Every Wolf Everywhere All at Once

A slick company is suddenly inescapable

Wolf! Wolf! Wolf! Did you hear about the company that brought dire wolves back from extinction?

I sure did. Couldn’t miss it. The company is called Colossal Biosciences. On April 7th, Time Magazine dropped this cover story:

A Time Magazine cover dated May 12, 2025. The cover is a side-on portrait of a white wolf, with its head turned towards the camera. The wolf is against a stark grey background. Below the “Time” logograph is the word “Extinct” with a red line drawn through it. Below that is the following text: This is Remus. He’s a dire wolf. The first to exist in over 10,000 years, Endangered species could be changed forever. By Jeffrey Kluger.”

Cool, cool. I mean, it turns out it’s not actually dire wolf. They’re still extinct. And this is complicated. But we’ll get back to that.

Also on April 7th, the New Yorker dropped this story:

A screen capture from a New Yorker article. The image is a white wolf pup on a solid black background, The pup is facing the camera with its head lowered. The text reads “annals of zoology” and then the headline, “The Dire Wolf is Back.” Below that is the subbed, “Colossal, a genetics startup, has birthed three pups that contain ancient DNA retrieved from the remains of the animal’s extinct ancestors. Is the wooly mammoth next? By D.T. Max. April 7, 2025.”

Credulous headline, but more nuanced subhed than Time’s breathless treatment. Also, squeeeee! Look at that adorable little foof! (Warning: adult wolves significantly less foofy.)

But wait, like a late night TV ad for Ginsu knives (shout out to Gen-X), there’s more! Here’s Wired, on the same day:

Hmm. “Scientists claim…” And a probing subhed. The new Wired goes hard, you may have heard, and won’t just lap up your glitz.

Never mind! Here’s three hours of Colossal Biosciences co-founder Ben Lamm on Joe Rogan’s podcast, also on April 7th. I’ll spare you the screen cap. Also, there was no way I was going to listen to three hours1 of this. I write this blog for free and there are limits to what I will endure for a wolf gag.

Read the rest on Substack