It is so unbelievably cool that this tiny show has been around long enough to bring former guests back onto the show to share all of their awesome updates from the past year and a half! Yes, today we are sitting down with one of Rewildology’s first guests, Daniella Chusyd, PhD, to discuss some pretty big professional and personal updates that has happened since we last sat down. If you have time, I recommend going back into the archives and listening to Episodes 14 & 15, Turning Passion into Research: Elephants & Human Health before listening to today’s episode. Or, if you’re like, Brooke, I’m already here and don’t feel like scrolling through 90 episodes, then keep listening my friends!
As a quick recap, Daniella is an Assistant Professor at Indiana University in the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health and she’s doing wicked cool research studying the links between trauma, mental health, and aging in African elephants, and how these effects help us understand our own physiology.
Daniella shares several updates including her promotion to Assistant Professor from Post-doc Researcher, how her studies in Uganda, Zambia, and the Congo are going for savannah and forest elephants, and one really big personal update that she and I weren’t able to discuss in her first interview. I’m not going to spoil it here and let you hear the story straight from Daniella.
Really quickly before we dive into the episode, I have two announcements. First, I wanted to personally thank all of you that bought a piece of rhino and/or Rewildlogy swag during the rhino conservation campaign! Combined we raised over $450 for conservation, which will be donated to the Katie Adamson Conservation Fund and to Rocky Mountain Wild as a sponsorship for the “Pikas, Prairies, and the Climate Crisis” photography exhibit in Boulder, Colorado. Additionally, we had some travelers book a safari to see the rhinos at Imvelo in Zimbabwe. Seriously, I am so moved by your willingness to join a great cause and save our chubby unicorns. It helps that the shirts are really cool.
Second, Rewildology’s 100th episode is coming up, which is WILD, by the way, and I want YOU to be a part of the show! Heather, the show’s audio and video producer, is going to ask me your questions, with a cocktail in hand of course. If your question is selected, you’ll get a shoutout during the show and have that burning question in the back of your mind finally answered. You all know I’m an open book, so don’t hold back. Ask me whatever you’d like! Submit your questions by emailing at hello@rewildology.com or by DMing one of the show’s social media accounts at rewildology. The deadline is Wednesday, October 26th, so be sure to submit them before then!
Alright, friends. Here is my conversation with Daniella.