Third Pod from the Sun

It’s that time of year again. No, we’re not talking about the holiday season (though, happy holidays everyone!). We’re talking AGU’s annual meeting! To celebrate, we’re releasing an episode each day of the conference, corresponding with the theme of the day. This year, the theme of the meeting is Science Leads the Future , and we’re kicking things off with our CEO, Randy Fiser who focused on the i...

Fire is a part of life for many indigenous groups, but for decades cultural burning was restricted and even criminalized. Now, fire is being brought back to the land by indigenous groups to help prevent big blazes, create resilient ecosystems, and provide resources for indigenous communities. We talk about what a cultural burn looks like, how it shapes the land, and how fire relates to social just...

This episode is about how random flashes of fireflies gradually acquire synchrony. Studies have shown that this surreal coordination of twinkling occurs through a natural cadence among certain species of fireflies during the mating season. Scientist Orit Peleg wears many hats. She’s a biophysicist and a computer scientist. Peleg and her group of researchers have arrived at some of these conclusion...

Think about what types of things burn: wood, grasses, fossil fuels… mostly things that were formed by life. Fire also requires oxygen, which is largely produced by life. Did Earth have fire before life evolved? Could any other planets have fire? If there were an exoplanet with fires burning, would we have any way to detect that? To explore these questions, we talked with astrobiologist Antígona Se...

When the Halema‘uma‘u crater at the summit of Kīlauea Volcano began filling with water in 2019 it wasn’t unprecedented, volcanic crater lakes aren’t uncommon; but, it was surprising for active volcano that hadn’t seen any water at the summit in at least 200 years. The lake had a short lifespan, boiling away in the next eruption, but it helped geologists learn more about how water moves around in t...

At the end of the decade, NASA’s Artemis missions will return to the moon—traveling through deep space to get there. A lot of things make deep space travel complicated, but one you might not have considered is the risk of fire on the space craft. And how to put fires out if they do start? Astronauts have limited supplies of fire extinguishers and wet wipes for cleanup, but we talked to Augustin Gu...

Climate change is accelerating as human-made greenhouse gasses continue to warm our atmosphere. Megafires certainly evoke climate change doomsday feelings, but are these types of fires new to the PNW or were similar instances occurring prior to 2020? To answer these questions we talked to Matthew Reilly, a United States Forest Service scientist, about the causes of these megafires and what we can...

We’ve all heard stories about fantastical creatures that people swear they’ve seen and have evidence of but can never be confirmed. Think Bigfoot or the Loch Ness monster. Mermaids or the Kraken. While there’s no evidence backing the existence of these creatures, either in present day or at any point in the past, there must be a reason why such legends were created in the first place. In most case...

We’ve all heard stories about fantastical creatures that people swear they’ve seen and have evidence of but can never be confirmed. Think Bigfoot or the Loch Ness monster. Mermaids or the Kraken. While there’s no evidence backing the existence of these creatures, either in present day or at any point in the past, there must be a reason why such legends were created in the first place. In most case...

As the leaves change and temperatures cool, head inside, fire up your headphones, and get ready for hot-podcast fall as share stories about, well, fire. Join us over the next six weeks to hear stories about wildfires, volcanoes, fire in space, and on other planets, indigenous fire knowledge, and…fireflies! And today stick around for a preview of the weeks to come. This episode was produced by  Sha...

How do you study something that’s constantly shifting? That’s the challenge that USGS geologist Richard Iverson faced when he began his career in landslide research. He and his team developed a first-of-its-kind experimental facility to study how landslides happen, in order to better understand and prepare for them. This episode was produced by Molly Magid  and mixed by  Collin Warren . Illustrati...

With a heliophysics career spanning across nearly five decades, Thomas Earle Moore has always been fascinated by the Sun’s relationship with the Earth and how that relationship affects life on our planet. The impacts of space weather can be super noticeable when it results in brilliant auroras or large radiation storms that send astronauts scrambling for cover. But Thom also advocates for studies...

Tommy Dickey is an emeritus oceanographer from U.C. Santa Barbara and Naval Operations Chair in Ocean Sciences. His modeling and observational research yielded ocean monitoring technologies and tools. For retirement, Tommy trains and deploys Great Pyrenees as therapy dogs, while studying scent dogs’ capacity to detect COVID-19. We talked with Tommy about his path from a rural childhood to a career...

