Time to Eat the Dogs
On Science, History, and ExplorationArchive for Expeditions
Episode 61: Into the Extreme
Valerie Olson talks about why the idea of outer space as a “frontier” is giving way to one that frames it as a cosmic ecosystem. Olson is an associate professor of anthropology at University of California, Irvine. She is the author of Into the Extreme: U.S. Environmental Systems and Politics Beyond Earth.
Valerie Olson
Episode 60: Searching for Hobbits
Liang Bua
In 2003, a team of archaeologists discovered a new hominin species in a cave on the island of Flores in Indonesia. The fossils were a big story not only because they were new, but also because they were so small. Homo Floresienses stood about three feet tall.
Paige Madison talks about her work at the Liang Bua cave in Indonesia where she studies Homo Floresiensis as well as the team of researchers who have worked at the cave for years, sometimes for generations. Madison is a PhD candidate in the history of science at Arizona State University where she also works with The Center for Biology and Society and the Institute of Human Origins. She writes about paleoanthropology at the blog Fossil History. She returns to Liang Bua as a Fulbright scholar this fall (rebroadcast).
Paige Madison
Episode 59: The Psychology of Extreme Environments
Ben Saunders and Tarka L’Herpiniere haul sledges towards the South Pole in 2013
Nathan Smith talks about the psychology of exploration, specifically the psychology of performance in extreme environments. Smith worked closely with polar explorer Ben Saunders as he attempted to ski to the South Pole and back unassisted in 2013: a recreation of Robert Falcon Scott’s tragic 1911 Terra Nova Expedition in which Scott and his party died on their return journey across the Ross Ice Shelf. Smith helped establish the research module on Extreme Medicine at the University of Exeter and worked as a senior research scientist within the United Kingdom Ministry of Defense. He is also a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society (rebroadcast).
Nathan Smith
Links
The Expedition Psychology Project (includes Smith bibliography)
Time to Eat the Dogs Podcast Turns One
Time to Eat the Dogs turns one this week. We’re re-posting a few fav episodes over the next few days to celebrate. Thank you for your ideas, comments, and suggestions. You rock, you know it, yes you do.
Episode 58: Lands of Lost Borders
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 book, Lands of Lost Borders: a Journey on the Silk Road (rebroadcast).
Episode 57: The Identity of the Traveler
Joyce Ashuntantang with novelist Chinua Achebe
Joyce Ashuntantang talks about her experiences as a traveler and a poet, from her childhood Cameroon to her years studying in Great Britain and the United States. Ashuntantang is a professor of English at Hillyer College, University of Hartford. She is the author of many scholarly and creative texts, including Beautiful Fire, published this year with Spears Media Press.
Joyce Ashuntantang
Episode 56: The Archaeology of Exploration
Walter Wellman’s airship hanger in Virgo Harbor, Svalbard (1909)
Anthropologist P. J. Capelotti discusses the role of exploration archaeology in understanding the Pacific voyage of Kon-Tiki, the Arctic airship expeditions of Walter Wellman, and the fate of Orca II, a fishing boat used in the film Jaws. Capelotti is a professor of anthropology at Penn State Abington. He is the author of Adventures in Archaeology: The Wreck of the Orca II and other Explorations published by the University Press of Florida.
P. J. Capelotti
