Ice Coffee: the history of human activity in Antarctica

In an epic episode spanning an hour and a half and featuring a singing leopard seal, blowing humpbacks and the tuneless honking of the penguins the residents of Little America and Bolling Advance Base and the various dog and half-track teams reconvene and get out of Dodge aboard the Jacob Ruppert and the Bear.

Byrd gets exactly what he asks for, what he deserves, and then saved, spoiling the symmetry of an otherwise well mapped story of hubris and punishment in the Greek myth mold. 

Byrd's second expedition re-colonises Byrd's first expedition's digs after lots of digging.  Gentoo penguins under the hut floor provide ambience. 

Boom! Two episodes in two days.  Take that, incomprehensible download statistics.  Let's see me make sense of you now.  Byrd returns south to finish...    something...  something brave and stirring and laudably scientific and humanitarian, no doubt.  Prolly work it out in payroll.  Or in a post-hoc rationalisation that will remain in publication for half a century.  More importantly, I get to shar...

Iceolation and why it's not a big deal these days, a fourteen year old interview with Professor Timothy Naish, and an excuse to use my favourite quote from my favourite robot.

Jeff Maynard returns to the dive hut to discuss the non-voyage of the Nautilus and we receive a visitation from the ghost of an Antarctic feline. Then the sustained influence of James Wordie and the efforts of Gino Watkins get some attention to set the scene for further British efforts in the south.  Oooh, foreshadowing and ghosts.  Woooooooooooo!

Lars Christensen funds extensive coastal exploration in concert with his whaling exploits.  A decade of Norwegian effort gets compressed into a single chagrined episode. 

The best acronym in Antarctic history draws to a close and Sir Douglas leaves the southern continent for the last time.  Similarly the Discovery makes its final transit of the Southern Ocean.  | Some errors of fact that warrant addenda pass into your ears. 

The first BANZARE voyage plays out with much tension, flying and coal.

Old Dux Ipse thought he was the ducks nuts but the BANZARE looks more a dog's breakfast than the dog's bollocks.  Another not-a-race sees the Discovery racing south on its penultimate voyage.  Sir Douglas Mawson and John King Davis get on each other's nerves ninety years ago. 

Three interviews with staff at Bransfield House, Port Lockroy, one with a descendant of Bartholomew Sulivan, second mate on the Beagle under Fitzroy and Falklands Island farmer, and animal noises from the islands.  Happy April, one and all. 

Sam Edmonds is good company at high and low latitudes but you'll know that for yourself by the end of the interview, conducted north of Sydney with sulphur crested cockatoo and DeHavilland Canada Beaver accompaniment. Much has been written on high latitudes food but the residues receive less attention.  After finding out about Antarctic sewage and sewerage I now understand why, but having done the...

The world didn't stand still and await the outcomes of Wilkins' and Byrd's efforts with bated breath.  This episode catches you up on Antarctic pertinent developments that the buzz caused by the aviators eclipsed. The episode also features an interview I recorded with Dr Andrew Atkin while I was in Sydney.  Yes, if you get in touch and tell me you like the series there's a chance I could turn up i...

Victor and I spent time in the Zodiacs around the Antarctic Peninsula in late 2018.  This unassuming man quickly demonstrated a tremendous experience in and love of Antarctica and cherished the opportunities our work offered him.  I sat down with Victor to record a brief history of his Antarctic career after one of the presentations he gave to our team.  This episode comprises that interview and a...

Byrd and Wilkins are done in Antarctica for the 1920s and head north, leaving many loose ends in the snow next to the dog corpses.  With the depression changing the playing field it would fall to the primo fund raisers and the independently wealthy to pick those loose ends up in the 1930s but I'll get to that after covering some Australian and Norwegian 1929 action and knocking out some interviews...

Some news and a correction.

Wilkins returns to the arena, negating the worth of the winter spent at Little America. Byrd gets his pole flight and drunk.

Sly grogging among a large company of over winterers makes Byrd's winter on The Barrier a very different experience to that of previous expeditions. I set up a paypal account for anyone who wants to support the series.  You can flick me some bucks for books, hosting services and travel expenses at https://www.paypal.me/icecoffeepodcast

Byrd gets on my nerves ninety years ago.

The first of the on site recordings for this Austral summer, episode 072 examines the preparations made to finally take aviation south and the echoes of Scott and Amundsen that resonate through the stories of Byrd and Wilkins. 

The final full episode arising from my trip to Hobart.  Ron Hann, Peter Reid and Rob Nash speak about their time in Antarctica and I bloviate about my favourite podcasts. Ah, narrowcasting, you path to digression, you.  I'm hoping the next time you'll hear from me I'll be speaking about November 1928 events at Deception Island at Deception Island in November 2018.

The second tranche of interviews from my time at the Australian Antarctic Festival in Hobart.  Barry Becker, Denise Alan and Trevor Luff discuss their time with ANARE and I look forward to seeing Dr Brewin in December. 

A look at practical, political and ecological developments arising as the whaling fleet, largely comprising Norwegian vessels and crews, set about the business of ridding the Southern Ocean of those pesky cetaceans.  I'm none too fond of the booze culture of my home nation, the other nations I've lived, and Antarctic bases, but Nicholas Johnson's legacy warrants light, so I recorded one of the art...

Four of the interviews I recorded at the 2018 Australian Antarctic Festival in Hobart.  Bob Tompkins, Joe Johnson, Ian Toohill and John Gillies share some fo their experiences in the south and Dave Davies rounds the episode out with some Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

Bringing to a close the trilogy of Arctic aviation episodes, this episode ties up loose ends sufficient to fully set the aviation scene for the first flights in Antarctica.  I've really enjoyed putting these episodes together.  Recent Tasmania adventures get some sizzle but the content won't reflect my time in Hobart until later this month.