The Shape of the World

Nighthawk: The Voice of Twilight (Ep. 43)

We often notice more of the visual world than we do the auditory world, yet many of our experiences are defined by sound. The memory of a significant summer evening may suddenly be brought back by our hearing the call of a nighthawk, the swoosh of car tires rippling through a puddle, or the tinkle of  piano keys coming from an open window.  Even if at the time of the event you didn’t bring a sound fully to your conscious mind.... even if you failed to  ponder its source…. still, hearing it at a later date, out of the blue, will jog recollection of a particular place or person, or perhaps a certain time period in  your life. We know that music is very powerful that way. But sounds from nature possess the same ability.   And for those of you who grew up in North America,  there’s one strong sound from nature that evokes city life in summer: the call of the Common Nighthawk. "I cannot change what is happening across a continent-wide population. But I can change it here." – Edward Warden, President of the Chicago Ornithological Society and Community Stewardship Program Manager at The Nature Conservancy's Illinois field office. Learn More About Edward By day, Edward works at The Nature Conservancy. But by night, Edward is President of the Chicago Ornithological Society (COS), which sponsors the Chicago Nighthawk Project [https://www.chicagobirder.org/chicago-nighthawk-project]. COS has numerous ongoing initiatives, including urban restoration projects, community science programs, advocacy work, and field trips. They make it incredibly easy for Chicago residents to get involved with all-things-bird. Beyond their community science programs, they host Chicago bird photo contests and are one of the principal organizers of the Chicago Urban Birding Festival, which is happening this year from September 18-20. You can learn more about COS and their programs here [https://www.chicagobirder.org/]. How Do I See a Nighthawk?   Go outside in the evening from late May through early July. Because cities give them open airspace, warm rooftops, and good acoustics, the sounds of their characteristic “peeent” sound (as imitated by Edward and Jill on the podcast) really carries.  Starting in June and continuing into July, nighthawks nest. But unlike most other birds, they don’t go around picking up dry grass stalks and composing them into a soft little cup for their babies. Nighthawks lay their eggs directly onto flat gravel rooftops. The incubation period is quite short, lasting only about 18-20 days. Once they’re out, the chicks grow fast. By mid to late July, many of the young have fledged and are flying around finding their own dinner.  From August to September, courtship is over, the laying of the eggs is done, and the kids have grown strong. That’s when they head out, head south to Brazil, Bolivia, Argentina, and Paraguay. During the winter, they don’t have to worry about finding gravelly plains so they are less city-centric. If you're in South America, look for them there in open habitats like savannas, grasslands and agricultural areas. How Can I Spot One?   Nighthawk flight patterns resemble those of bats and chimney swifts (their flight pattern looks rather jerky), because they’re all swerving around to catch bugs. But nighthawks have a bigger wing span than bats or chimney swifts do. This makes them look slightly more floaty than those other nocturnal insect eaters. The most distinctive feature (which you may or not be able to spot depending on the quality of light) is the white spot on the underside of each of their wings.  Can I Help in Some Way to Determine How Nighthawks are Faring? Is there a Monitoring Program? If you live in Chicago, Illinois: you can help monitor nighthawks this summer. No prior experience with data collection or biology knowledge is needed. In 2025, volunteers monitored 197 different sites across Chicago metropolitan area and made a total of 526 site visits, which was nearly twice as many as the year before. The COS reported that, “nighthawks were seen at 68 of the locations, up from 49 in 2024. All told, the volunteers saw 188 nighthawks, an increase of 54% from the 122 seen in 2024.” If you’re interested in volunteering (it’s a nice way to go on an evening stroll around your neighborhood), you can send an email to nighthawk@chicagobirder.org [nighthawk@chicagobirder.org]. If you don’t live in Chicago, Illinois: The Cornell Lab of Ornithology is always engaged in community science. If you download their app, “EBird,” you can report nighthawks (and others birds) at any time, without any necessary gear, organizers, or fees. Your sightings will help build a better understanding of nighthawks and their patterns.  Chicago has an exceptionally robust and consistent nighthawk monitering program, but various other programs and watch nights will pop up around the rest of the United States and beyond. Search to see if there is one in your city, or email your state’s chapter of The Nature Conservancy to inquire about any opportunities.  Other Great Nighthawk Resources:   You can see a fantastic display of their boom and peent calls on this video [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1On-CRxLNc]. (Also, read the comments on this; quite amusing.) Nighthawks also take magnificent dives, which come with their own unique vocalizations. Here’s a video [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1On-CRxLNc] that illustrates that.  Edward wrote a wonderful essay on nighthawks in Humans & Nature Press, and you can read it here [https://humansandnature.org/fool-for-the-city-bird/].  In the episode, Edward mentioned Gretchen Newberry’s book, The Nighthawk’s Evening: Notes of a Field Biologist. Gretchen did her PhD thesis on Nighthawks, and she left her office job to study them full time. You can purchase the book here [https://osupress.oregonstate.edu/book/nighthawks-evening], or order it through your local bookstore. Above photo credits left to right: Marion Miller, Matt Zuro, Carlos Manuel.

