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When you listen to the ocean, you realize that there is a whole world of sound that our ears aren't made to hear.

Goldie Phillips, a postdoctoral scholar at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, studies whale calls to understand how populations of endangered species, like the Blue and Fin whales, are faring. Born in Trinidad and Tobago, Phillips always new she wanted to study the creatures in the water that surrounded her island nation.

After getting her Ph.D. at Duke University, Phillips came to San Diego to capture the behavior of whales by eavesdropping on their calls. She and I go fishing for sound at Scripps Pier and then we board the "Robert Gordon Sproul" ship to drop large recording devices into the waters off San Diego's coast.

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Editor's note: In the episode, host Margot Wohl incorrectly refers to the Scripps Institution of Oceanography as the Scripps Institute. We regret the error.

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