Nathan Smith discusses the psychology of exploration, specifically the psychology of performance in extreme environments. Smith worked closely with polar explorer Ben Saunders in 2013 as Saunders attempted to complete Robert Falcon Scott's trek to the South Pole and back.
Too often, Dr. Pauline Chen argues, the focus on keeping patients alive gets in the way of helping those who are approaching death. Chen shares her experiences as a medical student and transplant surgeon -- the subject of her book Final Exam: A Surgeon’s Reflections on Mortality -- and how they've shaped the way she practices medicine.
Patrick Anthony discusses the Prussian naturalist and explorer, Alexander von Humboldt, the world's most famous explorer in the early 1800s. Famed and admired for his 1799 expedition to South and Central America, Humboldt has been rediscovered by a new generation of scholars on both sides of the Atlantic.
John Hawks talks about new developments in paleoanthropology – the discovery of a new hominid species Homo Naledi in South Africa, the Neanderthal ancestry of many human populations, and the challenge of rethinking anthropological science’s relationship with indigenous peoples and the general public. Hawks is the Vilas-Borghesi Achievement Professor of Anthropology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is the co-author of Almost Human: The Astonishing Tale of Homo naledi and the Discovery T...
Angelina Callahan talks about the Naval Research Laboratory's Vanguard Project. While this satellite mission was part of the Cold War "Space Race," it also represented something more: a scientific platform for understanding the space environment as well as a test vehicle that would provide data for satellites of the future.
Hal Cook talks about the travels and trials of the young René Descartes, a man who spent more time traveling and fighting than studying philosophy.
Annette Joseph-Gabriel talks about Eslanda Robeson who, in addition to being a political activist with her husband Paul Robeson, was also a chemist, anthropologist, and epic traveler.
Art historian Fran Altvater talks about the Medieval Pilgrimage, a practice that became central to Christian Europe in the early Middle Ages.
Journalist Scott Wallace talks about a 2002 expedition into Amazon to find the Arrow People, one of the world's last uncontacted tribes. Wallace is the author of The Unconquered: In Search of the Amazon’s Last Uncontacted Tribes .
Our conversation with Sarah Pickman continues about the literature of exploration. It focuses on some new categories of exploration books not commonly seen in indexes and bibliographies.
Doctoral candidate Sarah Pickman talks about studying exploration for her qualifying exam: specifically what it's like to read three hundred books and articles and then discuss them in front of a committee of professors.
Historian Richard Ivan Jobs talks about the rise of backpacking in Europe after the Second World War. Jobs argues that youth travel helped create a new European culture during the Cold War, contributing to the integration of Europe during the 1960s and 1970s.
Jane Hooper talks about Madagascar and its importance to the history of Indian Ocean trade and exploration. Hooper is the author of Feeding Globalization: Madagascar and the Provisioning Trade, 1600-1800 , recently published by Ohio University Press.
Kate Harris -- writer, scientist, and extreme cyclist – talks about the trip she made with her friend Mel, tracing Marco Polo’s route across Central Asia and Tibet. The journey is the subject of Harris’s new book, Lands of Lost Borders: a Journey on the Silk Road.
Stephan Bullard, associate professor of biology at the University of Hartford, discusses the 2013 Ebola outbreak which is the subject of his new book, A Day to Day Chronicle of the 2013-16 Ebola Outbreak , soon to be released by Springer Press.
Matthew Hersch, author of Inventing the American Astronaut , talks about the origins and evolution of the U.S. astronaut program.
Phil Clements continues his discussion of the 1963 American Mount Everest Expedition, the subject of his new book: Science in an Extreme Environment: The American Mount Everest Expedition. He discusses the expedition party's scientific findings and treatment of local Sherpas. He also talks about the expedition's broader relevance to the study of environmental history and climate change.
Phil Clements discusses the 1963 American Mount Everest Expedition, the subject of his new book: Science in an Extreme Environment: The American Mount Everest Expedition. Originally broadcast in November 2017.
Eric Berger, senior space editor at Ars Technica, talks about this week's launch of the Falcon Heavy -- the world's most powerful rocket -- and how it may change the future of spaceflight.
Jorge Canizares-Esguerra discusses the 16th century mining center of Potosí and how its peoples and technologies shaped 16th century science.
Historian Kate Sheppard discusses Egyptologist Margaret Alice Murray who was central to the field of British Egyptology at the turn of the twentieth century. Sheppard is the author of The Life of Margaret Alice Murray: A Woman’s Work in Archaeology .
Jeannette Eileen Jones discusses the idea of Africa in the American imagination from the "Darkest Africa" of Henry Morton Stanley to the "Bright Africa" of naturalists, artists, and intellectuals. She is the author of In Search of Brightest Africa, Reimagining the Dark Continent in American Culture, 1884-1936 .
Scientists have now identified almost 4000 exoplanets --planets that orbit stars outside our own solar system-- and with powerful new telescopes about to come on line, that number is about to skyrocket. Exoplanet scientist Hannah Wakeford, Giaconni Fellow at the Space Telescope Science Institute, discusses this revolutionary new field and its impact on Earth and planetary sciences.
Cannibals, headless men, and giants were common figures of Medieval and Renaissance maps. Historian Surekha Davies tells us why we need to take these figures seriously. Davies is the author of Renaissance Ethnography and the Invention of the Human: New Worlds, Maps and Monsters (Cambridge University Press, 2016)
David Munns, professor of history at John Jay College, talks about his new book, Engineering the Environment: Phytotrons and the Quest for Climate Control in the Cold War, but we also talk about Matt Damon, shitting in space, and growing pot in your dorm room.
In 1946, Swedish and Finnish observers reported "ghost rockets" flying over Scandinavia. In the United States, they became known as "flying saucers." Historian Greg Eghigian discusses the science and culture of UFOs in the twentieth century.
Karen Routledge tells the story of Baffin Island’s Inuit community as they came into contact with western whalers and explorers in the nineteenth century. Her new book, Can You See the Ice ?, tells the story of the Inuit of Cumberland Sound. Even though the Inuit worked closely with outsiders, their views of the Arctic world, of the meaning of home, even time itself, remained very different.
California is in the middle of its worst fire season ever. 1.2 million acres have burned so far with no end in sight. Now, with flames threatening Los Angeles, 200,000 people have been told to evacuate. Michael Kodas returns to Time to Eat the Dogs to give an update on the fires raging across Southern California. When we spoke two weeks ago, Kodas described the Napa Valley fires as wildfires that were transitioning into urban firestorms. Now this dangerous type of fire approaches Los Angeles, th...
In September President Trump nominated Jim Bridenstine – a three term Congressman from Oklahoma-- to lead NASA. Discussing Bridenstine’s nomination and other issues confronting NASA is Dan Vergano, science reporter for BuzzFeed.
In 1845, the two British naval ships left England with 129 men in search of the Northwest Passage. They were never heard from again.The disappearance of the Franklin Expedition shocked the world. Dozens of expeditions set sail into the Arctic looking for the missing explorers. Professor Russell Potter talks about the Expedition and the reasons why it continues to fascinate people around the world.
