As promised, here's the explanation behind the name of the podcast 'No Such Thing As A Fish'.
There are three different points I want to bring up here. The first is the explanation I first heard, then two separate trains of thought that support it.
So, I first heard this when QI was discussing it, before the podcast was created. Essentially, an ichthyologist spent their life studying fish, then decided that there is no such thing. His concern was that a salmon is more related to a deer than a starfish, that sharks and wolves are just as close as sharks and eels, and so on. That there is no such thing as a fish because fish aren't related to each other and there's no way to define them that covers all of what is considered a fish without also including a lot of things that aren't fish, so no fish.
Secondly, there's the Claudist view that since everything descended from ancient fish, then everything is a fish. So, if that classification exists, it covers everything, so therefore it isn't good.
Third, Taxonomy. When they're trying to build genetic family trees of things, then what is referred to as fish is spread out in too many different trees and that messes things up too. They can't classify a 'fish family tree', so it doesn't work.
Basically, scientific pedants say that fish can't exist as a classification because either that should cover everything, or it's not a group name because it's spread all over the genetic trees. I couldn't find many sources of this, unfortunately, because a few articles I found were locked behind pay-screens that I wasn't willing to do, some didn't provide much solid information beyond that it's a thing, and a ton were referencing the podcast more than anything.
If you want to try another explanation to see if it works better, these are what I've found that might work.
Sources:
The Cladist responses:
Discover Wildlife-- No Such Thing As A Fish
Science Alert- No Such Thing As A Fish
Taxonomy argument:
Eco Code Breakers--Why Fish Don't Exist
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