Tennessee Aquarium Launches Podcast on Sharks Right in Time for Shark Week

Tennessee Aquarium Launches Podcast on Sharks Right in Time for Shark Week

In an exciting twist on Shark Week, The Tennessee Aquarium has chosen to delve deep into the world of these misunderstood marine creatures by inaugurating their own official podcast, The Podcast Aquatic.

The premier episode of The Podcast Aquatic will be aired on July 10, highlighting sharks, their role in the oceanic ecosystem and addressing common misconceptions about these fascinating creatures.

Turning Fear into Respect

The Aquarium is making a concerted effort to turn the public’s largely negative perception of sharks into a healthy regard and respect. Hosted by Casey Phillips, Tennessee Aquarium’s communication specialist, the podcast will feature an extensive discussion on sharks.

Phillips will host these intriguing conversations from the “studio dive cage” with a panel of shark experts. Among them will be Senior Aquarist Kyle McPheeters, Animal Care Facility Lead Adam Johnson, and the Vice President and Chief Husbandry and Exhibits Officer Thom Demas. Each guest has a wealth of experience diving with sharks, studying their behavior in the wild and taking care of them within the Tennessee Aquarium’s exhibits such as The Secret Reef and the Stingray Bay touch habitat.

The discussions will cover everything from the panelists’ favorite shark species to the depiction of sharks in popular culture and how they developed their own respect and appreciation for these magnificent creatures.

Education and Conservation

“There’s a lot of educational documentaries and good books that are easy to read that explain how threatened sharks are and how important they are to the ecosystems they inhabit,” says Johnson. “For me, to put an animal in its ecological role and to visualize what a difference it would make if that animal were not there adds a lot of respect.”

Episodes to Look Forward To

After its premier episode, The Podcast Aquatic will be released biweekly on all major podcast services, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, iHeartRadio, and Castbox. Future episodes promise to tackle diversely intriguing topics.

Apart from talking about sharks, the podcast will cover diverse topics like the need for insects on restaurant menus, reasons why a lemur makes for a terrible pet and the efforts of the Tennessee Aquarium Conservation Institute to save America’s second-most-imperiled fish species.

The Podcast Aquatic will be released in “seasons,” with the final episode of the first collection becoming available on November 6, 2024.

For more information about the podcast or to access links to listen or subscribe through popular podcast services, visit tnaqua.org/podcast. Meanwhile, audiences can also tune into the Aquarium’s live webcam to see how the sharks are doing in real-time at tnaqua.org/live/secret-reef/.

The Shark Week celebrations at Tennessee Aquarium come as an innovative, educational, and exciting way to engage with audiences about the much misunderstood and often vilified marine predators.