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Science and stories from literally the coolest places on the planet! It’s said that the poles are the thermometer for the rest of the planet- what happens to the rest of us, has already been happening there for years. It’s easy with the state of the world currently to bunker down in a little private bubble, but its more essential than ever that we broaden our horizons and remember that there’s a world out there that is incredible- and needs us! And if that sounds too heavy for you then instead why not join us to escape as we take to on audial adventures to these strange and remote and beautiful places? We’ll speak to guests who’ve looked polar bears in the eye, who drive 12k ton ships through ice 9ft thick or who spend years doing science with no-one but three other people and thousands of penguins for company! These are Polar Times we live in. Join us, and we’ll take you there! An APECS Production (Association of Polar Early Career Scientists). Music credits: ”Scuba” - Metre Unaltered License: CC BY-NC-SA
Episodes
Friday Mar 12, 2021
Friday Mar 12, 2021
Hello and thank you for tuning in to another episode of Polar Times!
This week’s episode is with one of our new hosts, Henrietta. She gets chatting to Naomi Chapman, Education and Outreach Assistant at the Polar Museum, part of the Scott Polar Research Institute at the University of Cambridge. Naomi is a museum educator-extraordinaire and here she talks about what it’s like to teach people about the polar regions every day. Naomi has been involved in some amazing projects and she tells us about her work on everything from a co-curated exhibition to a one-of-a-kind fabric map of Antarctica (complete with Lake Vostok silk-pocket!). Stay tuned for some advice for people interested in non-academic polar careers and to see if you can shed some light on a question from a primary school child that no one seems to know the answer to…
For everything from educational videos to polar sewing projects, check out the Polar Museum’s awesome teaching resources here:
https://www.spri.cam.ac.uk/museum/resources/
If you do have anything you’d like to tell us, no matter how big or small, please do get in touch via email (therearepolartimes@gmail.com) or tweet APECS (@Polar_Research). We’d love to hear from you!
Episode edited by Elise Gallois
Cover art by Matthew Nelson
Music: “Scuba” by Metre, Nul Tiel Records, UK (unaltered) CC BY-NC-SA
Friday Feb 26, 2021
Friday Feb 26, 2021
Welcome back to Polar Times! Today, we are leaving our cosy planet for a moment and we follow our guest to Mars. Your host Alexandra is joined by Nanna Karlsson from the Geological Suvery of Denmark and Greenland. Nanna chats about her career which started in planetary sciences with a focus on glacier ice on Mars. We talk about in which sense glacier ice on Mars is similar to glaciers in Antarctica and how planetary science can benefit from polar science in many ways.
Nanna chats about how her career took her to many different places in Antarctica and Greenland, and how she ended up as a glaciologist. We also talk about inclusivity in science and what difficulties you can have in polar research, especially as a woman. Nanna also gives valuable advice on how to pursue a career in science.
If you would like to get in contact with us at Polar Times, send us an email to: thesearepolartimes@gmail.com OR tweet APECS: @Polar_Research
Episode edited by Alexandra Zuhr
Cover art by Matthew Nelson
Music: "Scuba" by Metre, Nul Tiel Records, UK (unaltered) CC BY-NC-SA
Friday Feb 12, 2021
Friday Feb 12, 2021
Hello hello, thanks for joining us again on Polar Times!
This week Jack is joined by anthropologist Genny LeMoine who is also curator/registrar of the Peary MacMillan Arctic Museum at Bowdoin College in Maine. She chats to us about the human history of the Arctic all the way from the paleo-Inuit to some of the more widely-known figures of modern history. In particular she tells us the stories of Matthew Alexander Henson, one of the first men at the north pole, and the tale of Minik Wallace an Inughuit boy raised in the United States and we talk about what these stories continue to teach us today.
We also chat about some of the exhibits the museum currently holds- how to build a Kayak!- and the issues that Arctic archaeologists are facing due to climate change!
You can check out the museum's virtual exhibits here:
https://www.bowdoin.edu/arctic-museum/index.html
And, as always, please feel free to email (thesearepolartimes@gmail.com) or tweet APECS (@Polar_Research) to get in contact with us about anything at all!
Episode edited by Elise Gallois
Cover art by Matthew Nelson
Music: "Scuba" by Metre, Nul Tiel Records, UK (unaltered) CC BY-NC-SA
Friday Jan 29, 2021
Friday Jan 29, 2021
Today on Polar Times we welcome fellow podcaster (and artist and photographer) Chloe Russell to the show to talk about her podcast Kalerrâ.
Kalerrâ is a Greenlandic word which means "the sound of it" and the podcast is full of sounds recorded by Chloe during an trip to Weisboylund in the Northeast Greenland National Park zone as part of an interdisciplinary expedition of scientists and artists. As well as sounds from the field the podcast is full of snippets with interviews from the scientists on the trip (Anne Lydiat, Laura Melissa Williams, Amy Pryor and Wanda Bodnar), music from Ben Imber and narration from Chloe herself, which combine to create an immersive listening experience designed to help the listener feel connected with the remote Northeast Greenland.
Chloe chats to jack about her experiences in the field, the decisions behind releasing Kalerrâ as a podcast and how sounds can be used to foster a greater sense of connectedness than almost anything else.
You can listen to Kalerrâ on Spotify, Apple and lots of other places where you get podcasts from. It has the full Polar Times seal of approval so definitely check it out!
