Time To Eat The Dogs

Journalist Michael Kodas talks about the phenomenon of megafires, forest fires that burn over 100,000 acres, and why the number of these fires is increasing every year. (Rebroadcast)

Professor Stephan Bullard discusses the 2013 Ebola outbreak in West Africa which killed 11,000 people. It is the subject of his new book, A Day to Day Chronicle of the 2013-16 Ebola Outbreak (rebroadcast).

Emily Lakdawalla discusses the design and construction of Curiosity, formally known as the Mars Science Laboratory, one of the most sophisticated machines ever built. 

Nathan Smith discusses the psychology of exploration, specifically the psychology of performance in extreme environments. Smith worked closely with polar explorer Ben Saunders in 2013 as Saunders attempted to complete Robert Falcon Scott's trek to the South Pole and back.

Too often, Dr. Pauline Chen argues, the focus on keeping patients alive gets in the way of helping those who are approaching death. Chen shares her experiences as a medical student and transplant surgeon -- the subject of her book Final Exam: A Surgeon’s Reflections on Mortality -- and how they've shaped the way she practices medicine. 

Patrick Anthony discusses the Prussian naturalist and explorer, Alexander von Humboldt, the world's most famous explorer in the early 1800s. Famed and admired for his 1799 expedition to South and Central America, Humboldt has been rediscovered by a new generation of scholars on both sides of the Atlantic.

John Hawks talks about new developments in paleoanthropology – the discovery of a new hominid species Homo Naledi in South Africa, the Neanderthal ancestry of many human populations, and the challenge of rethinking anthropological science’s relationship with indigenous peoples and the general public. Hawks is the Vilas-Borghesi Achievement Professor of Anthropology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.  He is the co-author of Almost Human: The Astonishing Tale of Homo naledi and the Discovery That Changed Our Human Story  

Angelina Callahan talks about the Naval Research Laboratory's Vanguard Project. While this satellite mission was part of the Cold War "Space Race," it also represented something more: a scientific platform for understanding the space environment as well as a test vehicle that would provide data for satellites of the future.

Hal Cook talks about the travels and trials of the young René Descartes, a man who spent more time traveling and fighting than studying philosophy. 

Annette Joseph-Gabriel talks about Eslanda Robeson who, in addition to being a political activist with her husband Paul Robeson, was also a chemist, anthropologist, and epic traveler.

Art historian Fran Altvater talks about the Medieval Pilgrimage, a practice that became central to Christian Europe in the early Middle Ages. 

Journalist Scott Wallace talks about a 2002 expedition into Amazon to find the Arrow People, one of the world's last uncontacted tribes. Wallace is the author of The Unconquered: In Search of the Amazon’s Last Uncontacted Tribes.

Our conversation with Sarah Pickman continues about the literature of exploration. It focuses on some new categories of exploration books not commonly seen in indexes and bibliographies.

Doctoral candidate Sarah Pickman talks about studying exploration for her qualifying exam: specifically what it's like to read three hundred books and articles and then discuss them in front of a committee of professors.

Historian Richard Ivan Jobs talks about the rise of backpacking in Europe after the Second World War. Jobs argues that youth travel helped create a new European culture during the Cold War, contributing to the integration of Europe during the 1960s and 1970s.

Jane Hooper talks about Madagascar and its importance to the history of Indian Ocean trade and exploration. Hooper is the author of Feeding Globalization: Madagascar and the Provisioning Trade, 1600-1800, recently published by Ohio University Press.

Kate Harris -- writer, scientist, and extreme cyclist – talks about the trip she made with her friend Mel, tracing Marco Polo’s route across Central Asia and Tibet. The journey is the subject of Harris’s new book, Lands of Lost Borders: a Journey on the Silk Road.

Stephan Bullard, associate professor of biology at the University of Hartford, discusses the 2013 Ebola outbreak which is the subject of his new book, A Day to Day Chronicle of the 2013-16 Ebola Outbreak, soon to be released by Springer Press.

Matthew Hersch,  author of Inventing the American Astronaut, talks about the origins and evolution of the U.S. astronaut program. 

Phil Clements continues his discussion of the 1963 American Mount Everest Expedition, the subject of his new book: Science in an Extreme Environment: The American Mount Everest Expedition. He discusses the expedition party's scientific findings and treatment of local Sherpas. He also talks about the expedition's broader relevance to the study of environmental history and climate change.