In this engaging episode of 'Fourth Favorite Hat,' listeners are taken on a unique journey that intertwines the realms of paleontology, science communication, and quirky everyday conversations at Montana Dinosaur Center's dig sites. Hosts Andy, Bret, and Bryce, accompanied by guest Abby, delve into the fascinating world of dinosaur digs while also sharing light-hearted banter about their fourth favorite hats. Abby, hailing from Seattle and working at the Pacific Science Center, brings a fresh perspective on science communication, exploring how humor and relatable dialogue can bridge the gap between complex scientific concepts and public understanding. Her work on a science comedy show, 'Are You Smarter Than a Comedian?' serves as a cornerstone for discussions about the power of storytelling in science. The episode is a charismatic blend of personal anecdotes, professional insights, and forward-thinking initiatives in making science accessible and enjoyable to a broader audience.

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In this whimsical yet insightful episode of 'Fourth Favorite Hat', we explore the lighter side of paleontology with the team from the Montana Dinosaur Center. Through engaging banter and shared stories, hosts Andy, Bret, and Bryce give us a glimpse into the daily dynamics of dinosaur digs and the science behind these prehistoric beings. From the quiet beauty of ancient ecosystems to the unexpected quirks of fieldwork and phylogenetic analysis, the episode seamlessly mixes humor with science, bridging the gap between the layperson and the fascinating world of paleontology. Additionally, the hosts delve into their personal journeys within paleontology, shedding light on the paths that led them to their current passions within the field.

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In this episode of the podcast’s “Meet the Hosts” mini-series, Andy, Bret, and Bryce put the spotlight on Bret and the winding path that pulled him into paleontology through geology. Bret traces it back to childhood: building a “rock museum” in his room (with plenty of help and inspiration from a mom who worked in museums), growing a collection fueled by family and friends bringing rocks home from their travels, and eventually landing on a favorite piece from Antarctica.

From there, the conversation broadens into what Bret actually does today, with a geology-first lens on fossils: sedimentology, reading the rocks around bones, and reconstructing ancient environments. Along the way, the hosts riff on citizen science, why outreach matters, and how surprisingly small the paleontology world can be. Expect plenty of friendly chaos, bad jokes about dodging rocks, and a deep dive into geologic history, including continental drift, Alfred Wegener’s early evidence, and how later ocean mapping helped validate the idea. The episode wraps by teasing next week’s turn in the hot seat: Bryce and the biology side of the paleo equation.

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Episode 8 kicks off a new mini-series where the hosts answer a question they hear constantly: what got you into paleontology, and how did you start? They decide to go in alphabetical order, which puts Andy first, with Bret and Bryce chiming in throughout.

Andy traces his origin story back to an early visit to Chicago’s Field Museum, joking that an alternate-timeline version of him became an Egyptologist after too many laps through the mummy exhibit. From there, he pivots into what it actually takes to move from “knowing dinosaur names” to understanding “life through time,” and explains why paleontology is a hybrid discipline that can be approached through geology, biology, and more.

The heart of the episode is Andy’s deep dive into taphonomy: what happens to organisms after death as they transition from the biosphere into the rock record. He breaks it into the two big phases, biostratinomy (after death, before burial) and diagenesis (buried and becoming fossil). Using examples from his research, Andy explains how minerals, preservation, and bone distribution can reveal environmental conditions and depositional history.

Along the way, the episode keeps a playful tone with running jokes about regional pronunciations (Milwaukee, Pierre, Thermopolis), academic “sample sizes,” and paleontologists being the kind of people who enjoy puzzles with half the pieces missing. Andy also talks about why Two Medicine Formation fossils are especially exciting for a taphonomist, including the potential for high-definition preservation and rarer finds like eggs and babies, while also correcting common “Jurassic Park”-style misconceptions about fossils always being pristine and fully articulated.

The conversation wanders, in a good way, into paleo gaming and museum-media nostalgia, plus a quick look at adjacent interests like ankylosaurs and pathology work (distinguishing injuries that happened in life vs damage that happened after death). Andy closes with a favorite “cool find” story involving placoderm plates that were once misinterpreted, then signs off by teasing that the next episode will focus on Brett’s path into paleontology.

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Andy, Bret, and Bryce dive headfirst into a wide-ranging, unapologetically nerdy conversation about dinosaur and paleo-themed video games that shaped their childhoods and still live rent-free in their brains. After opening with their now-standard “fourth favorite hat” introductions, the trio quickly establishes common ground as lifelong gamers and pivots into a deep appreciation of Dinosaur Adventure 3D, a 1999 educational game that unexpectedly proves to be both mechanically challenging and scientifically thoughtful. Andy leads much of this discussion, recounting how rediscovering the game turned into an all-night marathon with Bret and Bryce, complete with inside jokes, mispronounced dinosaur names, Bryce’s ongoing struggles with certain minigames, and genuine admiration for how seriously the developers treated paleontological accuracy for a kids’ title.From there, the episode sprawls outward into a broader tour of dinosaur games across eras and platforms and reflect on titles like Turok: Dinosaur Hunter, Zoo Tycoon with the Dinosaur Digs expansion, and more obscure entries such as Dino Defender and Battle of Giants. Bryce in particular leans into anecdotes about emergent chaos and moral ambiguity, including feeding disgruntled zoo guests to T. rex enclosures and ruling virtual parks as a capricious god. Throughout, the hosts repeatedly return to the tension between scientific accuracy, childhood imagination, and how early game portrayals permanently shaped how they visualize certain dinosaurs even when they know better now.