How to Make a Myth, and Then Debunk It (Ep. 42)

Non-human primate societies originally were described by male scientists largely as dramas of alpha males: battles, heroics, and constant dominance over females. Those mid-20th-century men’s findings were riddled with reports and analyses of male aggression and hierarchy. But in the late 20th-century, during the global rise of the Women’s Liberation Movement, a new cohort of female primatologists were allowed to enter the academic discipline. A few key women primatologists examined female roles within the troops, as well as the roles occupied by other less-dominant male individuals whom earlier scientists had dismissed as peripheral.  By asking new questions and challenging those early, widely-accepted theories, the women constructed an understanding of primate societies that was more finessed, accurate and complete. They were so successful in this endeavor and their work was so convincing, that male predecessors in the field of primatology readily agreed their own conclusions had been mistaken. They recognized that their narrow focus on the actions of what they labelled “alpha males” had been misplaced. Samara Greenwood is PhD candidate in the academic field called the “History of Philosophy of Science,” and in her dissertation, she examines why those first scholarly articles on the culture within primate societies were so widely read and accepted. She also has examined how those journal articles managed to influence the culture of the general public. Even today, outside of science and inside the general culture of the United States and Australia, the true picture verified by primatologists hasn’t yet overthrown the erroneous beliefs about the roles of alpha males.  In the episode, Samara describes ways that the newer story could potentially take hold–and encourages us to join in and make it happen. “Whether it’s right or wrong,” she says, “there’s a strong connection about how we imagine nature and how we imagine ourselves.” "The stories we tell about nature become the stories we tell about ourselves." – Samara Greenwood, PhD Candidate in History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Melbourne in Australia. Learn More About Samara Samara is an academic researcher, public humanities broadcaster, and postgraduate scholar in History and Philosophy of Science (HPS) at the University of Melbourne. Her work focuses on how the women’s liberation movement of the late twentieth century impacted the theories and practices of primatology in the United States. She is also interested in how interactions between innovative craftspeople, practical mathematicians, and natural philosophers contributed to the emergence of “Galilean science” in early modern Italy. Samara is the founding producer of The HPS Podcast, which features conversations from History, Philosophy and Social Studies of Science. You can listen to that podcast here. [https://www.samaragreenwood.com/] Her work was also recently featured quite beautifully in an interview on “The Philosopher’s Zone” podcast, which you can listen to here [https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/philosopherszone/how-feminism-changed-primatology/105199142]. Seminal Books, People, and Theories on the Topic According to Samara, three women who revolutionized the field of primatology in the late 20th–century were: * Sally Slocum, one of the key feminist scholars who challenged the “Man the Hunter” theory. The “very famous and influential paper” Samara mentioned she published is called “Women the Gatherer: male bias in anthropology,” and you can read it here.  [https://www.scribd.com/document/791430551/Slocum-Male-Bias] * Jane Lancaster, Sally’s associate and another feminist primatologist who rethought the  military model. Her famous article was called “In Praise of the Female Monkey,” published in 1973 in Psychology Today. Jane teaches today at the University of New Mexico in the Anthropology Department as a Distinguished Professor. She is also an editor of Human Nature: An Interdisciplinary Biosocial Perspective.  * Donna Jeanne Haraway, a professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_California,_Santa_Cruz] and a prominent scholar in the field of science and technology studies [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science_and_technology_studies]. Her book, Primate Visions: Gender, Race, and Nature in the World of Modern Science [https://www.routledge.com/Primate-Visions-Gender-Race-and-Nature-in-the-World-of-Modern-Science/Haraway/p/book/9780415902946] examined how human cultural perspectives—particularly those regarding race, gender, and class—shaped scientific narratives and methodologies within primatology Samara also mentioned the book Chimpanzee Politics: Power and Sex Among Apes, which was written by Frans De Waal, a Dutch scientist who challenged a number of assumptions about non-human primates. You can read it here [https://www.amazon.nl/-/en/Frans-Waal/dp/0801886562]. The article that Jill read an excerpt from was called “The Camps Promising To Turn You And Your Son Into An Alpha Male,” by Charles Bethea. It was published in a March issue of The New Yorker [https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2026/04/06/the-camps-promising-to-turn-you-or-your-son-into-an-alpha-male] magazine.

