Andrew MacIntosh: 0:00

Hey everyone, welcome to the PrimateCast. You might be thinking to yourself hmm, haven't heard from this guy in a while, and you're right. It's been over 11 months since the last episode aired. So I wanna take this time to talk about why and do a little podcast reflection. You won't hear an interview in this episode, but it would still mean a lot to me if you could stick around to the end. I'm going to leave you with a call to action. So why the break?

Andrew MacIntosh: 0:27

Well, some of you might have already seen the news on socials, but I decided to leave my faculty position at Kyoto University and take on the role of Senior Scientist Wildlife Conservation at the Wilder Institute Calgary Zoo, which brought me home to Canada. I'll come back to that in a minute. But I made that decision back in February and a lot of my priorities immediately shifted. One of those early casualties obviously was my ability and actually motivation, if I'm being frank to knock out podcast episodes. Pulling off an international move with a family of four was huge. I know this is the kind of thing that happens all the time. I'm sure a lot of you listeners have made international moves in the past for academic or other professional or personal reasons I mean. I myself made the move to Japan for the first time more than 20 years ago, back in 2003. But that was just me at the time. It's a different beast when you're established in a place with a family, a house that you built not even that many years ago and a great community full of supportive people, so the emotional toll can't be overstated.

Andrew MacIntosh: 1:29

I'd been at Kyoto University since I began my doctoral program in April 2007, and that's over 17 years ago. I was on faculty since 2012, and I had an active lab full of students doing incredible research. That just broke a little piece of my heart to leave them, some of them still early in their graduate programs. They know that I'm still out there to help when I'm needed, but it was never going to be easy. I'm still really excited to see what comes out of all their hard work, the big brains rocking science, but it definitely feels like there's an expiry date on those projects. I mean all my past research projects in a way that would never really come up if I decided to stay put and keep the Mac lab going. One of my former students commented that when he heard my news, his biggest shock was the realization that I just wouldn't be there as a collaborator anymore in the future. We associate our experiences at a place so much with the people who are there at the time, mostly the ones we work so closely with, and when those people move on, it just isn't the same and it's such a deep and profound way. I guess as academics, we often think of our mentors as these constants in our lives, and I actually know exactly what that student meant.

Andrew MacIntosh: 2:39

My own PhD advisor, mike Huffman, retired from Kyoto University in March this year. But that's just between you and me and definitely don't tell him. I said that. Instead, go watch his kickoff event lecture on the SideCast YouTube channel and let him tell you about his un-retirement. But Mike, moving on was just a part of it. With the Primate Research Institute having been dismantled and restructured, it really isn't or wasn't what it used to be and may never be again. Time will tell, but I'd be lying if I said that Kyoto University's decision to do that didn't factor into my own decision to move on. But there's always so much more behind a decision like this and I'll get to that in a bit.

Andrew MacIntosh: 3:18

But what does it mean for me? Professionally, for the most part, I left the research program I built on parasites and wildlife behind. There's a whole academic identity tied into those things, not to mention my other roles at Kyoto University like mentor, lecturer, lab manager, department member, colleague, friend, manager of PSYCAS, the international center that sponsored this very podcast. Now, all the collaborations I'll no longer be having and the people I won't be working with directly on all our shared projects of collective design Gut punches, I mean all of that stuff. We form these really strong identities around ourselves as academics, as scholars, and even the thought of vacating those identities can lead to real feelings of grief, certainly fear and sadness.

Andrew MacIntosh: 4:09

And I found this really great Facebook community called the Professors Out. Started by the brains behind the Professors In Karen Kelsky, that group really helps people leave the academy with advice, support and a network to facilitate that process. It's also a place where some go to vent about what they call the cult of academia. But what I found endlessly uplifting on that site was all the people offering very kind words to help each other navigate the world beyond the ivory tower, and there's a great deal of acceptance around the idea that grieving is absolutely an appropriate response to leaving. We all have to allow ourselves to do it if you have the chance, and I've tried to do that, you know.

Andrew MacIntosh: 4:45

When hearing the news, one colleague wrote to me why would you give up a tenured professorship for a job at the Calgary Zoo? I got to admit the academic in me flinched at that question. We work so hard to get on the tenure track and so many of our colleagues never get there, either because they realized early on that the struggle wasn't for them the war of attrition eventually got to them or because the opportunity was simply never there. So I'll never forget my privilege at having been granted tenure at Kyoto University. It's one of the top schools in the world. I have a massive amount of gratitude for that, for all the people I met and was able to learn from, work with and myself mentor, and for all the opportunities I had over those many years to build a research program, to collaborate with some of the best in the world, all over the world, and just to grow immensely as a scientist. But life isn't only about work, even if you are an academic.

