Skip to content
TrackPodcasts
kidsDec 26, 202427:08pending

FIREMAKING with Ellery Frahm

About this episode

Grab your fire extinguisher and hang on to your eyebrows, we’re building FIRES today. We’ll hear all about how our ancient ancestors learned to wield a flame, tame it, transport it, and use it to make tools, keep us warm, and maybe even make us smarter. So get ready for sharp rocks, hairy jello, sooty caves, glowing coals, iron sparks, fluffy fungus, molten metal, ember tending and more with Yale anthropologist and pyrotechnologist, Dr. Ellery Frahm.

Visit Dr. Frahm’s website and follow him on Bluesky and Instagram

A donation went to Armenia Fund

Full-length (*not* G-rated) Pyrotechnology episode + tons of science links

More kid-friendly Smologies episodes!

Become a patron of Ologies for as little as a buck a month

OlogiesMerch.com has hats, shirts, hoodies, totes!

Follow Ologies on Instagram and Bluesky

Follow Alie Ward on Instagram and TikTok

Sound editing by Mercedes Maitland of Maitland Audio Productions, Jarrett Sleeper of MindJam Media and Steven Ray Morris

Made possible by work from Noel Dilworth, Susan Hale, Jacob Chaffee, Kelly R. Dwyer, Aveline Malek and Erin Talbert

Smologies theme song by Harold Malcolm


Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Get every episode summarized

Each time Smologies with Alie Ward publishes, we email you a written briefing from the transcript — the topics, who appeared, and any specific claims, with the ad reads skipped.

Email me new episodes

Free for 3 shows. No card needed.

Hosts & guests

No transcript yet

This episode has not been transcribed. Request it and it moves to the front of the queue.

FIREMAKING with Ellery Frahm

Smologies with Alie Ward

0:00
27:08

More episodes

More from Smologies with Alie Ward

View all episodes →