This episode is about how satellite technology is being used to study a big chunk of the earth’s surface. Seventy percent of the earth comprises water but we know very little about it. Color sensors aboard some satellites can actually reveal a lot about phytoplankton or microalgae blooms that are linked to ocean temperatures. These tiny organisms contribute to half the photosynthesis on the planet...

Choosing a major and university is one of the earliest major life decisions—but what if you had to leave those choices up to chance? Today we hear from Dr. Ameha Muluneh, who grew up wanting to be an engineer, but is now an award-winning geologist studying the African crust. He shares how he found his path after a chance assignment to major in geology and his vision for the future of science in Et...

In the past couple of decades, Earth and space science education for K-12 has evolved significantly, much due to the work of geologist, educator, and writer, Michael Wysession . This is a time where the science education we receive plays a big role in our response to climate change; an adaptive and engaging curriculum, beyond the usual textbook, is paramount – and way more fun! In this episode, we...

Science is all about experimentation, discover, and sharing those results. But what happens behind the scenes? What stories do scientists have to tell that don’t make it in the manuscript or the classroom lecture? Our next six-part miniseries, in collaboration for the AGU journals Perspectives of Earth and Space Scientists , explores geoscience education, continental rifts in Ethiopia, studying th...

To the untrained eye, Arctic ice appears unchanging, but conditions can shift quickly, and often reveal life-threatening hazards when they do. It is an unforgiving environment, but the Inuit know how to navigate it. That knowledge has been passed down through generations, and a new app is giving centuries-old Inuit knowledge a very modern form. SIKU was created by Joel Heath of the Arctic Eider Fo...

When you think of ice, you might imagine glaciers, the North Pole, a clink in your water glass. But it turns out that our closest neighbor in space isn’t just a dusty ball—the moon has ice tucked away in deep craters at each of its poles. On top of that, scientists think the moon stole its ice: from comets, asteroids, maybe even from the Earth. We talked with two scientists—Kathleen Mandt and Nich...

Brian Huber is a climate detective at the Smithsonian who grew up collecting arrowheads in the woods of Ohio, but now collects and studies fossils from sediment cores. Brian uses fossils of tiny organisms − foraminifera − to track climate over millions of years, including the Cretaceous Hot Greenhouse climate. We talked to Brian about a time when the poles were not so icy, how climate changed, and...

Anant Pande is an Indian polar researcher who studies snow petrels - shy pelagic (sea-faring) birds who nest on rock crevices in Antarctica. These endemic birds prefer to nest near less icy waters. Climate change has melted polar oceans and perhaps made it less energy intensive -- as they have to fly shorter distances to find non-frozen oceans.   But it has also increased extreme weather events th...

Glaciers around the world are melting because of climate change. Yet, while glaciers might be smaller than they once were, that’s not stopping tourists from flocking to see them. We talked with Heather Purdie, a glaciologist and former glacier guide, about how exactly glaciers are changing and how glacier tourism is adapting to these changes. This episode was produced by Molly Magid and mixed by ...

Dive down into the freezing depths of Patricia Lake, in Alberta’s Jasper National Park, and you will find the wreck of the Habbakuk —a sixty-foot model battleship originally constructed of wood and ice. This “berg ship” was the brainchild of the eccentric wartime genius Geoffrey Pyke. In 1943, the Allies were being hard pressed by German U-boats, and British and American leaders were desperate to...

Cool off from the summer heat with our next six-part miniseries all about ice – from those who call it home to its use as a tool in science. Experts tell us how this state of matter can create shelters and ships, document changes in climate, bring communities together, and even support future astronaut missions on the Moon. This episode was produced by  Shane M Hanlon and Jace Steiner , and mixed...

The International Space Station feels like a permanent fixture. It’s been up there since 2000! But earlier this year, NASA announced it is bringing the ISS back to earth in the 2030s as it plans for new space stations. We talked with Justin Walsh about what he’s learned about human life in space by doing archaeology research on the ISS and what he’s racing to study before the space station goes ex...