If their skeletons weren't made of cartilage, sharks would have a major bone to pick with Steven Spielberg.
It’s been almost 50 years since Jaws was released, but the echoes of the film’s ominous soundtrack and menacing portrayal of these marine predators still linger in the minds of beachgoers around the world.
To say sharks deserve better PR is an understatement. With the July 10 premiere episode of The Podcast Aquatic, its new, official podcast, the Tennessee Aquarium hopes to transform some listeners’ fear of sharks into a healthy respect.
Show host Casey Phillips, the Aquarium’s communications specialist, leads a wide-ranging discussion from the “studio dive cage” alongside Senior Aquarist Kyle McPheeters, Animal Care Facility Lead Adam Johnson, and Vice President and Chief Husbandry and Exhibits Officer Thom Demas. Each guest has extensive experience diving with sharks, studying their behavior in the wild, or working with sharks at the Aquarium in exhibits like The Secret Reef or Stingray Bay touch habitat.
Together, they chat about their favorite shark species, play Devil’s advocate in defense of “sharksploitation” films like Jaws and The Meg, and explain how they overcame their own fear of sharks.
“There's a lot of educational documentaries and good books that are easy to read that explain how threatened sharks are and how important they are to the ecosystems they inhabit,” Johnson says. “For me, to put an animal into its ecological role and see how much of a difference it would make if that animal wasn’t there adds a lot of respect.”
Beginning Wednesday, July 10, episodes of The Podcast Aquatic will be released biweekly on all major podcast services, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, iHeartRadio, and Castbox.
Future episodes will delve into topics like why insects deserve a place on more restaurant menus, the reasons why a lemur would make for a terrible pet, and the Tennessee Aquarium Conservation Institute’s efforts to save America's second-most-imperiled fish species.
The Podcast Aquatic will be released in “seasons,” with the final episode of this initial collection available on Nov. 6.
Learn more about the podcast and access links to listen or subscribe through popular podcast services at tnaqua.org/podcast
To catch up on how sharks are doing at the Aquarium right now, tune into the Aquarium’s always-live webcam at tnaqua.org/live/secret-reef/