The Team
Phoebe Cohen
Host & Writer
Phoebe is a paleontologist and an Associate Professor in Geosciences at Williams College where she teaches, does research, and mentors undergraduate students. Phoebe uses really old and tiny fossils to reconstruct Earth and life's past, focusing mostly on the evolution of life before animals. Her favorite extinct animals are trilobites, but the competition is FIERCE. You can learn more about Phoebe here.
Jacquelyn Gill
Host & Writer
Jacquelyn Gill is Associate Professor of Paleoecology and Plant Ecology at the University of Maine. Her research involves understanding how forces such as climate change have affected species and ecosystems over time. She is also co-host of the “Warm Regards” podcast, a co-founder of the March for Science, and a 2020 recipient of NCSE’s Friend of the Planet award.
Erisa Apantaku
Narrative Producer and Story Editor
risa Apantaku is a Black/biracial, queer multimedia producer/educator from the lands of the Three Fires Confederacy of the Ottawa, Ojibwe, and Potawatomi (Chicagoland). Erisa was a producer on the Invisible Institute’s award-winning podcast You Didn’t See Nothin. Outside of the Invisible Institute, Erisa also produces short audio and video documentaries examining topics including race and sexuality through a process that centers curiosity and seeks to be vulnerable and generative. She’s edited episodes of Tight Lipped, South Side Weekly Radio, and the The Alaskan Myth. As an audio educator, Erisa has trained individuals of different ages through South Side Weekly, Change Agents, Blok by Blok, IndyKids, and After School Matters. Find her work at erisaja.com or follow her on all platforms @_erisaja.
Erisa's favorite extinct creature is the trilobite because of a song on a cassette tape her sister played in the car in the early 2000s that was about trilobites.
Rich Bunnell
Audio Producer and Engineer
Rich is a freelance copy editor, designer, and podcaster living in Connecticut with his wife, son, dog, and cat. He has worked for publications including the San Francisco Examiner and the Oakland Tribune and contracted with climate organizations including the American Society of Adaptation Professionals and the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication. Since 2018, he has co-produced the popular music podcast Discord & Rhyme. His favorite extinct creature is the passenger pigeon, because its demise is a fascinating story of the Anthropocene, and because it served the same role in the early 20th century American diet that chicken does today.
Jose Cuevas
Social Media Manager
Emma Rehn
Ilustrator
Emma is an Australian freelance science illustrator and researcher from tropical north Queensland, with a scientific specialisation in archaeology and palaeofire (ancient bushfires). She enjoys drawing cartoons and sharing her excitement for science, and often combines the two. As an Aussie, Emma’s favourite extinct animal is the thylacine (Tasmanian tiger), with ammonites a close second. You can view Emma’s portfolio here: https://emmarehn.com