The Six-Legged Narrative EPS 2026-07-06

The Six-Legged Narrative EPS 2026-07-06

This episode, I'm covering six stories that span the small-but-mighty world of arthropods: why a cockroach can survive a week without its head, a spider with an oddly specific taste for dirty socks, a garden beetle that can blister your skin if you're not careful, a virus that seems to make whiteflies tougher instead of weaker, a light-trap program in Singapore that pulled in tens of thousands of cicadas (and the openquestion of what repeated mass collection could mean for future generations), and the mantis shrimp strike powerful enough to draw blood through a neoprene boot. Fun, fast, and genuinely surprising, this is The Six-Legged Narrative.

The Six-Legged Narrative EPS 2026-07-05

A beetle plays dead, a bug swims upside down, and a butterfly races a mountain it might not win. Plus: a decades-old mystery finally gets its missing piece, thanks to a random photo online. Six stories, one tiny world you'll never look at the same way again.

The Six-Legged Narrative EPS 2026-07-03

Do spiders dream? This episode says maybe. From a beachcomber's discovery that reshaped whale science to a wasp with a very particular target, and a butterfly quest that turned a total beginner into a bestselling author, it's a tour through some of the smallest, strangest science happening right now. Plus, a personal story about hand-rearing one of the coast's most threatened butterflies. Tune in to The Six-Legged Narrative.

The Six-Legged Narrative EPS 2026-07-02

A newly discovered beetle hiding in plain sight, the truth behind a butterfly's post-chrysalis mystery fluid, the insects working the night shift in farm fields, a bacterial partnership aphids can't live without, an ant that cloned a completely different species, and the household predator you should never kill on sight. Six stories, one host, and a whole lot of legs.

The Six-Legged Narrative EPS 2026-07-01

Britain's only native cicada may be making a comeback in the New Forest. The USDA is preparing to release 180 million sterile flies against a flesh-eating parasite detected in Texas. A new speed database crowns the world's fastest spider. A citizen scientist in Ireland documents a harvestman species never recorded in the country before. Researchers in Turkey describe a tarantula new to science — one that may have arrived via ancient trade routes thousands of years ago. And four people tried to smuggle 21 live Dungeness crabs out in modified clothing. This is the Six-Legged Narrative.