Andrew MacIntosh: 5:39

Deciding to leave our lives in Inuyama was just as hard, if not harder. I'll never forget the look on my kids' faces when we sat across the dining table from them one 12, the other eight and shared the news that we were moving to Canada First one, then the other, in stunned silence, started shedding wet streams down their cheeks. It really hits home, even harder when, after the move, in a moment of heightened emotions, your preteen asks you through tears why you went and ruined their life and part of you, even for just a moment, wonders if you had. That's hard, you know. My wife and I sent our kids to their grandparents' place near Tokyo a few days before we left the country. We stayed behind to clean up the house and just shut down our lives there. But that car ride to the train station given from a really generous friend in the community, it took us away from the house that we built together. And it wasn't even that long earlier, that long in the past, just six years ago. That was a heart-wrenching moment and not long before it was such a vibrant, critical part of our lives, full of our kids, energy and hygge. It was home. That was hard. Even now we all miss parts of our lives in Inuyama.

Andrew MacIntosh: 6:53

But I have to say I'm also really excited about what I landed on, about what lies ahead for me professionally and for us as a family. Personally, I've been in my new role now for a few months, but really since I signed that offer letter back in March, I've been really inspired, energized and motivated to be part of something so much bigger than my lab at Kyoto University ever could have been the Wilder Institute Calgary Zoo. It's such a dynamic organization doing just incredible things for Canadian wildlife and for people in nature around the world. Everyone I've met so far has been so kind and welcoming, clearly passionate about the direction of the organization and especially the conservation missions it performs. I'm lucky to be part of that. It's refreshing in so many ways to be part of something where the goals are just all so aligned and there's so much focus on team culture.

Andrew MacIntosh: 7:43

Since I've been here, I've also learned just how embedded into the fabric of the city the zoo is. It's the most visited zoo in Canada, apparently, and one of the handful in the world that actually brings in more people through its gates than the entire population of the city that it sits in. That's a crazy stat, but it's really a special place, whatever your views on zoos might be. It's funny too, because way back in the day when I finished my master's degree in Calgary. I actually applied for a research assistant position at the Calgary Zoo to work on their Vancouver Island Marmot Conservation Project. It's a program that's still going strong today. I didn't get that job, even though I drove all the way from Winnipeg to Calgary for the interview. While I was pretty crushed at the time, that outcome is a huge part of how and why I am where I am today, and I guess you could say that me joining the zoo has been a real slow burn, but it definitely feels like a full circle moment in that way.

Andrew MacIntosh: 8:38

When I did this Hacking Apes podcast about a year ago, I was asked about this tumbleweed career of mine. I told the story about wanting to be a marine biologist in my teens and then kind of becoming one accidentally through my friends and colleagues working on penguins who sent me to Antarctica as a marine ornithologist. Yeah, it might be kind of a stretch, but okay. And now I've tumbled again and it's back to where I once wanted to be. I know it's easy to draw threads between all these disparate events in life, but I have to say it can be damn satisfying to do so and it's a lot of fun.

Andrew MacIntosh: 9:11

But even more satisfying is just being part of so many incredible and some even historic conservation projects. Since I've joined, I've had discussions about conserving whooping cranes, burrowing owls, northern leopard frogs, sage grouse, vancouver Island marmots, hippos, sitatunga mountain, bongo, half-moon hair streak butterflies, even the most endangered great ape, the cross-river gorilla. But our conservation team is over 30 people strong and that's a huge commitment to human resources, to conservation, saying nothing of the incredible efforts by development here to raise money and finance all our efforts to support these species at risk. We even have a chief conservation officer also a primatologist, by the way who sits on the zoo's executive team. So it's a direct line to the conservation missions that we have up and down the zoo. So I'm really ready for this new challenge to use whatever I've learned over the years to do my part to make Canada wilder.

Andrew MacIntosh: 10:07

The other thing about this job, of course, is that it brought me home to Canada and I definitely feel it's about time for that. And you know I got to say my people here agree. So that's kind of the story of my year to date. There's actually been a lot more, so much more that I'm not going to get into on air, and there always is more, but I hope you can forgive me for ghosting all of you this year and welcome the show back once I start releasing episodes again. There are a few interviews done last year or earlier this year that still need to launch. These include conversations with cognitive and behavioral scientist Nicolas Clédier from Aix-Marsaille University in France, with animal welfare scientist Lance Miller from the Brookfield Zoo in Chicago that's Chicago Zoological Society and even a chat with Amanda Matheson from Biorbic. It's a Science Foundation Ireland Research Center and it's all about escape rooms for science communication and outreach. I met her at last year's Japan SciComm Forum in November in Okinawa.

