Soil Stories with Nic and Leanna Nic Jelinski

Our interview with Dr. Irène Mathieu, pediatrician, poet, and author of the unbelievable poem "soil"!

In this episode, Leanna talks tillage with with extension educator Jodi DeJong-Hughes, and her dad, Jim Leverich!

In this episode, Leanna does a deep dive into nutrient management with Dr. John Jones (Foundation for Agronomic Research + Fertilizer Institute), Dr. Melissa Wilson (UMN), and John Breker (Agvise Laboratories).

In this episode, we talk soil mapping with Patty Burns and Dr. Dylan Beaudette, two USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) experts about all things soil maps - how they are made, what they show, and why they are so important.

In this episode, we talk about Gelisols, which are permafrost-affected soils of arctic and subarctic regions and are one of the most interesting, but least understood soil orders. The name Gelisol is derived from the Latin word for freeze. But Gelisols are far from static. They are dynamic soils that respond to  physical, chemical and biological processes that take place in cold environments and are at the forefront of global change. Our guests Dr. Alexander (Sasha) Kholodov (University of Alaska-Fairbanks) and Mark Clark (retired state soil scientist for Alaska) bring us some perspective on what makes these soils so dynamic and unique.

In this episode, Leanna and I discuss the U.S. system of naming soil horizons and the amazing stories that our "Alphabet of Soil" can tell. We discuss intercollegiate Soil Judging with former (Drea Williams, Devon Brodie) and current (Gabe Benitez, and Morgan Fabian) University of Minnesota Soil Judgers.