If you’ve been in Portland for a while, you’ve probably seen Mike Bennett’s artwork: It’s on the facade of the Wonderwood Restaurant & Indoor Mini Golf course. It’s on Trailblazer hats and Portland Timbers banners. It’s on road signs and beer cans. Now, the famous cartoonist and immersive space designer has launched a new video-podcast series that explores the animal kingdom for a youth audience.
Every episode of “The Zooquarium Podcast” begins with a listener-submitted question — mostly from young kids — and the video element features animations in Bennett’s whimsical cartoon style. The first episode aired Tuesday, with a silly and science-backed conversation about sloth stool.
Bennett joins us to share more about the origins and details of his new podcast. We’re also joined by his co-host, Chanel Hason, a marine biologist, science communicator and director of outreach and community relations at the Elakha Alliance.
Note: The following transcript was transcribed digitally and validated for accuracy, readability and formatting by an OPB volunteer.
Dave Miller: This is Think Out Loud on OPB. I’m Dave Miller. If you’ve been in Portland for a while, you’ve probably seen Mike Bennett’s artwork. It’s on the facades of buildings, on Trailblazer hats and Portland Timbers banners, on road signs and beer cans. Now the cartoonist and immersive space designer has launched a new video podcast series for kids that explores the animal kingdom. Bennett’s co-host is Chanel Hason. She’s a marine biologist, science communicator, and director of outreach and community relations at the Elakha Alliance. Their first episode of “The Zooquarium Podcast” premiered this week. It is all about sloth poop. Mike Bennett and Chanel Hason join me now. It’s great to have both of you on the show.
Mike Bennett: Thank you so much.
Chanel Hason: Yeah, we’re happy to be here today.
Miller: Mike, how did the two of you start working together?
Bennett: We got to build a cartoon aquarium together. No real fish. Well, no live fish. We worked together to kind of create the roster of animals that would be in this space, and Chanel very kindly gave me an art crit around some of the ways I was illustrating these creatures, and we just hit it off and worked so well together. It’s been a dream working together.
Miller: Chanel, what was it like working, as somebody who is trained as a marine biologist? So he said as an art crit, so sort of like a criticism or helpful way to help someone improve. What was it like to do that with a cartoonist or illustrator who is not trained as a marine biologist?
Hason: It was really exciting. There was a couple critiques, like the dumbo octopus was in the open ocean when it should be in the deep sea.
Miller: As everybody knows.
Hason: Right. So just little things that, if you don’t know that, then where else would you put the dumbo octopus? It was really exciting and I had him add a couple of things that were really special to the Oregon coast, like the black oystercatcher bird, which is really beautiful and you see here out in the tide pools. It was just a really fun collaboration of science and art together that everybody gets to learn from when you go to the Portland Aquarium.
Miller: All right, so that is an immersive space. Chanel, what inspired you and Mike to start this podcast?
Hason: We both just really hit it off working together, and our love for the animal kingdom and nature and also art collided with this idea of what if we made a podcast together and got to have kids ask us questions? We both have backgrounds in education, so we love teaching people about art and science. It just seemed like the perfect idea for the both of us.
Miller: Right, so Mike, the episodes, they start with a question from a kid, and we’ll hear the first one in a little bit, but why start episodes that way?
Bennett: I think curiosity is something that drives us all, and it’s something that we can slowly lose over time. But hearing the voice of a child – and it’s not always kids, sometimes it’s just the voice of a kid at heart – but hearing the voice of a child ask a question I think is the perfect kickoff for the excitement that we have around bringing our guests on and answering questions with ourselves and the experts. It’s the perfect kickoff.
Miller: You put the word out for, I guess it’s not just kids, but I think kids were particularly invited to submit questions, but you didn’t necessarily know that anyone was going to respond, right?
Bennett: Right. And that’s kind of the beauty of it, as questions trickled in, we were like, oh, we know a sloth expert. Oh, we know someone who’s worked with toucans. Oh, I know someone who’s animated a centipede. So it’s really been a cool thing for us to get excited about our network and community of people that surrounds us.
Miller: What do you think, Chanel, makes a good question for your podcast?
Hason: I mean, I think it goes with the thing, there’s no stupid question. It’s been really fun hearing kids’ questions, because some of them you’re like, wait, why have I never thought of that before? It’s really exciting and it gives us an opportunity to learn just as much as them, too, because I don’t know that much about centipedes, and now I do. Or toucans and chameleons and all these other things that we’ve got questions about.