Andrew MacIntosh: 11:07

But beyond that, well beyond that, is exactly where I want to end this monologue. I mentioned I was going to leave you with a call to action. Well, here it is. I'm no longer a Kyoto University primatologist. This podcast, as it were, is somewhat in limbo. As a result, the Primatecast is no longer brought to you by PSYCASP and Kyoto University. I do hope you can still find the podcast on the PSYCASP website at Kyoto University if you so desire, and I imagine, at least for the back catalog. The show will continue to be there indefinitely and we'll see about the future.

Andrew MacIntosh: 11:40

Our goal is to continue to collaborate to make that happen, but what is certain is I no longer have my studio, studio Primate, or the equipment I use to produce the show, and I've lost my platform. You know, being at the Primate Research Institute and having so many wonderful primatologists come through over all those years was precisely the reason that I and my co-founder, chris Martin, started the podcast. But even more than that, being a primatologist, talking with other primatologists for the podcast was such a natural thing to do. I can't turn off my interest in talking primates, but it's also far less part of my routine these days, and so I'll need to find ways to build those conversations into my weekly or monthly routines to keep the podcast moving forward, and that's why I'm calling on you now, probably for the first time in maybe our 12-year history, to really ask for some help.

Andrew MacIntosh: 12:33

This has been a passion project for me since the beginning, and I sincerely hope it's been informative and, if I may be so bold, entertaining for all of you, words and all. But to carry on. I'm be so bold, entertaining for all of you, words and all. But to carry on, I'm going to need support from as many of you as are willing to give it.

Andrew MacIntosh: 12:48

First, I need ratings and reviews on the podcast. You go to Apple Podcasts, spotify Podcast Platform X, rate the show, leave a review. A rating would be great, but a review even better. When I look at the show on Apple Podcasts, I literally see five ratings and we have 4.8 stars, which is nice, but the sample size is way too small to think much of that, and I think I dug up one review somewhere on the internet that read they get great guests, but shows come out too sporadically or something like that. Obviously guilty as charged, hopefully, on both counts. There have been a few good runs over the years, most recently my resurgence in 2022, 2023, when I got a lot of growth in, but, oops, then came 2024, and, yeah, not a lot of nothing. I still think listeners get a lot out of the show and new people are finding it all the time. There are still hundreds of downloads every month even without having released any new episodes for almost a year, so I'm getting a little bit off. Track Ratings and reviews.

Andrew MacIntosh: 13:52

It's far better for folks to hear this stuff from each other than just from me. Flat out ratings and reviews tune the algorithms and help other people find the show, but they're also a great way to let me know if what I'm doing here has value to you. In the past, that it had value to me and my center was enough, along with the assumption that others found it listenable. But now I'm looking for something more.

Andrew MacIntosh: 14:15

I have heard quite a few from quite a few people over the years that I've encountered around the world and who've said things like they've listened to the show and they've enjoyed it. One of my favorite moments was at a conference when someone mentioned they actually considered putting the show in their acknowledgement section of a paper that they published because listening to the primate cast was part of their routine during research. I absolutely love hearing things like that. It fuels me. But I suspect there are more of you out there. The numbers suggest it and I want to hear from you, aside from ratings and reviews, which are great first and foremost. But if you want to reach out to me with suggestions or really any other comments that come to mind again, especially if you've enjoyed the show or if it's helped you out in some way over the years, then reach out over one of our many channels.

Andrew MacIntosh: 15:03

Like you can go to theprimatecastinfo, click on that little chat icon in the bottom right or scroll to the bottom of the page and leave your name, email address and a comment and I'll be happy to read it and get back to you, even if it's just to say thanks for thinking of me and listening to the show. You can now even leave fan mail directly in each episode, just by scrolling to the top of the show notes in whatever podcast player you're using and click the send us a text link. I thought that was a nice touch when I found it. You can go give it a shot, check out the show notes below your player right now. Pause and go fire away. I'd love to see those texts come in. It's also pretty easy to find the show on X, facebook and Instagram. Always happy to engage there and hear from listeners, old and new, and, of course, there's so many friends and colleagues I know are out there. Don't be shy and heck. You can even just send out an email to theprimatecast at gmailcom with anything on your mind.

