Episode 10: How Do Animals Choose Their Leaders?

Photo by Ray Morris / Flickr. Creative Commons.

Election season is upon us, and that means choices. Just last night in Iowa, caucusers gave the win to Ted Cruz on the Republican side and Hillary Clinton (by a razor-thin margin) on the Democratic side.

But plenty more voters across the country remain undecided.

If you’re still on the fence about who to vote for, perhaps you’d like to take a cue from the animal kingdom. If so, Completely Optional Knowledge is here to help. Take ants, for example, whose prospective leaders duel with their antennae until the herd selects a queen. Or maybe wolves, who self-organize into family units, are more your style.

Or maybe you’ll just give up and write in one of these well-dressed little guys.

Just imagine Putin on the other side of that negotiating table. GIFs via Giphy.

However you want to decide, we’ve got biologist Clint Penick, PhD on the podcast to guide us through how strikingly similar animals’ electoral behaviors are to our own.

Who are you voting for to be the next queen bee, I mean president, of the United States?

Ask not what your podcast can do for you, but what you can do for your podcast (hint: you can send us a question to be answered on the show).

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