Historian of science Jeffery Mathias talks about scientific experiments in isolation during the Cold War. Mathias is the author of the Ph.D dissertation, "An Empire of Solitude: Isolation and the Cold War Sciences of the Mind.”

Alexandre Simon-Ekeland talks about explorers, the Polar Regions, and the French imagination. Simon-Ekeland recently completed his doctoral dissertation at the University of Oslo. He is the author of Making French Polar Exploration, 1860s-1930s.

Felipe Fernandez-Armesto talks about the life and work of Ferdinand Magellan. Fernandez-Armesto is the William P. Reynolds Professor of History at the University of Notre Dame. He is the author of Straits: Beyond the Myth of Magellan. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dr. Hannah Wakeford talks about the Webb Telescope and its significance for the study of exoplanets: planets orbiting suns in other solar systems. Wakeford is a lecturer in Astrophysics at the University of Bristol. She is also one of the hosts of Exocast: a podcast about exoplanet research and discovery.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dr. Carolin Roeder talks about the Soviet search for the abominable snowman and its parallels to other "wildman" legends in the United States and elsewhere. Roeder facilitates research collaboration between the Freie Universität in Berlin and other European universities as part of the Una Europa project. She is the author of “Cold War Creatures: Soviet Science and the Problem of the Abominable Snowman” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Markus Hällgren talks about the 1996 Everest disaster from the perspective of business and management. Hällgren is a professor of management and organization at Umeå School of Business and Economics, Umeå University. He is the founder and leader of the interdisciplinary research profile "Extreme Environments - Everyday Decisions" (www.tripleED.com) as well as co-founder and organizer of the International network "Organising Extreme Contexts." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit...

Patrick Dean talks about the first successful ascent of Denali in 1913. Dean is a writer and executive director of the Mountain Goat Trail Alliance. He’s the author of A Window to Heaven: The Daring First Ascent of Denali: America’s Wildest Peak Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Erika Fatland talks about her long journey through the Central Asian republics and the legacy of Soviet influence there. Fatland is the author of many books and essays including Sovietistan: A Journey Through Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Eric Berger talks about the rise of SpaceX and its eccentric, mercurial founder Elon Musk. Berger is the Senior Space Editor at Ars Technica. He’s the author of Liftoff: Elon Musk and the Desperate Early Days That Launched SpaceX Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Emmanuel Iduma talks about his experiences traveling through Africa and his quest to find a new language of travel. Iduma is a writer and lecturer at the School of Visual Arts in New York. His stories and essays have been published in Best American Travel Writing 2020 and The New York Review of Books. He is the author of A Stranger’s Pose, which was a finalist for the Ondaatje Prize in 2019. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Catarina Madruga talks about Portuguese exploration in the nineteenth century as European powers made plans to conquer Africa and colonize its peoples. Madruga is a post-doctoral researcher at the Natural History Museum of Berlin. She’s the author of “Expert at a Distance: Barbosa du Bocage and the Production of Scientific Knowledge on Africa,” published in the Journal for the History of Science and Technology. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dr. Karen Routledge talks about Baffin Island’s Inuit community as it came into contact with western whalers and explorers in the nineteenth century. Even though the Inuit worked closely with outsiders, their views of the Arctic world, their ideas about the meaning of home, even their views of time itself remained different. Routledge is a historian with Parks Canada. Her book, Do You See Ice?: Inuit and Americans at Home and Away is published by University of Chicago Press. Learn more about...

Matteo Salvadore talks about the strange journey of Ṣägga Krǝstos and his impact on the Renaissance world. Salvadore is an Associate Professor of History at the American University of Sharjah. He’s the author of The African Prester John and the Birth of Ethiopian-European Relations, 1402–1555. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Alexander Rose talks about the history of airplanes and airships at the turn of the century, a time when the direction of aviation remained unclear. Rose is the author of 'Empires of the Sky: Zeppelins, Airplanes, and Two Men’s Epic Duel to Rule the World.' Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Meredith Small talks about the city of Venice and its importance to the history of travel and exploration. Small is professor emerita of at Cornell University and visiting scholar in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania. She’s the author of Inventing the World: Venice and the Transformation of Western Civilization. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dr. Beth Taylor discusses the science and psychology of running. Taylor is an Associate Professor of Kinesiology at the University of Connecticut. She also serves as the Director of Exercise Physiology Research at Hartford Hospital.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ralph Bauer talks about early modern exploration in the Americas and its connection to ideas about discovery, science, and religion in Europe. Bauer is a professor of English and Comparative Literature at the University of Maryland. He’s the author of The Alchemy of Conquest: Science, Religion, and the Secrets of the New World. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Emma Kowal talks about the history of biospecimen collection among the aboriginal peoples of Australia. Kowal is a cultural and medical anthropologist at Deakin University. She’s the co-author, along with Joanna Radin, of "Indigenous Biospecimen Collections and the Cryopolitics of Frozen Life," published in the Journal of Sociology. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Andrea Pitzer talks about the Arctic voyages of William Barents and their impact on Europe in the centuries that followed. Pitzer is a journalist and author of Icebound: Shipwrecked at the Edge of the World Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Eric Zuelow talks about the origins of tourism from the era of the European Grand Tour through the twenty-first century where is has become – until the current pandemic at least – the largest service sector industry in the world. Zuelow is a professor of European History at the University of New England. He’s the author of A History of Modern Tourism. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Novelist Amity Gaige talks about her book Sea Wife. Gaige is a Fulbright and Guggenheim fellow. Her novel Schroder was one of the New York Times Best Books for 2013. A review and excerpt of Sea Wife can be read in the New York Times Book Review. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hanne Nielsen talks about the challenges facing women who work in Antarctica. Nielsen is a Lecturer in Antarctic Law and Governance at the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies (IMAS) in Hobart, Tasmania. She’s the co-author, along with Meredith Nash, of “Gendered Power Relations and Sexual Harassment in Antarctic Science in the Age of #Me Too,” due out this year in Australian Feminist Studies. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Daniel Deudney makes the argument against the human colonization of space. He suggests that Space Expansionism is a dangerous project, a utopian ideal that masks important risks to human civilization. Deudney is a professor of political science at Johns Hopkins University. He’s the author of Dark Skies: Space Expansionism, Planetary Geopolitics, and the Ends of Humanity. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Edwin Rose talks about Joseph Banks and Georg Forster, naturalists on the Cook expeditions, and how political ideas shaped the way these specimens were understood back in Europe. Rose is completing a PhD. in the Department of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Cambridge and will soon be the Munby Fellow in Bibliography at Cambridge University Library and a research fellow at Darwin College, Cambridge. He’s the author of “Publishing Nature in the Age of Revolutions: Joseph...