People
F
Frank Ashwood
M
Mamadou Ndiaye
R
Rutendo Shackleton
S
Sebastian Echeverri
S
Simon Spiro
Topics
Rutendo Shackleton 从津巴布韦文化的角度讲述了死亡并非永久的终结,而是一种暂时性的分离,并通过家族的纪念活动来表达对逝者的爱与怀念。她详细描述了家族在祖父去世后所进行的仪式和传统,例如在坟墓上种植水仙花,以及每年纪念日举行聚餐、演奏音乐和讲述故事等活动,这些都体现了津巴布韦文化中对死亡的独特理解和处理方式。 Sebastian Echeverri 则表达了对死亡作为永久性终结的个人观点,但他同时尊重并欣赏Rutendo家族的纪念方式,并思考自己希望如何被人们铭记。他认为死亡与自然紧密相连,并对Rutendo祖母在祖父坟墓上种植花朵的举动表示赞赏。 Frank Ashwood 作为土壤生态学家,从科学的角度解释了土壤中丰富的生物多样性以及死亡在生态系统中的作用。他强调了土壤作为生命循环的关键组成部分,以及土壤中各种生物体(包括细菌、真菌、线虫等)在分解有机物质、循环利用养分方面的作用。他生动地描述了一茶匙土壤中包含的巨大生物量,以及这些生物体之间的食物网关系,并指出土壤是地球上主要的生物多样性库之一。 Simon Spiro 作为野生动物病理学家,分享了他对老年猎豹进行尸检的经历。他详细描述了尸检的过程和目的,包括外部检查、内部检查以及样本收集等步骤。他强调了尸检在了解动物生物学、诊断疾病以及为科学研究提供数据方面的价值,并介绍了伦敦动物学会的动物标本库及其在科学研究中的重要作用。 Mamadou Ndiaye 作为一名TikTok明星,分享了他对各种动物的了解,特别是对美洲豹的赞赏。他强调了美洲豹作为顶级掠食者的地位及其独特的捕猎技能,并谈到了在制作视频时如何确保内容的准确性和娱乐性。他还分享了一个关于鹈鹕捕食海雀幼鸟的令人震惊的事实,以及他如何利用自己的平台来提高人们对动物的认识,避免对动物的误解和迫害。 Rutendo Shackleton 的观点强调了文化传统在应对死亡和悲伤中的重要作用,以及家族凝聚力在面对丧失时的支持和慰藉。Sebastian Echeverri 的观点则代表了对死亡的另一种理解,即死亡是终结,但同时也表达了对生命和自然界的敬畏。Frank Ashwood 的观点从科学的角度揭示了死亡在自然界中的循环作用,以及土壤生态系统中生物多样性的丰富性。Simon Spiro 的观点则强调了科学研究在了解动物生命和保护动物方面的重要性,以及尸检在科学研究中的价值。Mamadou Ndiaye 的观点则体现了利用大众媒体平台来提高人们对动物的认识,以及避免对动物的误解和迫害的重要性。

Deep Dive

Chapters
Rutendo shares her family's Zimbabwean traditions surrounding death, contrasting them with Sebastian's perspective. Their differing views highlight the cultural diversity in how death is understood and mourned.
  • Zimbabwean funeral customs require family unity.
  • Rutendo's grandmother's decision against remarrying challenges tradition.
  • Death is viewed as a temporary parting in Rutendo's culture.

Shownotes Transcript

Rutendo and Sebastian explore death and its role in the natural world. For Sebastian, death is a permanent state, a complete end to a life. But for Rutendo and her family, death is just a temporary parting. Around the world burial customs differ, but throughout nature, death and decay provide sustenance to other life-forms.

 

Sebastian explores the extraordinary diversity within the ground, with soil ecologist Frank Ashwood, who explains that a single teaspoon of healthy soil contains more than a billion organisms. Among them, the nematode worm – the most abundant organism on the planet.

 

Wildlife pathologist Simon Spiro performs a post-mortem on an elderly cheetah from Whipsnade zoo, and takes us through ZSL’s archive of specimens from nearly 120 years of animal post-mortems. Samples such as worms from the gut of a European bison, or stones from the stomach of a llama, are used to help scientists learn more about the basic biology of each species.

 

Rutendo and Sebastian are joined by TikTok star Mamadou whose animal fact videos have brought him more than 15 million followers. Rutendo and Mamadou bond over their shared belief that jaguars are disrespectful, and he leaves Sebastian with a disturbing story about Pelicans.

 

Credits

The BBC Earth podcast is presented by Sebastian Echeverri and Rutendo Shackleton.

The producers were Rachel Byrne and Geoff Marsh.

The researcher was Seb Masters

The Production Manager was Catherine Stringer and the Production Co-ordinator was Gemma Wootton.

Podcast Theme Music was composed by Axel Kacoutié, with mixing and additional sound design by Peregrine Andrews.

The Associate Producer is Cristen Caine and the Executive Producer is Deborah Dudgeon.

 

Special thanks to

Simon Spiro from the Zoological Society of London.

Soil ecologist Frank Ashwood.

Jennifer Jerret from The Acoustic Atlas at Montana State University for providing the soundscape from Yellowstone National Park.

Mamadou Ndiaye who can be found on TikTok under @mndiaye_97 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy) for more information.