As always if you would like to contact us at Polar Times you can:
email: thesearepolartimes@gmail.com
tweet APECS: @Polar_Research
Episode edited by Elise Gallois
Cover art by Matthew Nelson
Music: "Scuba" by Metre, Nul Tiel Records, UK (unaltered) CC BY-NC-SA
Friday Jan 15, 2021
Friday Jan 15, 2021
New episode! On today’s Polar Times we welcome Morgan Seag of the Scott Polar Research Institute. Morgan is a social scientist who’s current research examines scientific institutions in Antarctica to see how they have evolved over time to become more gender inclusive. We chat to her about the history of women in the Antarctic, how things have changed since the 20th century, what is left still to do on the road to equality and why everyone- that is EVERYONE- can and should be involved in polar science!
Here is a link to Morgans interview with Ellen Mosley-Thompson, mentioned in the episode, as well as to the site where you can find more of her interviews:
https://www.aip.org/history-programs/niels-bohr-library/oral-histories/43987
For more info on this topic check out on Twitter:
- Women in Polar Science (@WomeninPolarSci)
- Minorities in Polar Research (PolarImpact)
- Pride in Polar Research (PridePolar)
And finally, for an article on intersectionality, written by todays guest, go here:
As usual, if you would like to get in contact with Polar Times to recommend a guest, volunteer to be a guest, give us some feedback or just ask a question then you can email us (thesearepolartimes@gmail.com) or tweet APECS @Polar_Research any time- we would love to hear from you.
Episode edited by Elise Gallois
Cover art by Matthew Nelson
Music: "Scuba" by Metre, Nul Tiel Records, UK (unaltered) CC BY-NC-SA
Saturday Jan 02, 2021
Saturday Jan 02, 2021
Happy New Year to all Polar Times listeners!
On todays episode we are introducing some of the new members of the Polar Times team- you will be hearing from a lot of them in upcoming episodes as they strive to bring you more lovely polar content in 2021.
We introduce ourselves, chat about highlights from the polar world in 2020 and let you in on our plans for the podcast this coming year!
If you would like to get in contact with Polar Times to recommend a guest, volunteer to be a guest, give us some feedback or just ask a question then you can email us (thesearepolartimes@gmail.com) or tweet APECS @Polar_Research
We would love to hear from you!
Thanks, best a happy 2021 from the 2020/21 Polar Times Team
x
Episode edited by Ryan O'Hara
Cover art by Matthew Nelson
Music: "Scuba" by Metre, Nul Tiel Records, UK (unaltered) CC BY-NC-SA
Friday Dec 18, 2020
Friday Dec 18, 2020
Our guest is Elizabeth Orr of the German Research Centre for Geosciences and this week on Polar Times she and your host Jack Buckingham are not going North and they're not going South either. Instead we investigate a previously unmentioned part of the cryosphere: alpine regions!
Mountains!
*does excited dance*
We chat about earth surface process, landscape evolution over the last million years (and more!) and the impacts climate change is having on our mountains. What is a glacier? Do rocks get sunburnt? How can you tell what mountains regions looked like so long ago? All these questions answered and some PLUS Fieldwork Funtimes from the Himalayas!
As always if you would like to contact us you can:
email: thesearepolartimes@gmail.com OR
tweet APECS: @Polar_Research
Episode edited by Elise Gallois
Cover art by Matthew Nelson
Music: "Scuba" by Metre, Nul Tiel Records, UK (unaltered) CC BY-NC-SA
Friday Dec 04, 2020
Friday Dec 04, 2020
Our guest on this weeks Polar Times is researcher Sean Horvath from the National Snow & Ice Data Center (NSIDC) and the University of Colorado Boulder. Sean and host Jack break down the complexities of using satellite data to model sea ice growth and shrinkage in the Arctic's future. We also return in fieldwork funtimes to the MOSAiC expedition and hear all about life on board the support vessel Akademik Federov!
If you would like to contact Polar Times you can email thesearepolartimes@gmail.com with questions and/or recommendations
OR you can tweet APECS: @Polar_Research
Episode edited by Elise Gallois
Cover art by Matthew Nelson
Music: "Scuba" by Metre, Nul Tiel Records, UK (unaltered) CC BY-NC-SA
Friday Nov 20, 2020
Friday Nov 20, 2020
Today on Polar Times we're talking aliens! By which we mean invasive non-native species of course. Our guests today are Jesamine Bartlett from the Norwegian Institute for Nature Research and Arlie McCarthy of the University of Cambridge and British Antarctic Survey who are the founders of Polar Alien Hunters.
Your host, once again, is Jack Buckingham who will be asking WHAT are invasive species? HOW do they get to polar place? WHY are they bad news and most importantly CAN we do anything about it?
You can check out Polar Alien Hunters' great resources at: www.polaralienhunters.com or find the on twitter @Polar_Aliens
Email Polar Times at thesearepolartimes@gmail.com, tweet APECS @Polar_Research and let us know your questions for polar people or guest recommendations!
Episode edited by Elise Gallois
Cover art by Matthew Nelson
Music: "Scuba" by Metre, Nul Tiel Records, US (unaltered) CC BY-NC-SA
Friday Nov 06, 2020
Friday Nov 06, 2020
Hello and welcome back! Today on Polar Times we have a palaeoclimatologist from the University of Cambridge and the British Antarctic Survey.
Join Jack Buckingham to hear all about her adventure to Sherman Island, drilling for ice cores as part of the Wacswain project (WArm Climate Stability of West Antarctic ice sheet in the last INterglacial!) and how we can use these icy time capsules to better predict what might happen to our climate in the future.
Email us at thesearepolartimes@gmail.com if you have any questions, recommendations or if you are a polar person who would like to be on PT!
Tweet APECS: @Polar_Research
Find the Wacswain group on Twitter: @wacswain
Read this guests excellent blog to find out more about their fieldwork at: https://blog.esc.cam.ac.uk/?author=36
Episode edited by Elise Gallois
Cover art by Matthew Nelson
Music "Scuba" by Metre, Nul Tiel Records, UK (unaltered) CC BY-NC-SA