David Starr Jordan
IchthyologistWikipedia
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Search complete. 9 mentions across 5 episodes found for "David Starr Jordan".
Sep 28, 2026
AvayiNARRATOR
Now that all the details of the human organization have been studied, and the anatomical structures of man and large monkeys without tails have been compared, bone with bone and muscle with muscle, the truly astonishing analogy between these organisms is made manifest, an analogy apparent in every detail.
AvayiNARRATOR
Not less definite is David Starr Jordan.
AvayiNARRATOR
We no longer think of the human race, he says, as a completed entity in the midst of nature, but apart from it, with a different origin, a different motive, a different destiny.
AvayiNARRATOR
Man, like the other species, is an inhabitant of the earth, a product of the laws of life.
Katrina LiebichHOST
How, I guess, historically do folks go kind of pick away at identifying where these fish are? Can you tell us a little bit of the history of how that range was determined?
Mack CalvertGUEST
Yeah, way back when in the 1880s, David Starr Jordan, who's like the godfather of ichthyology in North America, collected the species in the Saline River, described it, and then the scientific name was never reused.
Mack CalvertGUEST
It was collected again in 1939 in the Saline River again.
Mack CalvertGUEST
So for about 60 years, the only place that science thought this fish occurred in was the Saline River.
Mack CalvertGUEST
That's a great question.
Mack CalvertGUEST
And I would love to know the answer to that, but I don't think there's a super good understanding.
Mack CalvertGUEST
When David Starr Jordan collected the species, his manuscript says, quote, very abundant.
Mack CalvertGUEST
And then in the 40s, they just collected only two specimens of the pepper shiner.
Daniele BolelliHOST
And this was but a taste of what some people wanted.
Daniele BolelliHOST
David Starr Jordan, the president of Stanford University, argued the law was still too permissive.
Daniele BolelliHOST
He wanted a complete ban on Italian immigration, saying that they were, I quote, "...biologically incapable of rising, either now or through their descendants, above the mentality of a 12-year-old child." Now, I would love to protest that statement, except that if you give me a day off, which I rarely ever have, but whenever I do, I find myself wanting to lift weight, play video games, admire the beauty of hot women, so I can kind of understand how I'm like a budding teenager.
Daniele BolelliHOST
Maybe not 12, maybe I'm like a 14-year-old.
Daniele BolelliHOST
That's where my priorities are.
Daniele BolelliHOST
So maybe David Starr Jordan had... at a time machine and got to see my priorities when he was describing Italians as a whole.
Daniele BolelliHOST
In any case, he didn't mean it, unlike me, he didn't mean it as a compliment.
Daniele BolelliHOST
Similarly, Current Opinion magazine in 1923 published an article entitled Keep America White, which stated If the tall, big-boned, blue-eyed, old-fashioned white American is not to be bred out entirely by little dark peoples, Uncle Sam must not simply continue the temporary quota law in operation, but must make its provisions much more stringent.
Neil SchusterHOST
It's part biography, part memoir, part scientific adventure.
Neil SchusterHOST
Um, and it starts off profiling this o- like obsessive taxonomist, uh, from the late 1800s, a guy named David Starr Jordan.
Neil SchusterHOST
Uh, and he basically was obsessed with like cataloging, discovering, tagging like rocks, plants, fish, insects, animals.
Neil SchusterHOST
Just like discovering and like observing the natural world.
Simon WhistlerHOST
A murder mystery and a cover-up, both involving his wife, who was killed with strychnine on February 28, 1905, and her death remains unsolved to this day.
Simon WhistlerHOST
After her husband's demise, Jane Stanford mainly preoccupied herself with the administration of the university, where she sometimes butted out with the board members and professors, including the president of Stanford University, David Starr Jordan.
Simon WhistlerHOST
The strange events surrounding Jane Stanford actually began a month and a half before her It is likely that her killer first tried to poison her and failed.
Simon WhistlerHOST
On the night of January 14, 1905, Jane Stanford was at home in a San Francisco mansion.
Simon WhistlerHOST
but was left deeply disturbed by this attempt on her life.
Simon WhistlerHOST
Needing time off to recuperate, Jane Stanford planned a trip to Hawaii.
Simon WhistlerHOST
Back in San Francisco, rumors of her attempted poisoning were quelled by the university president, David Starr Jordan, who insisted that Mrs. Stanford was seeking warmer climates after a bout with pneumonia.
Simon WhistlerHOST
The time spent in Hawaii did her well at first.