Antarcticology (ANTARCTIC RESEARCH) with Ariel Waldman
Mile-thick ice. Dry, rocky valleys. Tiny creatures. Red parkas. Seal mummies. We’re going to Antarctica with National Geographic Explorer, microscopic photographer, and Antarcticologist Ariel Waldman. She hosts the gorgeous PBS series “Life Unearthed” and answers a blizzard of questions about camping in the middle of an ice sheet, hauling microscopes to the ends of the Earth, what’s living in a drop of melted snow, potty protocols, microplastics, and the research that happens on a giant continent that carries many mysteries. Also: why you should cold email someone. Like, today.
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Visit Ariel’s website and follow her on Instagram, YouTube, and Bluesky
Watch Life Unearthed with Ariel Waldman on PBS
A donation went to the San Francisco Microscopical Society
Links to things we discussed:
“Could microbes, locked in Arctic ice for millennia, unleash a wave of deadly diseases?”
The Arctic has warmed nearly four times faster than the globe since 1979
Climate change, melting cryosphere and frozen pathogens: Should we worry…?
Measuring novice-expert sense of place for a far-away place: Implications for geoscience instruction
Diatom imagery: Shifting foundations of the Antarctic food web
First All-Female Spacewalk Canceled Because NASA Doesn’t Have Two Suits That Fit
About The “Big Red” Canada Goose Parka
Canada Goose 4660M “Expedition Parka”
Even in Antarctica, Insects Are Eating Microplastics
UK finds Antarctica’s toughest insect is already eating microplastics
Chilean Families Begin Colony On Antarctica
Potential risks of bacterial plant pathogens from thawing permafrost in the Alaskan tundra
McMurdo Lidar Project: Introduction
Other episodes you may enjoy:
Snow Hydrology (SNOW/AVALANCHES)
Tardigradology (TINY SEMI-INDESTRUCTIBLE WATER BEAR MOSS PIGLET CREATURES CALLED TARDIGRADES)
Pinnipedology (SEALS & WALRUSES)
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Editing by Mercedes Maitland of Maitland Audio Productions and Jake Chaffee
Managing Director: Susan Hale
Scheduling Producer: Noel Dilworth
Transcripts by Aveline Malek
Website by Kelly R. Dwyer
Theme song by Nick Thorburn
