{"podcast":{"title":"Strange Bites","slug":"strange-bites-7718928","podcast_index_feed_id":7718928,"rss_url":"https://anchor.fm/s/10f50156c/podcast/rss","website_url":"https://strangebites.podview.com/","image_url":"https://d3t3ozftmdmh3i.cloudfront.net/staging/podcast_uploaded_nologo/45418739/45418739-1772311267638-ba712da06d989.jpg","author":"Lance Martin","episode_count":45,"summary":"Strange Bites is a biweekly podcast that delivers real, cutting-edge discoveries served up in bite-sized episodes (15 minutes or less) wrapped in atmospheric, creative fiction. Hosted by Lance Martin, each episode plunges listeners into shadowy labs, forgotten dig sites, and eerie breakthroughs where fact meets chilling narrative. Imagine stumbling upon a material lighter than air that could reshape aerospace… but in the dead of night, it feels like touching something that shouldn’t exist. Or watching scientists accidentally birth tiny organisms that grow their own primitive brains and perhaps begin to dream. These aren’t dry lectures—they’re immersive tales that make your skin crawl while your mind races with the real implications. Real science, fictional delivery: Every story is grounded in verifiable research (with sources linked in show notes), but most of the storytelling is creative fiction. This blends thriller-like narration, vivid imagery, and thoughtful exploration of ramifications—ethical dilemmas, existential questions, and “what if” scenarios. Perfect for commutes, late nights, or quick hits of wonder. Two episodes drop weekly, keeping the strange flowing steadily. Da…","last_synced_at":"2026-07-30T02:20:58.833958+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/strange-bites-7718928"},"episode":{"title":"Rockstar Chimps","slug":"rockstar-chimps","published_at":"2026-07-23T14:56:38+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/strange-bites-7718928/rockstar-chimps","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/strange-bites-7718928","url":"https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/lancemartin/episodes/Rockstar-Chimps-e3mesdj","audio_url":"https://anchor.fm/s/10f50156c/podcast/play/123219827/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2026-6-23%2F188d45d8-181c-81f3-566f-173a2b4bc2e9.mp3","summary":"Deep in a remote woodland in Guinea-Bissau. The air is thick with the buzz of insects and the calls of hidden birds. You push through vines and suddenly… you see it. A massive tree, its trunk covered in old scars. At its base, a neat pile of rocks, dozens of them, accumulating like some forgotten offering. No obvious reason. No nuts scattered. No fruit knocked down. Just stones. And every so often, from somewhere in the canopy or distance, comes a deep, resonant THWACK… followed by wild whoops that carry for kilometers. What you’re witnessing isn’t random. It’s deliberate. It’s repeated. And it’s been going on for years in specific groups of our closest living relatives: chimpanzees. This is the strange and beautiful story of accumulative stone throwing. A behavior so intriguing that scientists are still unraveling its meaning. And yes… some have playfully called it the chimps’ version of “rock music.” Stick around, because the truth is even more fascinating than the mystery. This is Episode 43: Rockstar Chimps Sources Kühl, H. S., et al. (2016). Chimpanzee accumulative stone throwing. Scientific Reports, 6, 22219. https://www.nature.com/articles/srep22219 Kalan, A. K., et al. (2019). Chimpanzees use tree species with a resonant timbre for accumulative stone throwing. Biology Letters, 15(7), 20190747. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2019.0747 Nakano, R. & Kalan, A. (2026). Why do male chimpanzees throw rocks at the same trees for more than a decade? We travelled to remote Guinea-Bissau to find out. The Conversation. https://theconversation.com/why-do-male-chimpanzees-throw-rocks-at-the-same-trees-for-more-than-a-decade-we-travelled-to-remote-guinea-bissau-to-find-out-279187 (also published/adapted on SciTechDaily) Additional context comes from the Pan African Programm…","meta_description":"Deep in a remote woodland in Guinea-Bissau. The air is thick with the buzz of insects and the calls of hidden birds. You push through vines and suddenly……","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":609,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/strange-bites-7718928/episodes/rockstar-chimps/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/strange-bites-7718928/rockstar-chimps.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}