Storytellers of STEMM Rachel Villani

Today's storyteller is Louise Carroll! Louise is an operational meteorologist based in Australia and also a fellow member of the Homeward Bound program. I was really excited to meet Louise and hear about her work as meteorologist, and the far flung places where her work has taken her. She's worked in Antarctica multiple times, and on remote islands like Willis Island in the Coral Sea off the coast of Australia. I had such fun talking to Louise so I hope you enjoy!

---

You can find Rachel Villani on Twitter @flyingcypress and Storytellers of STEMM on Facebook and Twitter @storytellers42.

You can find Louise Carroll on Instagram @lou_carroll01.

Episodes referenced in this episode: #40 Dave Nussbaum

You can find Homeward Bound at their website https://homewardboundprojects.com.au/, on Twitter @HomewardBound16, and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/homewardboundprojects.

Book List: The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver

Recorded on 7 May 2022.

Today's storyteller is Dr Courtney Robichaud! Courtney is a wetlands scientist who has primarily researched Phragmites australis - which is a super tall colony forming invasive freshwater plant species. And when I say tall, it's regularly 10-15 feet tall. And Phragmites (aka phrag or roseau) is very good at invading locations and outcompeting native species. It forms these dense colonies which also doesn't really allow for a diverse suite of species to grow in the same area. I was so excited to talk to Courtney because I spend a solid portion of my wetlands scientist career working with phrag, and it was fun to nerd out about the fieldwork and logistics side of it to start. But the biggest thing I wanted to talk about is - what do we do when an invasive species such as phrag is taking over, but also simultaneously holding the wetland together? What do you do? How do you manage that scenario, or do you even manage it at all? It's partially a philosophical question and partly a feasibility question. So we discuss that in length as well, comparing Ontario (Courtney's area) vs the Mississippi River Delta (my area). This was a great conversation and I'm so excited about a wetlands episode. Enjoy!!

---

You can find Rachel Villani on Twitter @flyingcypress and Storytellers of STEMM on Facebook and Twitter @storytellers42.

You can find Courtney Robichaud on Twitter @cdrobich and her website https://crobichaud.weebly.com/.

Rachel works on the Coastwide Reference Monitoring System (CRMS) in Louisiana: https://www.lacoast.gov/crms/Home.aspx

Book List: A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine, Mating in Captivity by Esther Perel, Fire Fall by Bethany Frenette

Recorded on 21 November 2021.

Today's storyteller is Dr Jonathon Valente! Jonathon is a longtime dear friend of mine who does all kinds of interesting bird and wildlife research and so I'm excited to share this conversation with you! We first met at Louisiana State University (LSU) back in I think like 2007, when I was finishing up my bachelor's degree and he was starting his master's degree. I then joined the same research lab to begin my master's degree right after my undergrad graduation, so we were lab mates for a few years as well. This conversation consists mainly of the questions I've always wanted to ask him and never really had the excuse to, like how did you end up in the wildlife field, how did you end up at LSU, what happened next, interspersed with conversations about wildlife, birds, research, etc. Also, there's a brief and hilarious bird interlude around 20 minutes in because what else could you possibly expect when 2 bird people chat on Zoom?!? I hope you enjoy this conversation!

---

You can find Rachel Villani on Twitter @flyingcypress and Storytellers of STEMM on Facebook and Twitter @storytellers42.

You can find Jonathon Valente on Twitter @jonathonvalente and his website https://www.jonathonvalente.com/.

Article about the 17 year cicada cycle: Brood X Cicadas are Emerging at Last

MAPS Bird Banding Project: https://www.birdpop.org/pages/maps.php

Texas A&M Wildlife Job Board: https://wfscjobs.tamu.edu/job-board/

Book List: The Overstory by Richard Powers, Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat by Samin Nosrat

Recorded on 11 September 2021.

