Arthro-Pod EP 71: #BugsR4Girls with Sophia Spencer

Howdy bug lovers! Today is a special treat for us, the Arthro-Pod gang gets to meet a hero of ours, Sophia Spencer. You may remember Sophia's story from a couple years back, she has always had a passion for insects but unfortunately encountered bullying for her interests. After a particularly bad incident at school, her mom, Nicole Spencer, wrote to the Entomological Society of Canada to see if any entomologists would want to be a pen pal for Sophia. Dr. Morgan Jackson responded, wondering if he could share the story on Twitter. The result was more than anyone could have imagined as #bugsr4girls became quite a phenomenon! Since then, Sophia has co-authored a scientific paper with Morgan and is now publishing a book, "The Bug Girl", to share her story and inspire others to follow their interests, even if they don't quite fit the normal mold!
Tune in to hear all about Sophia's journey and why she loves grasshoppers so much!

Show Notes
If you would like to buy Sophia's book, check it out here: https://www.amazon.com/Bug-Girl-True-Story/dp/0525645934
Here is a link to Sophia's paper
Finally, Sophia recommends the National Geographic insect books to anyone trying to promote an interest in their children!

Questions? Comments? 

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This episode is freely available on archive.org and is licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Beginning/ending theme: "There It Is" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

Arthro-Pod Episode 40 Women in Entomology Part 1

Howdy, howdy bug lovers! Today's show is part one of a two part series on women in entomology as we celebrate Women's History Month. For this episode your three regular hosts get together to introduce the topic and get the conversation going and the second episode we will feature guest interviews about current issues for women in entomology. 

We start our discussion today though by talking about two luminaries in entomological history, Maria Sibylla Merian and Edith Patch. After that, Jody solicited stories from scientists of today to hear about mentors and issues that persist in our field. We also discuss the role of social media in breaking down barriers, as we saw with #BugsR4girls. We hope you enjoy and learn a little something about our history and how we can still work towards a more equal tomorrow.  

Maria Merian (left) and Dr. Edith Patch are our two historical luminaries for today's episode!

Show notes:

To learn more about Maria Sibylla Merian, check out these resources

https://entomologytoday.org/2015/02/26/famous-female-entomologists-part-4-maria-sybilla-merian-the-mother-of-entomology/

http://www.themariasibyllameriansociety.humanities.uva.nl/

https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2016/01/the-woman-who-made-science-beautiful/424620/

http://public.gettysburg.edu/~ketherid/Merian%201st%20ecologist.pdf

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/23/science/maria-sibylla-merian-metamorphosis-insectorum-surinamensium.html

To learn more about Dr. Patch, check out these resources

Entomology Today - Looking beyond Edith Patch's CV by Katie Todd

Entomology Today - Remembering Edith Patch, the First Female President of the Entomological Society of America by Amanda Clark

Wikipedia - Edith Patch

Biography: Without Benefit of Insects: The Story of Edith M . Patch of the University of Maine

Photos of Patchiella (under a CC BY 3.0 license)

Friends of Edith Patch - “non-profit organization dedicated to celebrating and continuing the legacy of Dr. Edith Marion Patch, a pioneering entomologist whose scientific, educational, and environmental work expanded the ecological understandings of scientists, educators, children, and families around the world.”

We also want to thank everyone who retweeted, favorited, or responded to Jody on Twitter! Your responses were very helpful in making our Women in Entomology Series!

Questions? Comments? 

Follow the show on Twitter @Arthro_Podshow

Follow the hosts on Twitter @JLarson_UNL, @JodyBugsmeUNL, and @MSkvarla36

Get the show through iTunes!

Subscribe to our feed on Feedburner!  

We're on Stitcher too! 

This episode is freely available on archive.org and is licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Beginning/ending theme: "There It Is" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0