, sampling limits, and the work behind the study.
Snake Talk's student perspective series turns to Cape cobra thermal biology, with Dr. Tilo Beck laying out why temperature matters in the study of terrestrial reptiles.
A young snake enthusiast shows how careful fieldwork can grow into conservation.
Snake Talk follows Sam Shanker, a high school student whose fascination with snakes has become real fieldwork and conservation work. Her story ranges from searching for a dwarf gecko being considered as a new species to finding an endangered spotted rocket frog on rainforest…
A grounded student-perspectives episode on canopy cover and occupancy for priority pond-breeding amphibians.
Snake Talk's student perspectives episode frames pond-breeding amphibians as both fieldwork and data work, following Eva Kerr and Jade Samples as they discuss estimating occupancy for wetland species.
Katherine Hanks traces her path from Costa Rica fieldwork to graduate research in conservation.
Snake Talk's student perspectives series follows Katherine Hanks from undergraduate research in Costa Rica to graduate study at the University of Georgia.
A student-led look at South African snake research, Kruger's scale, and the everyday friction of fieldwork.
Snake Talk follows Shane Gwena, a South African student in Brian Moritz's lab, as he talks through the snakes and protected landscapes shaping his work.
Steven Novella and a rotating panel dissect weekly science news and debunk pseudoscience claims.
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Snake Talk episode 153 follows Sam Shanker, a high school student from the Southern Appalachian region, as she describes how snakes, amphibians, and photography turned into fieldwork.
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Snake Talk episode 146 features Chris Jenkins, Kim Sash, and Ashlyn Canode comparing snake surveys at Tall Timbers across a 20-year interval.
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Snake Talk episode 138 follows Florida International University evolutionary biologist Christian Cox from catching snakes in Iowa to studying reptiles in changing environments.
Chris Jenkins interviews Jimmy Stiles about Alabama’s reptiles, amphibians, and indigo-snake conservation work.
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