Andrew MacIntosh: 15:58

Any of these options work just fine, which is what brings me to the second thing I need help with, and that's a little bit of a bigger ask. I said earlier that I left almost all of my equipment back in Japan and anyway, now that I'm the sole showrunner here, there's really no more support for the show at all. And that includes financials. Producing a podcast is certainly not the most economically taxing of activities, but there are associated costs and I'll be bearing all those on my own. Now, obviously, the gear comes to mind. That would include your mic, audio interface, headphones, mobile recording gear that you might want when you go on location, like the few conferences we recorded from in the past, and any software you're running to record and edit the audio and video. I've hinted at that, but that's not really the Primate Cast's mojo at the moment. Even to compose episodes I've been using software like Apple's Logic Studio pretty much since the beginning now on Logic Pro, and I also sometimes use iZotope RX9 for additional editing and cleaning of audio.

Andrew MacIntosh: 17:02

But longer term these do require updates and that can bump up costs. Even just having a machine capable of running all of this stuff is an expense in the long term. But the biggest costs come from website and podcast hosting. This includes maintaining the PrimateCast domains and hosting the website. I'm currently doing that with GoDaddy for the website. You might notice that the website domain recently changed from the PrimateCastcom to the PrimateCastinfo. That might be annoying for some. I feel ya, but there's also a reason for that. It's because I diverted the com domain to the podcast hosting website that comes with the hosting service.

Andrew MacIntosh: 17:32

I use Buzzsprout. They really help manage the show's backend and its distribution, track analytics and a bunch of other things like generating audio transcripts, audio cleaning, helping with audio soundbites and providing AI support for metadata and show notes. I wrote a little blog about starting to use Buzzsprout in 2022, but I highly recommend it for anyone thinking about podcasting and hosting services. It is a subscription model, though, and that also inflates costs, especially when adding features like dynamic content, magic mastering to clean audio and co-host AI. All of these things do add value to the show, but also costs. Anyway, theprimeatecastcom is where you can now find the podcast episodes from. Buzzsprout includes transcripts and all associated links to the show. The info domain will be used as a sister site for additional info, the blog and other things like that.

Andrew MacIntosh: 18:25

Not to get too bogged down with the nitty-gritty of production, I just mention all of this to highlight that any support listeners can provide, even small one-time donations or low recurring monthly subscriptions, really will go a long way to ensuring that there's long-term viability to the show. Ultimately, what I'm hoping to do with all this is really build a primate cast community, but to do that I'm going to need all hands on deck. If you send in reviews or comments, either on your favorite podcast platform or directly to the website, I'll share those on the show and give a shout out to the person who wrote it, if named, of course, and if not, then just as an anonymous tip. If you support the show through a donation, either once or by joining as a monthly subscriber, I'll personally thank you on the show. I'd like to be in communication with listeners more often. Maybe that's on socials, maybe other channels, and have you make suggestions for guests, for how I can improve the podcast, for anything, maybe to put people in touch who would otherwise have no connection to each other, for collaboration, for mentorship who knows?

Andrew MacIntosh: 19:28

I'm a huge believer in podcasts, not only as a democratizer of information flow, but also in their ability to foster communities. The Primate cast has been a community like that for me, and I'm hoping it can be one such community for others, but it will take all of us, so I'm asking for your help. If you value the show, please consider making a donation or joining as a monthly subscriber. There are different support tiers, starting as low as a one-time donation of five US dollars or a monthly low subscription of two US dollars. Supporting the show won't currently change anything about yours or other listeners' experiences with it. The show's entire catalog is still 100% free to everyone all the time and I'll make sure the existing episodes are housed indefinitely accessible on all major platforms. But your support directly affects how we move forward, whether the podcast grows, remains active after its recovery, of course, from this absence, or whether we get to 100 episodes and just call it a day. By the way, 100 is on the horizon, yo, it's at 90 now. My guarantee is that we get to 100 and then reevaluate. That's my magic number, but I'm willing to go on with your support. So this is my call to action to you. I know you're listening. I hope you act. I look forward to giving a first round of supporter shout outs when the Primate Cast re-airs November 26th. More details on socials, but until then, take care of each other out there, will you? Thanks for listening to the Primate Cast.

Andrew MacIntosh: 21:03

The podcast is hosted and produced by me, dr Andrew McIntosh, senior Scientist for Wildlife Conservation at the Wilder Institute, calgary Zoo, formerly associate professor of biological sciences at Kyoto University. Join me for new episodes as often as I can get them out, on whatever podcast platform you prefer. Leave a rating or a review of the show to help other listeners find it. Connect with me through our website, theprimatecastinfo, or social media on X, facebook or Instagram. Feel free to comment, ask questions, suggest future guests or share whatever else might be on your mind. If you value the show, consider donating or becoming a member. You can do so by visiting theprimatecastinfo and clicking on the big yellow buy me a mic button which takes you to our campaign page. Or you could click on that little heart icon next to Thank you.