I think just hearing their thoughts and curiosity about the world around them makes me really excited. I’m excited to also have more questions. Hopefully, after this airs, if you have a question about the natural world, go to the zooquarium.com/podcast and we’d love to hear from you.
Miller: OK. In the meantime, let’s listen to the first question that came into you that you put out into the world, and this is the very beginning of your first episode.
Fitz: Hi, my name is Fitz, 7 ¾ , and I have a question. Why do sloths go all the way to the ground to just go poo? Why doesn’t it poop in the sky?
Miller: I love everything about that. I love Fitz’s voice. I love the specificity of Fitz’s age, the 7 ¾ . It’s not something that people, when they turn 50, they no longer say I’m 50 and 1/12. And then that pooping on the ground, as opposed to pooping in the sky. Fitz doesn’t say pooping on the branch of a tree, but in the sky, OK. So back to why you chose this, Mike, let me give you the first whack at that. Why this, as the first question?
Bennett: I have memories of loving school, and I have memories of occasionally being bored in school. I think a question like this allows us to ramp into all sorts of things around sloths, but the way it grabs you, I mean, I want to know, you want to know, we all want to know why a sloth does this.
Miller: I didn’t even know that they do that first of all. So this is, I mean, I learned something even from the premise of Fitz’s question.
Bennett: I think we tune in immediately. I hate to say it, but we hear the word poop and we’re like, all right, I’ll listen.
Miller: Yeah.
Bennett: It’s silly. It’s fun, and it’s not dry. And that is kind of a big part of our show is like, let’s laugh about it while we learn.
Miller: Chanel, you are a marine biologist, so not an expert on sloths before. Is that a fair thing to say?
Hason: That is a fair thing to say. And now I feel like I am pretty much as close as you can be to a sloth expert after diving into this topic. And something really fun about “The Zooquarium Podcast” is it’s out every other week, and in the between weeks we have special bonus content that drops. So this upcoming week, we have a sloth conservationist in Costa Rica, Dr. Rebecca Cliff. We have a 20 minute episode interview with her, and she just throws some incredible knowledge at us about sloths that is pretty mind blowing. So I’m very excited for everyone to hear that too.
Miller: One of the things that I liked about this first episode and this question you chose is that I learned that scientists don’t actually have a definitive answer to what seems like a simple question. I don’t want to spoil all of it, but Chanel, can you give us just some sense for the theories scientists have for why sloths do slowly make their way to the ground to poop instead of hanging out in the tree?
Hason: I’ll try my best. But yeah, so scientists, there’s a lot of things about sloths that scientists still don’t understand. And so one of that is why they climb all the way down to the bottom of the tree to poop. And it’s about once a week, and their digestive system is super slow, so it takes them about a week to digest one leaf. So, they are just the masters of conserving energy. And so it takes them quite a long time to get down to the bottom of the tree, and then that’s where they poop.
You’ll have to tune in to figure out what they have to do to generate going poop. And the video version, I would say, is the best way to watch that on the aquarium podcast, but it’s just super fascinating. These creatures are really interesting, and there’s still so much to learn about them, which I love just personally as somebody who loves wildlife.
Miller: Mike, folks in the Portland area, and I guess at this point around the world, may have seen some of your sloth art, some of the slowdown signs. So you’ve actually, you clearly had thought about sloths. To some extent in recent years, what was it like for you to learn more about the actual creatures?
Bennett: Yeah, I mean, I think it’s a direct quote from the episode, but I think prior to recording this, I would have chosen to be a sloth. But I think now that I’ve learned more, I think the life of a sloth is a challenging thing. I think my whole perspective around this creature and so many that we’ve covered has shifted. I won’t stop painting them because I still love them, but I love them in a whole different way now.
Miller: Was it learning about the fungus in their fur and the moths that live on that fungus?
Bennett: I mean, the sloth moths are up there, and we learned from Dr. Cliff that those moths actually have made a home in her hair because she spends so much time with sloths as well, which is an incredible thing. So yeah, being a sloth is maybe not at the top of my list, but I love them as a cartoon study. So I will continue to share that art.
Miller: Chanel, how do you figure out, so both for the main sort of the you and Mike episodes, but even maybe more so for the deeper dives with scientists, how do you decide how deep to go for your primarily young audiences?