Where Did All the Rivers Go? (Ep. 41)

Humans are incredibly intelligent creatures, and we have been smart enough to rely on the power of rivers for as long as we’ve been alive on this planet. Over a quarter of people dependent on them, yet in most cities, people may not even see the many miles of river that actively flow beneath their sidewalks. For a hundred fifty years, we’ve been burying streams and rivers under concrete in most American cities–and most of the ones in Western Europe as well. The Executive Director of Seven Canyons Trust, Ronnie Pessetto, is attempting to peel back the layers of concrete that cover many of the creeks in Salt Lake City, Utah. The process is known as “daylighting rivers.” And because Ronnie’s projects are happening right inside a city with a million people, it means the work is as much about civic healing as it is ecological restoration.  In this episode, Ronnie Pessetto explains why so many rivers got buried in the first place; how to dig them out of their vaults; and how insanely different the water management policies in the West are from those in the Eastern half of the United States. We also get into climate change (like we do almost always, it seems) and how it might reduce the amount of water in Utah, a state that’s already naturally very dry. Daylighting is one optimistic step that can create greater enthusiasm about urban rivers, and ultimately lead to healthier cities.  "When you uncover rivers, you're not only uncovering water—you're uncovering the stories and the lives and the people that have loved and touched the river." – Ronnie Pessetto, Executive Director of Seven Canyons Trust Above: Illustration by Olivia Cohen Learn More About Ronnie Ronnie Pessetto is the Executive Director of Seven Canyons Trust, an organization whose goal is to uncover and restore buried or impaired creeks in Salt Lake Valley. Before working at Seven Canyons Trust, Ronnie was a Public Lands Planner for Salt Lake City, where she helped manage various urban parks and trails.  Seven Canyons Trust has several daylighting projects in different stages, which you can read about here [https://sevencanyonstrust.org/work]. With joy and care, the work of the organization also includes advocacy, education, and community engagement. This year, the Trust celebrates its 10th birthday.  The Backstory of the Three Creeks Confluence Seven Canyons Trust began in a University of Utah class back in 2014, when a small group of students in an Urban Ecology course developed a 100-year plan for daylighting 21 miles of buried creeks in Salt Lake City. One of the centerpieces of that model was the Three Creeks Confluence, an area just Southwest of downtown Salt Lake City where the “three creeks” (Red Butte, Emigration, and Parsleys) meet the Jordan River. (Confluence is the term for where two or more rivers meet). Within just a few years, the students had had turned the project into a formal nonprofit, secured $3 million in funding, and launched a major daylighting effort. You can read the full original plan (the one they turned in to Professor Stephen Goldsmith) here [https://sevencanyonstrust.org/blog/100-years-daylighting].  The Three Creeks Confluence quickly became a national model, earning numerous esteemed planning and landscaping awards, and inspiring daylighting projects around the world. It’s also the perfect example of what Ronnie calls “cultural daylighting” in the episode. Water restoration, she says, goes hand in hand with creating accessible and robust community spaces. The Three Creeks Confluence isn’t just a success story in ecological restoration; it’s a public art site, a music venue, and a thriving community gathering space. If you find yourself in Salt Lake City, you can visit the Three Creeks Confluence at 1300 South and 900 West. See this webpage [https://sevencanyonstrust.org/three-creeks-confluence].  Above, you can see two maps of Salt Lake City. The first shows the Seven Major Creeks of the Salt Lake City Valley. The second highlights where these creeks overlap with recreation in the city – they run through a total of 29 parks! While some sections are still buried, you can see how much of the creeks now flow above ground.  The Spiral Jetty If you visit Salt Lake City, in addition to looking at daylit rivers, be sure to make the 90-minute drive out to see Robert Smithson’s famous Spiral Jetty. It’s a large-scale earthwork that extends out into the Great Salt Lake, and it’s a truly incredible piece of art. It was built in the 1970s, but not too long after it was completed, the lake’s water levels rose. For 30 years, Spiral Jetty was underwater and unviewable. Then, in the early 2000s, there were times when the water got shallower, and you could partially see Spiral Jetty again — and other times when you couldn’t. Making a pilgrimage was always a gamble! It’s really only been the past decade that it’s been reliably visible. It now sits fully exposed in a lake bed of salt-encrusted sand.  On the drive out there, keep your eyes peeled for long-billed curlews and long-eared jackrabbits hanging out in the grasslands.

