Episodes

  • Culture and Plants in Nuevo León, Mexico : Carlos "Aztekium" Velasco

    Culture and Plants in Nuevo León, Mexico : Carlos "Aztekium" Velasco
    May 14 2026
    Episodes of the Crime Pays Podcast are available Ad-Free on the Patreon at www.patreon.com/crimepaysbutbotanydoesnt

    Carlos "Aztekium" Velasco is a biologist, educator, and naturalist in Nuevo León, Mexico who has been teaching and studying the region's botany for 30+ years. He has written a guidebook to the plants of Nuevo León and helped describe new species such as Astrophytum caput-medusae.

    In this episode we talk about the endemic plants of the Sierra Madre, the habitat of Huasteca Canyon, the urban river known as Rio Santa Catarina and its potential as native plant habitat, Ethnobotany of Mexican Plants, a growing appreciation of native plants in Northern Mexican culture, why the North lost so much of its Ethnobotany compared to the South, and more.
    Show More Show Less
    1 hr and 16 mins
  • Oakland Bio - Saumitra Kelkar

    Oakland Bio - Saumitra Kelkar
    May 8 2026
    Saumitra Kelkar is a biologist and public educator In Oakland, California. This episode we talk about getting kids into nature, Bay area plant habitats, human selection of native plants and native plant cultivars, remnant edible wild gardens created by indigenous people, human-plant mutualisms, illegal gardening and more.

    Ad-Free Episodes of the Crime Pays Podcast are available on the Patreon at www.patreon.com/crimepaysbutbotanydoesnt
    Show More Show Less
    1 hr and 36 mins
  • Dirty Backyard Biology with Damon Tighe

    Dirty Backyard Biology with Damon Tighe
    May 5 2026
    In this episode we talk about the dead fly fungus, fertilizing Trichocereus with piss, how to get a good compost heap running, the science of backyard microbes, human manure composting, cultivating oyster mushrooms, trying to find out what mycorrhizal fungus associates with Texas Madrones, and more.

    Follow Damon Tighe on IG at @damontighe

    Ad-Free Episodes of the Crime Pays Podcast are available on the Patreon at www.patreon.com/crimepaysbutbotanydoesnt
    Show More Show Less
    2 hrs
  • Nuevo Leon & Borderlands Rants

    Nuevo Leon & Borderlands Rants
    May 4 2026
    Rants about Mexican Cops, finding Arroyo Sweetwood in the wild, refugial canyons of the Sierra Madre that feel like humid forests in Georgia, and more .

    Ad-Free Episodes of the Crime Pays Podcast are available on the patreon at ww.patreon.com/crimepaysbutbotanydoesnt
    Show More Show Less
    1 hr and 53 mins
  • Rafflesia Rants

    Rafflesia Rants
    Apr 17 2026
    Ad-Free episodes of the Crime Pays But Botany Doesnt podcast are available on the Patreon at:
    www.patreon.com/crimepaysbutbotanydoesnt

    Rants about the Philippines, street trees of Manila, the jade vine Stronglyodon macrobotrys, the parasitic plant genus Rafflesia and its host Tetrastigma (Vitaceae), understory forest palms, old world lineages of aroids, and more.
    Show More Show Less
    1 hr and 37 mins
  • Philippine Rants

    Philippine Rants
    Apr 6 2026
    Episodes of the Crime Pays Podcast are available Ad-Free on the Patreon at www.patreon.com/crimepaysbutbotanydoesnt

    In this episode we talk Philippines Botany with Jayson Mansibang and Johnny Altomonte from Philippine Taxonomic Initiative. We talk about biogeography, Nepenthes, diversity in the genus Ficus, Dacrydium, Begonias, Dipterocarpaceae and the genus Shorea, describing new species, ultramafic areas of the Philippines, how a childhood filled with dinosaurs got us into botany, and more.
    Show More Show Less
    1 hr and 44 mins
  • Back Porch Rants

    Back Porch Rants
    Mar 31 2026
    All episodes of the Crime Pays Podcast are available at www.patreon.com/Crimepaysbutbotanydoesnt

    Rants about saving the Borderlands Caper Tree, salvaging star cactus from a housing development in South Texas, mowing (and "dethatching") dead turf grass, vandalizing Nandina domestica in private landscaping, and more.
    Show More Show Less
    1 hr and 18 mins
  • Drought Tolerant Rants

    Drought Tolerant Rants
    Mar 15 2026
    Ad-free episodes of The Crime pays but Botany doesn't podcast can be listened to on the Patreon at: https://www.patreon.com/CrimePaysButBotanyDoesnt
    Show More Show Less
    1 hr and 52 mins