Time to Eat the Dogs

A Podcast About Science, History, and Exploration

Replay: Sovietistan

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Erika Fatland talks about her long journey through the Central Asian republics and the legacy of Soviet influence there. Fatland is the author of many books and essays including Sovietistan: A Journey Through Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan.

Erika, Tine Poppe

Erika Fatland

Liftoff: Elon Musk and the Desperate Early Days That Launched SpaceX

Eric Berger talks about the rise of SpaceX and its eccentric, mercurial founder Elon Musk. Berger is a Senior Space Editor at Ars Technica. He’s the author of Liftoff: Elon Musk and the Desperate Early Days That Launched SpaceX

Eric Berger ( Yi-Chin Lee / Houston Chronicle )

Replay: How to Be an African Travel Writer in Africa

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Emmanuel Iduma talks about his experiences traveling through Africa and his quest to find a new language of travel. Iduma is a writer and lecturer at the School of Visual Arts in New York. His stories and essays have been published in Best American Travel Writing 2020 and the New York Review of Books. He is the author of the essay “How to be a Travel Writer in Africa?” and the memoir A Stranger’s Pose, which was a finalist for the Ondaatje Prize in 2019.

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Emmanuel Iduma

Portuguese Exploration After the Age of Discovery

Catarina Madruga talks about Portuguese exploration in the nineteenth century as European powers made plans to conquer Africa and colonize its peoples. Madruga is a post-doctoral researcher at the Natural History Museum of Berlin. She’s the author of “Expert at a Distance: Barbosa du Bocage and the Production of Scientific Knowledge on Africa,”  Journal for the History of Science and Technology, 11, 57-74.

Replay: Do You See Ice?

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In the 1800s, explorers and whalers returning home from the Arctic described a cold, desolate world, one that could swallow up expeditions without leaving a trace. But this did not describe the Arctic of the Inuit, who called this world their home. Dr. 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. Even though the Inuit worked closely with outsiders, their views of the Arctic world, their ideas about meaning of home, even their concept of time itself remained very different from the men they encountered. Routledge is a historian for Parks Canada. Her book, Do You See Ice? Inuit and Americans at Home and Away is published by University of Chicago Press. 

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Karen Routledge