The Field Trip Podcast: Taxidermy

Piece Description

In this episode, we visit Leah Wade, the owner of San Francisco's Quiet Science Taxidermy Studio, to learn about the art of making the dead live again ... sort of. Wade specializes in museum-quality taxidermy that realistically depicts the look and behavior of animal specimens. Join us as we investigate her freezer, get up very, very close with a deer and learn about the art of making the non-living appear life-like. (This portion of the podcast is rated PG for frank discussion of death and animal dissection plus some mildly gory descriptions of animal remains.)

We also check in with author Jay Kirk, who wrote a biography of Carl Akeley, the man who created the African Hall at New York's Museum of Natural History and transformed taxidermy from a big game trophy club to a scientific craft that tries to recapture what animals -- and their environments -- really look like. In the process, he helped catalyze the conservation movement. Kirk's book is called Kingdom Under Glass: A Tale of Obsession, Adventure, and One Man's Quest to Preserve the World's Great Animals.

And then ... there's a surprise!

You can stream the podcast, or click to download, on the player below. Run time: 27:10.