Today's storyteller is Dr Clay Tucker! Clay is a tree ring scientist, also known as a dendrochronologist, and his specialty is related to hurricanes and climate change. I could have called this episode "Dendrochronology" but probably most people have no idea what that would mean and I didn't want to detract from this fabulous episode!! So trees grow and add rings every year, so by taking a small core of the tree you get a visual representation of that tree's life, essentially. And you can see the impact of droughts, hurricanes, and disease on the growth of that tree over time. In Clay's research, he's used tree rings from pine trees across the southeastern US to understand the impacts of hurricanes. It's fascinating research and why I asked Clay to be on the podcast! Clay and I are both in Baton Rouge, and know a lot of the same people, and so we talk about that and relationships within science, about how technology in this era allows for collaboration across continents and time zones, about what I call the "Louisiana Quicksand Conundrum", about learning to read the landscape, and of course about trees and wetlands and research. This is such a fun conversation and Clay is great and I hope everyone enjoys it!

---

You can find Rachel Villani on Twitter @flyingcypress and Storytellers of STEMM on Facebook and Twitter @storytellers42.

You can find Clay Tucker on Twitter @climateclay and his website https://coastalab.wixsite.com/claytucker.

LSU School of Renewable Natural Resources: https://www.lsu.edu/rnr/

LSU Department of Geography & Anthropology: https://lsu.edu/ga/index.php

The documentary about Richard Proenneke that Clay describes as his favorite documentary ever is called "Alone in the Wilderness".

Episodes referenced in this episode: #61 - Ashley Booth

Book List: Rising by Elizabeth Rush, One Man's Wilderness by Sam Keith & Richard Proenneke, Voyage of the Turtle by Carl Safina

Recorded on 20 September 2021.

Today's storyteller is Jhénelle Williams! Jhénelle is an ocean engineer from Jamaica using nuclear technology to do ocean and environmental science research. If you're wondering how that works and what that even means, don't worry that's the very first thing we talk about! We talk about the types of research they do, how they use nuclear techniques to further their knowledge. They use this technology to research mangroves, sediment, microplastics, sargassum, and air quality research. I found this to be really cool and we've had a lot of people on to talk about stable isotopes but we never talk about HOW the stable isotopes are processed, and this is one of the ways. So that really clicked for me and felt like a missing knowledge link! Jhénelle is awesome, this was a great conversation, and y'all enjoy!

---

You can find Rachel Villani on Twitter @flyingcypress and Storytellers of STEMM on Facebook and Twitter @storytellers42.

You can find Jhénelle on Twitter @IslandGirlFHW.

National Geographic Explorer Program: https://www.nationalgeographic.org/society/our-explorers/?nav_click

Rachel works on the Coastwide Reference Monitoring System (CRMS) in Louisiana: https://www.lacoast.gov/crms/Home.aspx

Rachel's Outdoor Conservation Book Club: https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/741391-outdoor-conservation-book-club

Book List: Instinct by by TD Jakes, The Dune Series by Frank Herbert, Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer, All We Can Save by Ayana Elizabeth Johnson and others

Recorded on 12 September 2021.

Today's storyteller is Brittaney Spruill! Britt is friend and neighbor and architect and today we talk about pretty much everything! ALSO, surprise because Cedric Johnson is back to guest host this time! If you missed Cedric's episode, it's #128. So listen to that one too if you missed it. Anyway back to this episode! Britt is here today to talk about why she chose architecture (or did it choose her?), what she likes about it, about the types of projects she's worked on, what she'd be doing if not architecture, favorite albums, history and people, and a lot of in between. This episode is long because Cedric, Britt, and I have been good friends for a long time so we just had a lot of fun chatting and talking work and buildings and people and history and music. I hope you enjoy!!

---

You can find Rachel Villani on Twitter @flyingcypress and Storytellers of STEMM on Facebook and Twitter @storytellers42.

You can find Britt on Twitter @ishapespace.

The student exchange program we talk about is the Southern Regional Education Board's program called the Academic Common Market Program: https://www.sreb.org/academic-common-market

LaHouse: https://www.lsuagcenter.com/topics/family_home/home/lahouse

Habitat for Humanity: https://www.habitat.org/

Book List: The Story of Britain by Roy Strong, The Lost Family by Libby Copeland, Woolly by Ben Mezrich, A Voyage Long and Strange by Tony Horwitz, 1619 by James Horn, American Nations by Colin Woodard

Episodes referenced in this episode: #128 - Cedric Johnson

Recorded on 19 September 2021.