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Blue Dot: Hawks and octopuses! A conversation naturalist/writer Sy Montgomery

Sy Montgomery with Peregrine Falcon Banshee.
Sy Montgomery with Peregrine Falcon Banshee.

Host Dave Schlom has a most enjoyable visit with kindred spirit Sy Montgomery. A naturalist, adventurer, and accomplished author, Montgomery begins by discussing her deep dive (which for the falcon above would be called a stoop) into falconry in her latest book, The Hawks Way. 

Fierce, majestic, and mysterious, birds of prey can form remarkable partnerships with expert humans, and Sy takes us on some of those adventures. In the second half of the show, Montgomery shares memories from her 2015 bestseller, The Soul of an Octopus. These creatures of the sea are far from the monsters portrayed in old books, they are intelligent, sensitive, and can be very social with humans lucky enough to get to know them. As Sy points out, getting octopus hickeys all over your arm is a badge of honor!

Dave Schlom is the longtime host and creator of Blue Dot. From surfing to Voyager in interstellar space, rock guitar to orcas in our imperiled oceans, the topics on Blue Dot are as varied as the host’s interests and connections -- which are pretty limitless! An internationally respected space history journalist, Dave is also deeply fascinated by all aspects of the grand workings of nature’s awesome machinery on scales ranging from galactic to subatomic. And topics take in all aspects of the arts and sciences.
Matt Fidler is a producer and sound designer with over 15 years’ experience producing nationally distributed public radio programs. He has worked for shows such as Freakonomics Radio, Selected Shorts, Studio 360, The New Yorker Radio Hour and The Takeaway. In 2017, Matt launched the language podcast Very Bad Words, hitting the #28 spot in the iTunes podcast charts.