Friendship, Bushtits, and the Vastness of Everything (Ep. 40)

Sophie Lucido Johnson, cartoonist for The New Yorker and the author of Kin: The Future of Family. Jill Riddell speaks with her colleague, Sophie Lucido Johson, about comedy, community, and the social science of friendship. In her new book, Kin: The Future of Family, Sophie encourages us to reenvision “family” as a much larger network — not just genetic relatives but also neighbors and friends. We are living in an era that has the highest reported levels of loneliness, yet many forces encourage us to occupy more and more physical space and to spread out far apart from one another. In this episode, Sophie describes how taking up less physical space can be a radical act of restitution and care — both for ourselves and for the planet.  "Humor feels really good, and I think it's important for people to do things that feel really good. Otherwise, you mess everything up for everybody else." – Sophie Lucido Johnson, cartoonist for The New Yorker and the author of Kin: The Future of Family Learn More About Sophie Buy and read Sophie’s books. The one most discussed in this Shape episode was Sophie’s most recent one, Kin: The Future of Family [https://www.amazon.com/Kin-Future-Sophie-Lucido-Johnson/dp/1668060655/ref=sr_1_1?crid=QEGQFLMU5TFF&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.Tk76gPG9Zh8kZwcuKhxGksxBiFaS0Rxke94ZmiN8Fr7GjHj071QN20LucGBJIEps.SVXNTASLQmyR1HTDt28OZzm8f8TGkV7_0RPtzhA4fTE&dib_tag=se&keywords=kin+sophie+lucido+johnson&qid=1776621706&sprefix=kin+sophie%2Caps%2C215&sr=8-1]. That link will direct you to Amazon, but we’d be remiss if we didn’t mention how much more fun and aesthetically pleasing it will be for you to buy Kin at your local bookstore, or to ask them kindly to order a copy for you. (And if you do the latter—you get to have a social interaction! Bonus!) Although those of us who make the Shape podcast all love Kin very much, Sophie’s new book didn’t showcase her funny cartoons and wonderful drawings quite as much as her other two previous books did. So here you go—links to those two:  * Dear Sophie, Love Sophie: A Graphic Memoir [https://www.amazon.com/dp/0063040700/?bestFormat=true&k=dear%20sophie&ref_=nb_sb_ss_w_scx-ent-bk-v2_k0_1_9_de&crid=269TTLDIQ2DNB&sprefix=dear%20soph] * Many Love: A Memoir of Polyamory and Finding Love(s) [https://www.amazon.com/Many-Love-Memoir-Polyamory-Finding-ebook/dp/B075RSBW82/ref=sr_1_3?crid=DNGI80B2LLJ0&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.3KAmJo3u1IVknkuj6UzbnElNAJowvAIfF6q_Xkbc3Ctb7jDjdbwq2-o2iQENR9O9XQBiEPlyvR_fL7_rXbvyOw.1i5_gFxxV9cL-fCJ-VlftQnK9NnunNpDrJOuGDDQ8fA&dib_tag=se&keywords=sophie+lucido+johnson&qid=1776624652&s=digital-text&sprefix=sophie+lucido+johnson%2Cdigital-text%2C156&sr=1-3] And one more! Audible commissioned Sophie to write an Audible Original, an audiobook called Love Without Sex [https://www.audible.com/pd/Love-Without-Sex-Audiobook/B08K3SVRKV?srsltid=AfmBOorqUFNpRpXJKT1Zf7jVve6Yvdh6Hvsc8pUAHUYAASSg7BBXSV21]—that one is available only on their platform and is well worth it. Sophie has an outstanding Instagram and a superb, thoughtful (and yes, funny!) Substack called “You’re Doing a Good Enough Job.” [https://goodenoughjob.substack.com/] You can also see more of her work on her website. [https://www.sophielucidojohnson.com/]

