The Wandering Naturalist Podcast

10/14/2025

Meet our second guest this month: Dr. Nirosha Murugan! While her resume is long, we asked her to join us to talk about her current work on answering how slime molds- that don't have a brain- can solve mazes!

Inconceivable Slime Molds

'I am excited to represent Canada as a member of the international scientific community and to contribute to transformative breakthroughs in the area of tissue biophysics'

10/13/2025

We wanted to share the Ze Frank video mentioned by our first guest Regular Slime Guy! It can be hard to combine humor with accurate information, but this video does it perfectly.

Inconceivable Slime Molds

This is an educational edition of True Facts which is appropriate for younger audiences and classroom settings. This channel is run by Ze Frank.merch: https:...

10/12/2025

Want to go out and find slime molds yourself? According to the Regular Slime Guy, just head outside and look! Some tips he shared with us is to head out right away after a rain, since that is when they start growing and changing, stick close to water, and bring a flashlight to light up crevices when you're looking at wood, and there are many iridescent slime molds that reveal themselves in the light!

From remembering where they’ve been to recreating the Tokyo rail network, these “slimy aliens” are capable of way more than we give them credit for.

10/10/2025

Another look at a cool slime mold! Wolf's milk! When they are pink like this, they may ooze a paste, but once they dry out they can release puffs of spores!

Wolf's Milk from University Park, State College, PA, USA on October 5, 2022 at 02:06 PM by Cecil Smith

10/09/2025

We've talked a lot about how slime molds move, now see for yourself how this specimen reaches out in search of food, and once it finds it, narrows in.

Slime mold (Physarum polycephalum) growing on a 2% agar medium towards 1% Agar/2% sucrose/yeast extract medium over ~30 hours.Follow and watch on https://twi...

10/08/2025

We had a loon call in this month's first episode for "amoeba"! An amoeba is a single-celled organism without a cell wall, that can change its shape and move using pseudopodia (false feet). It has organelles like a nucleus, cytoplasm, and different kinds of vacuoles. There are hundreds of slime molds species that fall under the Amoebozoa phylum, but still hundreds more that are outside of this classification.

Body structure: Amoeba appears as a colourless and transparent drop of jellywhen viewed under a microscope. ...

10/07/2025

Another interesting name in the slime mold world: the chocolate tube slime! We have to hand it to the biologists, this name is very accurate at describing the slime mold.

chocolate tube slime from Sudden Valley, WA 98229, USA on September 14, 2025 at 01:14 PM by Jefferson Ashby

10/06/2025

Slime molds are weird- but so are we! Both humans and slime molds can move thanks to myosin and actin. We have it within our muscles, but slime molds have it as well.

10/05/2025

The carnival's in town! Well, carnival candy slime mold is in town anyway... So many cool slime mold names are being mentioned in the podcast this month, we wanted to show off all of them!

carnival candy slime mold from San Mateo County, CA, USA on April 30, 2023 at 08:43 AM by Ryan Pearson

10/04/2025

The raspberry slime mold (Tubifera ferruginosa) is what started Matt on his journey to become THE Regular Slime Guy. We have to admit- it is a pretty slime mold! How about you? Feeling inspired?

Tubifera ferruginosa, more commonly known as raspberry slime mold or red raspberry slime mold, is a species of slime mold in the class Myxogastria. It is one of the most widely known and distinct slime molds, being found throughout temperate regions of the world, primarily in Europe and North Americ...

10/03/2025

Our first guest this month is Matt The Regular Slime Guy! If three podcast episodes just isn't enough for you, follow him on BlueSky: .bsky.social or check out his videos on YouTube!

patreon.com/regularslimeguy Hello I'm Regular Slime Guy and I love plasmodial slimes. This channel is for my rap videos and later on, explainer videos and forays.

10/02/2025

One of the most commonly seen slime molds is the unfortunately named "dog vomit slime mold". This species is commonly seen in gardens and often thought to be a threat to plants. No need to fear! Slime molds feed on decaying organic matter, there is no need for a gardener to remove it, unless they just don't like how it looks (which is understandable).

Dog vomit slime mold is an unsightly but harmless yellow mass that often grows in mulch. Here's how to remove or prevent it.