Ice Coffee: the history of human activity in Antarctica

The FIDS investigate why all those seals are pining for the fjords, the Argentines engage in naval gazing, the Chileans extend their EEZ to meet everyone else' "not touching you, can't get mad" boundary, and the Uruguayans think about forming a plan for an idea on a scheme for getting south.   Lots of Base D and Base A granular detail and broad strokes everywhere else, because that's how my librar...

FIDS get sledging.   Major Moreno gets protest notes. Chile gets left out for an episode. Eva Peron's bust gets busted.

A rambling, meandering episode full of happenstance reminiscences that barely ties in to the Antarctic history thread of this series through an encounter with Antarctic novel author Evelyn and an interview with Cam Hawley about the restoration of the Beech Staggerwing carried south by the United States Antarctic Service Expedition.   Cam spoke to me in a hangar at Wanaka airport during the Warbird...

An interview with Christine Rees about finding her path south through water chemistry lab skills.   Better living through chemistry indeed!

Part two of my coverage of the British, Argentine, and Chilean attempts to bolster national pride in and international recognition of their various efforts on the Antarctic Peninsula.  This episode drills down on goings on in Hope Bay and Anvers Island and features an interruption from Kettle catching the largest flathead I've seen in a good few years, which I left in in its entirety as an aural r...

The first half hour of a lengthy and bumpy adventure in trying to recount what happened around the Antarctic Peninsula in the first half of the 1950s.  And Craig.  

Bob Dovers does sterling OIC work setting the rhythm and mode of Mawson Station winters, though at considerable cost to his health.  John Bechervaise continues in the grooves established by Dovers, cementing Australia's toehold in the cold and the meson telescopes in place.   Phillip Law goes in to bat against bureaucrats cratting for all their bureau's worth and manages to keep the focus on scien...

I recorded these interviews at the Australian Antarctic Festival in August 2024.  I release them now in lieu of historical narrative episodes I should have ready but don't because reasons. 

Phil Law and J. Lauritsen Lines join forces to finally get the ANARE a continental toehold.

What do you get if you cross religion with flat Earthers and Antarctica? A cross podcaster and little else.

Coming back at yer, six months late and barely on topic, episode 157 addresses the increasingly loud and dunderheaded online chatter about escaping society and trying to establish society, only with more ice and surprise cannibalism. Libertarians probably don't listen to my output, but any that do can dig a well, actually, and throw themselves down it before getting in touch to try to correct me o...

You don't just throw a Trans-Antarctic Expedition or an International Geophysical Year together.  These things take planning. Here's some background on the planners and introductions to some of the doers. 

Several years of Macquarie Island winters receive attention as I chill out under a Casuarina after several fraught months.

I give voice to another almost but not quite lost snippet from "Big Dead Place" and I give the microphone to Adam Fitzgerald who voices the introduction to Jeff Maynard's new book, "The Frontier Below."

In 1983 Australian glaciologist Trevor Hamley joined a Soviet traverse from the Russian coastal station, Mirny, to Dome Charlie, high atop the Antarctic plateau. Bouncing about in the back of a T-55 tank converted into a living quarters/galley/dining space/lab, recording locations on audio cassette tape, wielding a hammer, and ignoring the ideological and political drivers of the cold war in the n...

Australian Antarctic Division alumnus, Jeff Wilson, recounts his experiences at Australian stations and in the Ross Sea. Road trip with our eldest. Good company at Anglesea. Good food. Good audio. One of the best days 2023 offered up.

The ANARE presence at Heard Island runs to 1955 and switches focus to continental Antarctica.  The Island taught Australians to work on glaciers and to run dog teams, saw John Bechervaise cut his Antarctic teeth and lead the first ascent of Big Ben, and claimed the lives of two winterers.  "Ice Coffee" leaves Heard Island alone for a bit having documented its reputation as a very difficult place t...

ANARE occupation at Heard Island ran short but intense, and sometimes in tents.  In addition to large quantities of wind and sleet the island provided a training ground for Antarctic travelers and their dogs.  Challenging maritime approaches led to innovative approaches by maritime challengers, and everyone got home safely, this episode. 

Argentina and Britain needle each other over what huts go where around the Antarctica Peninsula and notes of protest change hands at a fevered pace. Hot heads at low temperatures lead to a low ebb in high latitudes camaraderie ashore at Hope Bayhia Esperanza. And Chile was there, too. 

Yet another amazing interview through which to inform you and by which to relieve myself of the burden to write and record a chronological narrative episode this month.  "Ice Coffee": where me goofing off and being lazy still results in audio gold. 

Professor Meredith Nash spent two years studying and reporting on the culture within the Australian Antarctic Division.  Their findings, released late in 2022, may prove a turning point in the history of Australia's presence in Antarctica.  Professor Nash spoke to me about their research and their experiences in Antarctica as part of the inaugural Homeward Bound voyage. Michael Marshall knows more...

Josh Jensen spent an austral summer keeping LC-130 Ski Hercules operational out of McMurdo.  I spoke to him about the challenges that throws up and found out the days of boiling a pot of oil over the stove and pouring it into the sump ended with the last big roundy engines to depart the continent in the 1970s. Cheers to Josh for putting aside time to discuss the confluence of my two of my favourit...

Some historical and political context for the Russian return south in Soviet Union form.  Bolsheviks: form soviets and roll out.

I haven't interviewed other Antarctic podcasters because that would make for dull content. "Do you press record?  Wow!  I do, too!  Hey, how good is Audacity?  Antarctica's cold, huh?" This episode I interview Samantha Hodder about her Antarctic podcast because the stories told in her series, "This Is Our Time," lie so far outside those recounted in my series that there's a lot to discuss beyond t...

Paul Emile-Victor's charges are ashore and charging.  But wait, there's more. Call now and get this free base fire valued at over five buildings.