The Warm Glow of Helping (Update)

On the occasions when we humans go out of our way to help another person who is in distress, we are acting out our biological inheritance. And if we don’t help someone in trouble, that’s because we’ve had to actually actively suppress what is natural for us to do. That was the finding of the neurologist Peggy Mason. whom we interviewed in Shape of the World’s second season. We’ve re-released that episode because that particular finding of Peggy’s and the others she spoke about remain incredibly relevant and still come across as a bit shocking.  As a child, Peggy Mason was a biology prodigy. By the age of nine, she was assisting the zoologist Dr. Charles Handley in teaching taxidermy at the Smithsonian. Today, as a neurobiologist, Peggy still works with mammals, but now she’s studying whether they experience empathy and act to help one another. Peggy was studying the subject of pain modulation until a post-doctoral student at the University of Chicago, Inbal Ben-Ami Bartal [https://en-social-sciences.tau.ac.il/profile/inbalbe], asked if she’d be interested in expanding her work to collaborate on a project about empathy. “I went over to see her that same day,” says Peggy, and the upshot was the discovery that, like humans, rats have an aversion to witnessing the distress of others and a strong motivation to help someone else who’s suffering. In addition to leading the research laboratory at the University of Chicago, Peggy is a committed teacher of neurobiology, teaching both formally (at the University) and informally, through her blog and a popular free, online course. “It’s our biological mammalian inheritance to help. It’s not helping that’s the weird thing.” – Dr. Peggy Mason is a professor of neurobiology at the University of Chicago. Want to Learn More, See More, Know More? You’ll love this video from Nova [https://www.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/nvsn6.sci.bio.rats/do-rats-feel-empathy/#.XNMP5NVKGu4] that shows one rat deliberately setting free another rat that’s trapped. Later, the rat is confronted with the question of which to do first: save some rat it had never even met before, or wolf down the chocolate Peggy offered? Also, here’s the article in Science magazine [https://www.science.org/content/article/rats-forsake-chocolate-save-drowning-companion-rev2]. How can I take a class with Peggy? On Coursera [https://www.coursera.org/learn/neurobiology], take “Understanding the Brain: The Neurobiology of Every Day Life,” a free course taught by Peggy. You can also gain more insights from Peggy by subscribing to her blog [https://thebrainissocool.com/], which is fascinating and far-reaching in its subject matter. Her most recent post has the full script of her “Aims of Education [https://thebrainissocool.com/2025/09/28/aims-of-education/]” address, a prestigious speech given to incoming students.