The conversation gradually drifts, as intended, into adjacent fandom territory. Fossil Fighters, Dinosaur King, Yu-Gi-Oh!, Pokémon, Digimon, Warhammer, and even long-defunct card games like Chaotic all get pulled into the orbit, usually through debates about whether something “counts” as a dinosaur and how far fictionalization can stretch before it becomes annoying. Andy frequently plays the role of self-appointed fact-checker, inserting “from the future” corrections to rein in exaggerations or clarify paleontology versus pop culture. Bret often anchors the discussion with broader media context, while Bryce supplies the most chaotic energy, embracing absurdity and leaning into dark humor and deep-cut references.By the end, the episode is less a structured list of games and more a freeform oral history of how dinosaur media imprinted itself across an entire generation of gamers. The hosts close by inviting listeners to share their own favorite dinosaur games, especially obscure or free ones, reinforcing the core theme of the episode: dinosaurs are cool, games are formative, and it is perfectly acceptable for both to live permanently in your vocabulary.

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In this episode of 4th Favorite Hat, Andy, Bret, and Bryce crack open the dinosaur books that shaped them, from childhood picture books to heavyweight nonfiction and playful fiction. The conversation starts with the “gateway” reads: a natural history book Bret’s dad read to him night after night, DK-style dinosaur encyclopedias, and beloved kid titles like Saturday Night at the Dinosaur Stomp, 10 Little Dinosaurs, and the Field Museum–adjacent favorite The Field Mouse and the Dinosaur Named Sue. Along the way they laugh about outdated illustrations and pronunciation quirks, but land on the same point: even the imperfect books mattered, because they taught curiosity and built the mental picture of deep time.From there, they pivot into dinosaur fiction and what it gets right (and wrong). Jurassic Park becomes the anchor, not just as a classic thriller, but as an example of research-driven storytelling, plus a comparison of how the book and film diverge in character arcs and outcomes. That threads naturally into broader “adaptation logic” and why accuracy is negotiable when the story is genuinely fun. The episode also ventures into comics and manga with Devil Dinosaur and Dinosaur Sanctuary, then swings into the overlap between paleontology and tabletop gaming with Dr. Drilman’s Dictionary of Dinosaurs and a museum D&D campaign story involving an Allosaurus “friend,” a 24-hour spell, and a quick sale for 100 gold.They close by recommending accessible nonfiction and “how science changes” reads, including The Dinosaur Heresies (for the public-facing push toward warm-blooded, feathered dinosaurs), Steve Brusatte’s dinosaur work, and broader science writers like Stephen Jay Gould. The episode ends on a local note with a shout-out to Dave Trexler, founder of the Montana Dinosaur Center, and his book Becoming Dinosaurs, using paleoclimate to put today’s climate change into a longer, more unsettling context.

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Andy, Bret, and Bryce welcome a special guest: Steve Dogiakos, Board President of the Montana Dinosaur Center and the museum’s go-to “tech guy” when the behind-the-scenes systems need a steady hand. After the traditional “fourth favorite hat” round, the conversation moves from fieldwork to what it takes to keep a small museum running, from community impact in tiny Bynum to big-picture strategy.Steve shares what he’s most excited about right now: a $1.21M, five-year Montana Department of Commerce tourism grant supporting a major gallery expansion, alongside partner projects at the Old Trail Museum and the Weatherbeater in Choteau. The crew also detours into Rocky Mountain Front chinook winds and why Montana sometimes feels like it’s made mostly of wind.From there, it’s a deep dive into access and outreach: citizen science through TMDC’s dig programs, science communication that meets people where they are, and the museum’s push to modernize. Steve and the paleontologists talk through the real-world payoff of online booking, stronger social media presence, and digitizing the fossil collection with a new open-source collections platform, plus the next step: funding for 3D scanning so more research and more of the collection can eventually be shared publicly.Expect the usual dig-site banter too: Rusty the Daspletosaurus (and his hard-won green stripes), museum D&D nights, and exhibit ideas ranging from “dinosaurs in modern media” to a geomythology exhibit tying fossils and geology to folklore.

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On this episode of Fourth Favorite Hat, Andy, Bret, and Bryce take listeners on a guided, occasionally chaotic walk through the exhibits of the Montana Dinosaur Center.

The conversation starts with personal highlights, from the world’s first discovered baby dinosaur fossils to the museum’s massive, hand-carved, life-size Seismosaurus that barely fits inside the building and still holds the title of largest scientifically accurate model of its kind. From there, they dig into what makes their Maiasaura material so scientifically important, including rare individual specimens, skull reconstructions, and what fossil evidence tells us about dinosaur intelligence, parenting, and social behavior.

As expected, things wander. Along the way you will hear about fossil jackets like the legendary “Bob the Blob,” mass death mysteries, opportunistic dinosaur cannibalism, egg preparation that definitely does not result in edible powdered eggs, visible lab work, and why pubis bones can tell you more than you might expect. There are also detours into Spore, Skyrim factions, museum art Easter eggs, trickster dinosaurs, and why some fossils spent years being mistaken for something else entirely.

The episode wraps up with a look at the Cenozoic room, comparative anatomy, post-dinosaur life, and the museum’s plans for future exhibits and expansions. Equal parts science, behind-the-scenes museum life, and friendly dig-site banter, this episode is a solid snapshot of what visitors can expect to see and hear when they walk through the doors.

Etude 13 LaSalle by ⁠⁠⁠⁠Blue Dot Sessions⁠⁠⁠

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