Explore: A Canadian Geographic podcast Canadian Geographic

"Canada's claim to the Arctic derives from the Franklin expedition and the search that evolved out of it."We’ve touched on the Franklin expedition in several other Explore podcast episodes, so we're excited to be taking the first proper deep dive into the story now with Ken McGoogan, an author who has been passionately writing about this topic for decades. We also discuss Ken’s latest book, Searching for Franklin: New Answers to the Great Arctic Mystery, which examines Franklin’s legacy from a contemporary perspective. In the 1800s, Sir John Franklin led two Arctic expeditions 20 years apart, both ending in death and disaster. The second claimed his life along with all members of his Royal Navy crew.In 1845, Franklin set off with 129 officers and men onboard the HMS Terror and HMS Erebus. His mission was to find the elusive Northwest Passage, a dreamed-of shortcut from Europe to Asia, through the dangerous sea ice of what is now the Canadian Arctic. Both ships disappeared, seemingly without a trace, and everyone on board perished. It sparked a massive international search and rescue effort, unprecedented in scale and duration.The two Franklin ships were only found on the Arctic Ocean floor in the last decade, 160 years after their embarkment. Their discovery was largely due to Inuit oral history, especially the work of Ken McGoogan’s friend, the late Louie Kamookak, a one-time RCGS Honorary Vice-President.Searching for Franklin focuses on the often overlooked Inuit role in the search for the missing expedition. He also suggests a compelling new theory on why the death toll was so high. This theory echoes an earlier and highly praised Franklin book, Frozen in Time, by our own RCGS CEO, John Geiger. Ken and I begin our chat with the story of John Rae, a great Hudson’s Bay Company explorer and arguably one of the greatest Victorian explorers. He found the first traces of the dead from the Franklin expedition, which had dire consequences for his career.

"Polar Exploration is not for the faint of heart."We're absolutely thrilled to welcome RCGS Fellow Susan R. Eaton to this episode of Explore. Eaton is a well-known polar explorer, geoscientist, educator, and the founder and leader of Sea Women Expeditions (https://www.instagram.com/seawomenexpeditions/?hl=en). In 2015, she was named one of Canada’s greatest 100 modern-day explorers by the Royal Canadian Geographical Society and a year later, she was selected by Canadian Geographic as one of Canada's greatest modern women explorers (https://canadiangeographic.ca/articles/canadas-greatest-modern-women-explorers/). She was also inducted into the Women Divers Hall of Fame in 2020. For the past decade, her organization Sea Women Expeditions has led Indigenous and non-Indigenous women scientists, artists, educators, storytellers and more on Arctic sea voyages of discovery. In this episode, we get into a lot of what is involved in this discussion. Our conversation includes swimming parts of the Northwest Passage, diving with orcas and humpback whales, working with Indigenous communities, fundraising lessons from Ernest Shackleton and what she’s learned about the polar seas with the changes brought there by climate change. It ends with a lovely ode to Haida Gwaii.Enjoy!

"I took one step further and we were looking into the eyes of four lionesses and two cubs. The fourth lioness with the cubs exited down the ravine like a shot. The other three lionesses jumped up at us. We ran backwards, yelling at the top of our lungs. The lions came up after us. Their teeth were pulled back in a grimace. The noise was beyond belief."I'm thrilled to have one of Canada's leading naturalists, Brian Keating, join us today. As you can tell from that quote, Brian has had some amazing adventures in some of our planet's most wild and beautiful places. This conversation is a fun ride. We go from his early work at a weather station in the Canadian High Arctic to his travels to Antarctica, sub-Saharan Africa, the Himalayas, and more. There isn't a lot of our natural world that Brian hasn't seen and experienced.Brian’s nearly 30-year career at the Calgary Zoo was split between being the Director of Education and Director of Conservation. For more than 20 years, he taught Anthropology at the University of Calgary. Presently, he’s the owner of goingwild.org (http://goingwild.org/) and co-producer of greatBIGnature.com (http://greatbignature.com/)Brian is a regular guest naturalist on CBC Radio and, for many years, was on the Discovery and National Geographic channels, using much of his own wilderness adventures and wildlife films to tell stories about the value and importance of nature. His constant travel partner is his wife Dee, a doctor, naturalist and also a Fellow of the RCGS.Enjoy the ride!

