The Natural Curiosity Project

Dr. Steven Shepard
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The Natural Curiosity Project

I photograph, record, and write about the natural world. I see, I listen, I write. I fundamentally believe that curiosity can save the world—so I publish stories to make people curious. Ultimately, curiosity leads to discovery, discovery leads to knowledge, knowledge leads to insight, and insight leads to understanding. Please enjoy!

  1. Episode 265 - Thoughts On A Road Trip

    HÁ 14 H

    Episode 265 - Thoughts On A Road Trip

    Sabine and I just came back from a big, looping three-week road trip that took us as far west as the sand hills of Nebraska, where I wanted to record the sounds of the prairie in the early fall. But we also spent a lot of our time trying to see the country differently than we ever have. Because we’ve both lived in more than one country, we live by Mark Twain’s quote, that “travel is fatal to bigotry, prejudice and narrowmindedness.” We’re in a pretty weird political time right now, so we wanted to get a better understanding of just what this country, this place, is. I’m not sure if we actually managed to do that—I don’t that anyone can—but we definitely came home more enlightened than we were when we left.

    42min
  2. Episode 264-The (Truly) First Electric Car

    25 DE OUT.

    Episode 264-The (Truly) First Electric Car

    According to many sources, Apollo 11, which landed on the Moon in July 1969, drew the attention of the entire world. But subsequent missions to the Moon and other ambitions efforts by NASA and its partner agencies drew far less attention. How quickly the sense of awe and wonder wanes. We take computers for granted; our mobile phones are orders of magnitude more powerful than anything that got Apollo to the Moon—and trust me on this, the Apollo on-board computers were wondrous devices for the time, automatically controlling pitch and yaw and roll and the firing of thrusters and retrorockets at precise times. Flying around the world has become mundane, more a chore than an incredible opportunity. We even have electric cars on the road. That’s a different scale of wonder, but you know what I mean. People pay no attention to space launches, yet they’re impressed by cars that run on batteries and can go 250 miles without recharging. But here’s the thing. It ain’t all that impressive. Sorry, Elon. Electric cars are a good idea, and they’re good for the environment—mostly—but they’re not a new idea. In fact, the first truly electric vehicle—a car—was built in 1965. And it wasn’t designed for smooth, modern highways, with conveniently spaced charging stations along the way. No, it was designed to be driven on the Moon. And it did. In fact, three of them made the trip. Let me tell you the story, with a little help from NASA.

    15min
  3. Episode 263 - Older Than Dirt And Just As Lively - An Interview With Archaeologist Douglas Frink

    25 DE SET.

    Episode 263 - Older Than Dirt And Just As Lively - An Interview With Archaeologist Douglas Frink

    The best thing about doing this Podcast is that it forces me to constantly be on the lookout for topics and the people associated with them that might lead to interesting episodes. So, when I learned during a meeting of the Williston Historical Society that South Ridge, the neighborhood where I live in Vermont, yielded archaeological artifacts during the planning, site preparation, and excavation of the neighborhood, I got curious, and went in search of the archaeologists who I assumed were called in to ensure that sacred or culturally significant sites weren’t being disturbed. And that’s how I found Douglas Frink. Douglas is an archaeologist, but more than that, as you’ll hear, he’s a soil scientist. But he’s even more than that. He’s sort of a soil whisperer, because he believes that if we pay attention to the soil, we pay attention to the history.

    31min
  4. Episode 262 - Brian Malow, Science Comedian

    23 DE SET.

    Episode 262 - Brian Malow, Science Comedian

    Occasionally, in the course of developing topics and themes for this program, I run across a genuine treasure. So, full disclosure—as if you need me to tell you this—I’m a pretty serious, card-carrying geek of the highest order. I like science, I tend to geek out on it, and I’m always looking for new sources of knowledge about topics that most people don’t care much about. So, you can imagine my delight when I ran across Brian Malow. Brian is equal parts science enthusiast, educator, speaker, comedian, and a few other things, as you’re about to hear. I heard him speak at a conference years ago in Berkeley, and recently, I asked him if he’d join me on the program sometime. He said yes, so here’s our conversation. By the way, you can learn more about Brian's work and booking him for your event (an excellent idea!) at https://sciencecomedian.com.

