Shark update: Jason Mamoa will host the 35^th year of Shark Week, Discovery Channel’s week-long celebration and investigation of shark habits and behaviors. Each night, beginning Sunday, July 23 at 8 p.m. ET, Mamoa will guide fans through nearly 20 new hours of shark-themed TV.

The scoop a la Discovery: “Jaw dropping events, epic journeys, first-time revelations, and groundbreaking scientific findings will make up the summer spectacle.” A sampling of the upcoming shows include the titles Belly of the Beast: Feeding Frenzy, Jaws vs The Meg, Serial Killer: Red Sea Feeding Frenzy, Shark Week: Off the Hook, Great White Fight Club and Monster of Bermuda Triangle.

Additionally, Shudder, AMC Networks’ streaming service for horror, will launch documentary Sharksploitation on Friday, July 21. It explores the cinematic legacy of sharks on film and the world’s undying fascination.

Given this writer’s personal interest in the Discovery Channel Shark Week, I whet my appetite for the subject matter (among many endless other exhibits) with a trip to the famed American Museum of Natural History in New York City.

The experience began with the interactive video presentation Invisible Worlds, an immersive 360-degree science-and-art experience in the new Richard Gilder Center for Science, Education. Standing amongst dozens of others in a circular room, the majesty of the world we live in is accentuated via motion-activated projections on a planetarium dome visualizing how all life on Earth is connected.

Next stop at the American Museum of Natural History was the Sharks Exhibition, which opened in 2021 and allows attendees to discover the diversity and ongoing fascination of this ancient group of fishes. Featured are dozens of life-sized models ranging from a reported 33 feet to 5.5 inches long, hands-free interactive exhibits, and fossils from the museum’s collections, another other highlights. The exhibition explains how long sharks have been on the planet, the types of sharks that exist, their habitat and how they are endangered.

You can play games, like pairing different sharks with their habitats, and actually putting your image on the body of a shark.

Also of note at the museum was the Worlds Beyond Earth space show, narrated by the Oscar-winning actress Lupita Nyong’o, which features a visual celebration of our planets. And, given the title, the Hayden Big Bang Theater was the next destination. Here, visitors can look down into a concave screen to view the Big Bang presentation for a presentation that takes the audience back to the birth of the universe.

Note to my TV self: The costumes worn by the seven main cast members on that other Big Bang, long-running sitcom The Big Bang Theory, are exhibited at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C.

Naturally, no trip to The American Museum of Natural History was complete without a look at the massive dinosaurs exhibit. And, when my return visit to the museum was complete, it magnified the pleasure of attending live events post-pandemic. It reminded me why science-related programming of this nature is so prevalent on outlets live Discovery, National Geographic Channel, PBS and Netflix. And it only made my hunger for the annual Discovery Shark Week even greater.