I am thrilled to have Laval St. Germain as our guest for this episode of Explore. An avid adventurer, Laval has rowed solo across the North Atlantic Ocean and is the only Canadian to have summited Mount Everest without supplemental oxygen. He has also climbed the tallest peaks on all seven continents, including Antarctica and many more of the world's most remote and challenging mountains — not to mention that he is also a commercial pilot, flying in the Canadian Arctic and was one of our RCGS Polar Plungers in Calgary.As everyone who follows me or Canadian Geographic knows, we held our third Annual RCGS Polar Plunge last week to support another season of Explore. Thank you to all of our amazing plungers and donors. We not only hit our goal of $35,000, we crushed it, topping $50,000 — our most successful polar plunge ever. This was mostly done in the best grass-roots way possible, with many smaller donations from many of you.We did get five significant donations, and I want to thank those donors. Dr. Ian Hammond’s donation helped compel RCGS CEO John Geiger to jump into a freezing Lake Ontario.Connor Fitzgerald’s donation persuaded RCGS Fellow and polar filmmaker Mark Terry to jump into that same great lake. And Nancy Love’s generous donation got RCGS Vice President Sarah Legault to follow John and Mark into Lake Ontario too. I also had two donors who got me to lead the plunge into a chilly Meech Lake in the Gatineau hills. One is my mother, Lynne McGuffin, an RCGS Camsell award winner, and my big cousin, Lynne Evenson. Thank you all so much!I also want to single out our top three fundraisers, all of whom won a fantastic Danish cold-water swim coat from Sitting Suits (https://sittingsuits.ca/). Congratulations to RCGS Fellows James Raffan, Susan Eaton, and Mark Terry, all of whom, fittingly,

Over the past two years, Canadian Geographic has been running “Passing the Mic,” a podcast training program in remote Nunavut communities. This week, we are pleased to showcase the third episode of this year’s series, which features stories produced by the students at the Netsilik School in Taloyoak, Nunavut. The aim of this program is to give Inuit youth the tools to share their stories with the world in their own voices, using their words. I think you’ll agree that these stories provide a wonderful window into a unique and welcoming Inuit community. Taloqroq is mainland Canada's most northerly community, sitting on the shores of the Arctic Ocean and the Northwest Passage. My Canadian Geographic colleague Tom Lundy and I spent a week in late October working with the students at Netsilik School, teaching podcasting. The students' ages ranged from 13 to 18, and we couldn’t have asked for a more enthusiastic group. Today, we will hear from Nellie and Tyra, Faith Pauloosie and Leah Aklah, Leo Lyall and Steve Alookee, Alexis Ruben and Alayna Aklah and Shayna Nanook and Amaiyah Totalik. Thanks to all of them for the amazing work they put in. Enjoy! Also, these kinds of stories are exactly why we do the #RCGSPolarPlunge fundraiser every year. On March 4th, your donations will compel a lot of otherwise sensible people to plunge into the freezing lakes, rivers and oceans across Canada, including in Nunavut and the Northwest Territories, in support of Canadian Geographic and this podcast. So, to keep this kind of unique, balanced, thoughtful, independent storytelling coming, please go to RCGS.org/polarplunge (http://rcgs.org/polarplunge)Thank You. And thanks to Netsilik students Joyce Ashevak and Martha Neeveacheak for providing the beautiful throat singing used in this episode. You can hear their story in the previous episode.And if you're community or school in Nunavut that would like to take part in the "Passing the Mic" podcast training program, drop us an email at explore@canadiangeographic.ca

In this episode, we're back in Taloyoak, Nunavut, mainland Canada’s most northerly community, to talk with Joyce Ashevak, Martha Neeveacheak and Roger Oleekatalik. They are three of the students who took part in Canadian Geographic’s Passing the Mic program, which aims to give Inuit youth the tools to share their own stories with the world.Joyce and Martha are both throat singers, a unique and incredibly powerful Inuit vocal art form. And Roger is one of the leading young hunters in this community, which sits on a peninsula jutting out into the Arctic Ocean, west of Hudson Bay.I got to spend an amazing week with them and 15 other students at the Netsilik School last October, teaching them interviewing, storytelling and podcasting. We’ll hear many of their stories over the next two episodes. I started with these three young people because their stories are rooted in the land and in Inuit traditions and you can sense the positive impact this has had on them. A strong connection to culture has been proven to be important in overcoming challenges around mental health and addiction, which are major issues in northern communities.Martha and Joyce have been throat singing for several years. It is an amazing thing to witness and it was a pleasure talking to them about how powerfully it changes them and their lives.We actually met Roger’s grandfather Jimmy on this podcast last fall, in an episode focused on Jimmy‘s effort to create the first Inuit-led conservation area around Taloyoak. Go check that out if you haven’t already. It’s amazing. Roger is a chip off that block, for sure. In his last year of high school, he spends as much time as he can on the land, hunting to provide for his family and the community. It's an occupation that brings him both pride and joy.I hope you enjoy these conversations, and the singing!Passing the Mic is made possible with the support of Polar Knowledge Canada. And also by listeners like you who donate to the RCGS Polar Plunge Fundraiser. The 3rd annual Polar Plunge is taking place March 4 in rivers, lakes and oceans across Canada. To find out how you can participate and donate, go to RCGS.org/polarplunge (http://rcgs.org/polarplunge). You’ll be helping make this kind of unique Canadian Geographic storytelling possible.