    49min
  5. Episode 261 - Foghorns, Bell Buoys And Dianne Ballon

    23 DE SET.

    Episode 261 - Foghorns, Bell Buoys And Dianne Ballon

    What is it about that sound of a foghorn, or a bell buoy, or a whistle or gong buoy? For some people, like Dianne Ballon, these sounds are magical, and mystical, hearkening to a world that most of us don’t know. Dianne is a Maine-based artist who shares a passion for the sea—and most specifically, a passion for the devices whose voices warn fog-cloaked vessels about the presence of hazards. Not just foghorns, but also bell, whistle, and gong buoys. I came across Dianne Ballon while I was in the middle of one of my down-the-rabbit-hole projects, researching the history of lighthouses and foghorns. I was looking for foghorn sounds to augment my own recordings, and the Maine Maritime Museum’s Web site popped up, because Dianne has an ongoing exhibit there about the sounds of the Maine coast. I reached out to her, and Dianne agreed to chat with me. You can learn more about Dianne's work at https://www.dianneballonsound.com.

    37min
  6. Episode 260 - The Magic Of Spider Webs

    8 DE SET.

    Episode 260 - The Magic Of Spider Webs

    The sun was barely above the horizon by the time I reached the meadow during my morning walk. The bright, flat light hit the tall grasses and wildflowers from the side, creating a silhouette effect that made them glow. But that wasn’t all: the horizontal light also backlit the dozens of orb weaver webs that stretched between the tall plant stems, bejeweled by the droplets of dew that had condensed on them as tiny, transparent, concentric strings of pearls. I was entranced by these gorgeous structures. So—rabbit hole time. How do spiders build those things? How do they know to create THAT shape? Are the webs strictly structural and for capturing prey? In this episode, we walk briefly through their remarkable physiology—and how scientists are looking intensely at spider silk for a range of applications.

    17min
  7. Interlude: My New Book: Russet, A Novel

    29 DE AGO.

    Interlude: My New Book: Russet, A Novel

    My newest novel, "Russet," has just been released. It's a 600-page saga about mounting a mission to Mars, an unimaginably complex undertaking. Sending astronauts to the Moon took four days; Mars is a one-way journey of at least five months. How could we possibly build a ship large enough and safe enough to accommodate their needs, for a round-trip journey of at least 18 months? In my story, NASA has the answer—an extraordinary plan to put 30 people on the Red Planet—unless those who oppose the mission can destroy the ship first.

    10min
  8. Episode 259 - Voyager's Golden Record

    28 DE AGO.

    Episode 259 - Voyager's Golden Record

    The year was 1977. The top selling cars were the Ford LTD and the Chevy Impala. The top movies were Star Wars and Saturday Night Fever. Gas was 65 cents a gallon. Stephen King published The Shining, and Farrah Fawcett published the poster. Meanwhile, over at NASA, Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 were carried aloft for a five-year mission. Yet here we are, 47 years later, and they’re still going strong. Voyager I is 15.2 billion miles from Earth; Voyager II is 12.7 billion miles away, and both are traveling at about 35,000 miles-per-hour. And as amazing as all that is, that’s not what I want to talk with you about in this program. I want to talk with you about the payload they both carry—specifically, the golden record.

    11min
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Sobre

I photograph, record, and write about the natural world. I see, I listen, I write. I fundamentally believe that curiosity can save the world—so I publish stories to make people curious. Ultimately, curiosity leads to discovery, discovery leads to knowledge, knowledge leads to insight, and insight leads to understanding. Please enjoy!

Informações

  • Criado por
    Dr. Steven Shepard
  • Anos de atividade
    2018 - 2024
  • Episódios
    296
  • Classificação
    Livre
  • Copyright
    © All rights reserved
  • Site do podcast
    The Natural Curiosity Project

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