Blue Collar White Coat Podcast

Splashdown day, from the person running it. Lili Villarreal is NASA's Artemis landing and recovery director at Kennedy Space Center, responsible for pulling the Artemis II crew out of the Pacific after their trip around the Moon. (And yes, Amy booked her with an Instagram DM.) Lili's story starts at age seven, poking her face through an astronaut cutout at the Kennedy Visitor Center. When bad eyes...

What does it take to keep a deep-sea jelly alive on exhibit? A lot more pipe, pumps and problem-solving than you might think. Brian Maurer, Director of Life Support Systems at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, takes us behind the glass and into the pump house, where a 24/7 control room team handles everything from plumbing and pump rebuilds to HVAC, keeping seawater from Monterey Bay flowing into the aqu...

Deep-sea biologist Dr. Craig McClain grew up in the Arkansas Ozarks, the son of a barbed-wire factory worker and a waitress-turned-teacher. His bedroom walls were papered with National Geographic maps. Today he studies some of the strangest animals on the planet, from giant isopods to furry-armed yeti crabs, and runs a lab at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette that deliberately recruits stud...

Jo Hartwig didn't grow up dreaming about commercial diving — she was working three jobs and going nowhere fast when her dad's old stories about naval shipyard divers stuck in her head. Nine months later she was underwater for the first time. Nearly a decade after that, she's the Dive Supervisor and Project Manager for Highmark Marine Group, running dive crews out of Kodiak, Alaska. In this episode...

Twelve thousand animals. Four buildings. One crew that monitors all of it, 24/7. This week we're talking to TWO staff members from Tennessee Aquarium in Chattanooga, Sean Hill and Kyle McPheeters. They represent the aquarium's Life Support Systems team. In other words, the folks behind the scenes keeping the habitats of alligators, penguins, sharks, and thousands of fish healthy and safe. We dig i...

Blue Collar White Coat is back for Season 2 — and we're kicking things off on location with NASA Ames Facility & Maintenance Manager Chad Cleary, who oversees operations for the massive boiler system creating space-like conditions at NASA Ames Research Center's Arc Jet Complex in Mountain View, California. The work done by Chad's team facilitates the researchers testing spacecraft thermal protecti...

She's back, she's got a team now, and she's headed out to sea... well. Figuratively. Host Amy Weldon opens Season 2 of Blue Collar White Coat with an update on everything that's changed since Season 1: a talented volunteer production team, a conference talk in Portland, and a new season built around the ocean-adjacent, often overlooked jobs in STEM. Season 2 will be heavy on the ocean-related blue...

Special crossover episode with Seemingly Unrelated What do medieval guild halls and the first mechanized loom have to do with modern science? In this special crossover episode, Blue Collar | White Coat teams up with Seemingly Unrelated host Andrew Johnstone to explore how knowledge has always been built, shared, and preserved through skilled, often invisible labor. From guild halls and tradespeopl...

  What does science look like when you strip away the lab coats and take a peek behind the equipment? In this episode of Blue Collar | White Coat , we meet Kyle Luker — a machinist, welder, former firefighter, and self-taught problem-solver whose hands quietly keep research moving forward. From wildland firefighting to managing an R&D machine shop at a major university, Kyle's winding path into th...

In Episode 9 of Blue Collar | White Coat , Amy sits down with Robin Garcia , a former federal worker and now a professional science communications trainer with Compass Science Communication. Robin's career has taken her from marine biology labs to NOAA to Capitol Hill workshops — and in this episode, she breaks down exactly why communicating science effectively to Congress, policymakers, and every...

What really happens behind the scenes in funeral homes? In this powerful and eye-opening episode of  Blue Collar White Coat , mortician and funeral director Michelle Tokarski takes us into the world of death care — from organ and tissue donation to the art and science of embalming. Michelle breaks down the myths, misconceptions, and emotional realities of her work with honesty and heart. She expla...

What does death care have to do with science? A lot more than you think. In this first part of a special two-part Halloween episode of  Blue Collar | White Coat , we talk with Michelle Tokarski , a California-based funeral counselor and apprentice embalmer who proves that compassion, chemistry, and cultural understanding all collide in one of the most misunderstood STEM careers. Michelle shares ho...

Marine biologist Dr. David Shiffman talks to host Amy Weldon about why scientists need to meet people where they are, whether that's on a fishing boat or online. Summary We're gonna need a bigger boat because marine biologist, shark scientist and social media expert Dr. David Schiffman is taking us out to sea on this episode of Blue Collar White Coat! We get into the importance of shark science, t...

What happens when you're told you'll never succeed in science because of an ADHD-type learning disorder? In this episode of Blue Collar | White Coat , Amy talks with Marley Parker , an underwater photographer and freelance science communicator who proves there's more than one way to belong in STEM. From documenting deep-sea expeditions to navigating freelance life with dyscalculia , Marley's story...

In this special episode of Blue Collar White Coat , host Amy turns the mic on herself. She shares the winding path from small-town Maryland to city living and the National Aquarium, from dolphin training to science communication at a national lab, and the blue-collar roots that shaped her perspective along the way. Amy reflects on growing up in a working-class family, navigating ADHD and college s...

When the pandemic hit, Chanapa Tantibanchachai was on the front lines of public health communication at the FDA. Now, months after being laid off, you'll hear how Chanapa has grieved losing her dream job and what she's tackling next. In this episode, Chanapa recounts how being the child of Thai imigrants while growing up with her own rare health condition shaped her commitment to bridging the gap...

What do cybersecurity and Dungeons & Dragons have in common? Elaina Mayer—CISSP, professor, and award-winning cosplayer—reveals how creativity fuels data defense. From AI risks to rolling dice in the classroom, this episode dives into the unpredictable world of cyber threats and the epic quest to protect your data.

Back in the early 2000s, the biggest news in my sleeply little hometown was that our super-tall science teacher, Brian Campbell, was leaving the high school (one of only two in the whole county)… for a job at NASA. To us, it felt like he was blasting off to some screen-filled control room out of a summer blockbuster to push the launch button himself. Fast-forward 25 years — Brian's now a Senior Ea...

What do mice, Old Bay Seasoning, and cancer research have in common? Rysheem McGirt. In the very first episode of Blue Collar White Coat Podcast, host Amy Weldon reconnects with her friend and former dolphin training volunteer, now full-time animal welfare project manager. Rysheem's full-time job supports biomedical research outside of their hometown of Baltimore, Maryland and on the side he's doi...

Welcome to Blue Collar White Coat, a podcast about the people who actually make science happen. Host Amy Weldon—a science communicator with 15 years of experience—introduces the show and the folks you'll meet along the way: welders, wildlife biologists, coders, divers, NASA educators, and all kinds of behind-the-scenes heroes powering science, one essential job at a time. Some episodes feature gue...