Hason: That’s a great question. I think a lot of these scientists don’t always interact with young kids. It’s really about how to answer these questions in a really easily adaptable, understandable, digestible way for everyone to understand. I think that’s the fun part about this is they can be a little more silly and engaging with some topics that may be really deep and scientific. But with Mike and I, I think we have a great relationship and way to interact with people that is fun and engaging. So I think we have like a little pre-meeting with our guests to let them know how it’s going to go, but it’s a conversation and I think kids and adults really will enjoy it, from both sides.
Miller: Mike, I’m curious about the partnership that you and Chanel have at this point, because as she mentioned, you both have some education work in your backgrounds, but you have very different backgrounds. You as an artist and illustrator and cartoonist, what do you think Chanel brings to this team? And then Chanel, I’m gonna ask you the same thing about Mike.
Bennett: We’re working with all sorts of ages of people who are listening to this show. A lot of those kids, myself included, want to be a scientist. They want to be a zoologist. They want to be a marine biologist. Seeing not only that you can do it, but that there’s room in your career to do creative things like this, and it’s not just all about the science. I think it gives a lot of freedom and excitement for someone in that career.
And then just meeting all the people that Chanel knows and the wealth of knowledge that Chanel has around the projects we’ve worked on together has been fascinating. And the people that I’ve met through Chanel that live within the world of animals has just been incredible. The community is huge, and I’m so impressed every time Chanel’s like, I know somebody. I know somebody. It’s the coolest thing.
Miller: Chanel, what do you think Mike brings to this?
Hason: Well, Mike is like the nicest, most amazing human I’ve ever met. And so, of course, I knew who he was before we met to open up the Portland Aquarium together. But he is just so kind and genuine. And there’s so many people that follow him and love his artwork. And whenever we’re out somewhere, there’s always somebody who recognizes him and he is so kind and welcoming.
And so, and of course, he’s just a creative mastermind. He is a public joy creator. So to be involved in any of his projects is like a dream come true. And anybody that’s my friend that knows his work is just like, oh my gosh, I can’t believe you’re working with the Mike Bennett. So I’m excited for our journey with this Zooquarium podcast and what comes after that.
Miller: I mentioned, Chanel, that your day job is at the Elakha Alliance. It’s something we’ve talked about in the past. It’s a nonprofit focused on Oregon’s marine and coastal ecosystems, but with a real focus on restoring sea otter populations. Have you gotten questions about sea stars or sea otters that you’re gonna sneak into this podcast?
Hason: Ooh, yes, stay tuned for an episode of a really great sea otter question. We haven’t gotten a sea star question yet, so we will welcome that. But the joy about our podcast is that you can ask any question about any animal, but I will definitely get maybe a little excited about any marine animal species that we get questions about.
Miller: Chanel, how do you think about this podcast, primarily for kids, in the context of climate change and habitat loss?
Hason: I think what’s really great about this is that it’s a way for kids and adults to feel connected to the natural world around them. I think there’s a lot of great nature documentaries and things that are out there for people to watch, but this is an easy way to also get scientists on, to answer the questions of how, like for sloths, for example, Mike asked Dr. Cliff, how can we help sloths? Like the everyday people, and so there are ways and different changes in our everyday lives that can be better for climate change and decrease your carbon footprint and your impact, and so I think this is an easy way to sort of kind of plant the seed, so to speak, about everyday changes in your life that can have a really big impact on the ecosystem around you.
Miller: Mike, I want to go back to something you said at the beginning, that kids have a ton of curiosity and that adults sometimes lose it as they get older. What’s your advice for how we can hold on to it?
Bennett: Gosh, I mean… I guess, ask the question, right? We all have questions to ask and Fitz is a great example of someone who’s asking the question as it comes to his mind. Sometimes I think we kind of cower and whether that be actually physically asking a question out loud, or just trying to find an answer for yourself, I think curiosity can drive us. Especially with creativity and like, “I wonder if I could do that?” is a question you can answer today. “I wonder if I could skateboard.” I don’t know, I could probably go get a skateboard right now.
I think it just limits us. We’re also scared to change our habits and change our day to day and when it comes to art, I mean, artists are some of the loudest voices in the world and I hope that kids that don’t have that snuffed out, keep being loud, keep sharing your message, keep telling the stories you want to tell. I think that’s so important and sharing that as many times as I can to kids. Hopefully that’ll stick with someone.
Miller: Mike and Chanel, thanks so much.
Bennett: Thank you.
Hason: Thank you.
Miller: Mike Bennett and Chanel Hason are the new co-hosts of “The Zooquarium Podcast.”
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