Queerly Natural with
Ilana & Sage
Welcome to Queerly Natural! This is a science-based podcast about the diversity of sexuality, sex, and gender in the natural world. Join three queer biologists as they chat about the huge array of LGBTQIA+ diversity among animals, plants, fungi, and more. People may tell you that being queer is unnatural, but we are here to show you that it is queerly natural! Episodes are released the first Wednesday of every month. Transcripts and more details can be found under the PODCAST section of the site.
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How the Show Came to Be
Sometimes you have an idea, sometimes you have twenty. Ilana is definitely someone who has at least 20 ideas at any given point in time. Some of those ideas are actually interesting. Sometime during her senior year in undergrad, Ilana came up with an idea for a show about queer ecology. As a member of the LGBTQIA+ community, she wanted to communicate science that shows the queer side of nature. During one of the many random office chats with Sage and Elizabeth at their graduate school, she mentioned this concept to them. Eventually, a pun based name was chosen and all three excitedly began the process of finding time to think about how to podcast. Summer came and podcasting began.
Elizabeth Fuhrman: Previous Cohost
Elizabeth (she/her) is in her mid-twenties and has wanted to work in conservation since watching a documentary on the Amazon Rainforest in seventh grade. She has worked seasonal jobs ranging from fire ecology to sea turtle tagging in Florida, Louisiana, Utah and Equatorial Guinea before starting her master's program working with Galapagos tortoises and meeting the other hosts. Her dream job is studying community ecology for restoration and education in a tropical rainforest. Elizabeth was privileged to spend time in Ecuador and visit the Amazon in undergrad, which she promptly fell in love with and can't wait to return to- or have the chance to explore new tropical forests around the world! In addition to her time commitments of schoolwork, podcast and the travel bug, she has a very sweet dog named Holly and reads fiction or spends time with friends when she can.
Ilana Zeitzer: Ideas and Organization
Ilana (she/her) is a lifelong plant lover, who declared a future in conservation when she was in fifth grade. She is currently a PhD candidate studying ecology with a special interest in mutualistic plant-fungal interactions. Often struggling with the problem of having too many ideas with very little time and rarely the necessary skills, she was happy to find some friends willing to pursue one of those ideas. When not podcasting, Ilana is often doing homework and research. In the too few hours she is not doing such, Ilana can be found horseback riding, farming, watching Star Trek, listening to too many podcasts and of course playing with her guinea pigs. Lovingly referred to as 'her boys' Peanut Butter and Butterscotch are two spoiled guinea pigs.
Sage Roden: Editing and More Editing
Sage (they/them) is a mycologist who was immediately enamored by the wonderfully weird, diverse, and important world of fungi when they took a mycology field course in college. Sage is especially interested in the ways plant-associated fungi are impacted by changes to the plant community or ecosystem. Hannah is currently focusing on personal research and science communication projects (like this one). When not thinking about the intricate and wonderful ways our Earth works Sage is knitting sweaters for their loved ones, playing a Nintendo Switch game with their wife, Hailey, reading about adventurous sci-fi lesbians, or wrangling their two rambunctious cats Flynn and Adora.
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