What to Expect when Cephalopod Week Comes | GPB/PBS/NPR

Ever wonder how Science Friday's popular “Cephalopod Week” came to be? It was inspired by MBL’s own cephalopod scientist, Roger Hanlon! Below, Science Friday host Ira Flatow describes the genesis of this annual public radio celebration of all things ceph.

Grant Blankenship: I think of Cephalopod Week as a tradition at this point, and I'm always excited when I hear it pop up on the radio every year. How — how did you even start this and why?

Ira Flatow: Yeah, it is a tradition. I think we're like in our 10th year of this. It started in a very interesting way. About 10 years ago, Flora Lichtman, our video producer at the time, created a video called 'Where's the Octopus?' where marine biologist Roger Hanlon, he's scuba diving and stumbles literally on a camouflaged octopus. And it just scares him, grabs onto his mouthpiece.  And it was amazing video. We put it up on YouTube, it's got about 600,000 views now. And when we saw this video, we said, 'Hey, you know, there's this thing called "Shark Week" on that other channel. Why don't we celebrate a much brainier, more interesting kind of animal — the cephalopods, squid, octopus, cuttlefish or nautilus — which are magicians of disguise and a lot smarter than sharks? So we'll have our own "Cephalopod Week."' And that's how it happened. Read rest of the story here.

What to Expect when Cephalopod Week Comes to Atlanta | Georgia Public Broadcasting (PBS)