Episode 225: Melissa Cristina Márquez, Mother Of Sharks
About this episode
The episode features marine biologist Melissa Cristina Márquez discussing sharks, media perceptions, and the importance of caring for the natural world.
Episode 225 of The Adventure Podcast features marine biologist and TV host, Melissa Cristina Márquez. Also known as the 'Mother of Sharks'. Born in Puerto Rico, Melissa's spent her career trying to make people care about one of the most misunderstood animals on the planet. In this episode, Matt and Melissa cover a lot of ground - from Jaws and Baby Shark to a three-metre crocodile bite on her first ever Shark Week shoot. They touch on the psychology of inflammatory media language, and the hundreds of thousands of years of indigenous knowledge that Western science has largely ignored. Melissa is warm, funny, deeply informed and completely disarming. She has a way of making you realise how much of what you think you know about sharks has been handed to you by Hollywood. She challenges the idea that fear and respect can't coexist, argues that diversity in science isn't just about fairness but about asking better questions, and explains why a species that's survived 450 million years may not survive us. While this conversation starts with sharks, really it's about how we relate to the natural world and whether caring - loudly, specifically, and imperfectly - might be the most…
More episodes of The Adventure Podcast
- Episode 231: Matthieu Tordeur, Adventure in the Age of Fire
- Episode 230: Naomi Aldwyn-Allsworth, Wild By Design
- Episode 229: Dom Ferris, Trash Free Trails
- Dispatch: Niall McCann, Poaching
- Episode 228: Tim Good, Cast Off
- Episode 227: Declan Burley, The Long Game
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