The Neil Armstrong of ocean exploration: Victor Vescovo
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While 12 people have walked on the moon only three have ever been to the bottom of the ocean. That’s the scale of the life-changing challenge that undersea explorer Victor Vescovo had taken on: Successfully diving the five deeps of the world.
After the private equity investor and retired naval officer decided to fund this ground breaking project all by himself, Victor and his team had to overcome many technical challenges by trying to achieve something that has never been done before. The result was a brand new form of submarine that can go to the greatest depths and come back in one piece and do it all over again.
On this episode Victor talks about the challenges that led up to his mission and the findings after being down deep like new species that has never been discovered before and new accurate maps of the ocean floors.
Here you can find out more about Victors endeavours:
https://www.australiangeographic.com.au/australian-geographic-adventure/adventure/2019/09/deeper-than-mt-everest-is-high-diving-the-mariana-trench/
This Episode of Talking Australia is hosted by Chrissie Goldrick (Editor-in-chief at Australian Geographic) and produced by Ben Kanthak (www.beachshackpodcasts.com).
You can also follow us on Instagram @australiangeographic
Turning bird photography into fine art: Leila Jeffreys
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Leila Jeffreys is a fine art photographer famous for her Australian bird portraits. Rather than capturing her motives in the outdoors she brings them into a photo studio environment and creates truly unique pictures of local birds. This gives her the ability to capture incredible detail and the results are pictures that bend the idea of where nature photography ends and fine art begins.
On this episode she talks about how she ended up in photography, what motivated her to focus on bird portraits and her most special photo shoot ever.
Here you can find out more about Leila´s work:
https://www.leilajeffreys.com/
This Episode of Talking Australia is hosted by Angela Heathcote (Digital Producer at Australian Geographic) and produced by Ben Kanthak (www.beachshackpodcasts.com).
You can also follow us on Instagram @australiangeographic
The impact of wild horses on our national parks: David Watson
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In June 2017, ecologist David Watson resigned from the NSW Government’s Threatened Species Scientific Committee over the wild horse debate. He posted his letter of resignation on Twitter, where it quickly went viral. Historic icon, convenient resource or environmental vandal – brumbies are both revered and reviled in Australia. Scientists say that the animals are doing irreparable harm to Australia’s alpine region, brumby lovers say the animals are cultural icons. David says you can have horses and you can have protected areas. But you can´t have horses in a protected areas.
Join the debate on our social channels!
This Episode of Talking Australia is hosted by Angela Heathcote (Digital Producer at Australian Geographic) and produced by Ben Kanthak (www.beachshackpodcasts.com).
You can also follow us on Instagram @australiangeographic
What it takes to ride a bicycle to the South Pole: Kate Leeming
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Kate Leeming has taken cycling to a whole new level. She has pedalled a distance greater than twice the world’s circumference and crossed almost every continent, through scorching deserts and bitterly cold polar regions. She has experienced different cultures and people, and bent the ideas of what’s possible to achieve on a bike. She also started the Breaking the Cycle education program to give back to people in regions she visited during her adventures.
On this episode she´ll be discussing her next major challenge: The first-ever bicycle crossing of the Antarctic continent via the South Pole.
You can find out more about Kate´s adventures here:
www.breakingthecycle.education
This Episode of Talking Australia is hosted by Justin Walker (Editor Australian Geographic Adventure) and produced by Ben Kanthak (www.beachshackpodcasts.com).
You can also follow us on Instagram @australiangeographic
The truth behind Australia’s deforestation crisis: Rebecca Spindler
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Rebecca Spindler is a passionate conservationist that works for the NGO Bush Heritage Australia whose mission it is to protect land from deforestation and raise awareness for the effects of land clearing for the Australian habitat. The organisation WWF has estimated that with the current deforestation rates the koala will be extinct in the state of New South Wales around the year 2050.
On this episode Rebecca shares her path to becoming an advocate for this matter and what can be done to preserve Australia´s forests and why we have to protect these areas from extinction.
Here you can find out more about Rebecca & Bush Heritage Australia:
www.bushheritage.org.au/who-we-are/people/rebecca-spindler
This Episode of Talking Australia is hosted by Angela Heathcote (Digital Producer at Australian Geographic) and produced by Ben Kanthak (www.beachshackpodcasts.com).
You can also follow us on Instagram @australiangeographic
A rock star of climate change science: Lesley Hughes
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Lesley Hughes is an ecologist and professor of biology who has been researching the impacts of climate change on species and ecosystems for over two decades. She is a councillor with the Climate Council of Australia, formerly known as the Climate Change Commission, making her one of the most prominent voices on climate change. In 2013, following the successful election of a coalition government she was one of the first people fired when the Climate Change Commission was controversially disbanded. Since then, Lesley has published numerous scientific papers that warn of the impacts of climate change, as well as speaking candidly about what it’s like when planetary catastrophe is your day job.
Here you can find out more about Lesley:
https://www.climatecouncil.org.au/author/lesley-hughes
This Episode of Talking Australia is hosted by Angela Heathcote (Digital Producer at Australian Geographic) and produced by Ben Kanthak (www.beachshackpodcasts.com).
You can also follow us on Instagram @australiangeographic
Why light pollution is bad for us and the night skies: Fred Watson
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Fred Watson is a professor of astronomy, a popular author, musician, and beloved TV and radio personality and has an asteroid named after him (5691 Fredwatson). He is also Australia’s first Astronomer-at-large which is not only a pretty impressive work title but more so a testament to all of his accomplishments over the years in the field of astronomy. It also means Fred knows better than most of us what’s at stake when talking about the issue of light pollution. In some urban areas our night sky environment has shrunk to just “a hand full of stars” due to the amount of bad light that is radiating into the atmosphere. But light pollution also has negative effects on wild life and our own health.
On this episode Fred is talking about his own involvement with dark sky tourism and the efforts for urban dark sky parks to show people the beauty of an untouched night sky environment. He also shares what can be done to stop light pollution.
Here you can find out more about Fred:
http://www.fredwatson.com.au
https://www.darkskytraveller.com.au
This is a link to the Australian Dark Sky Alliance:
https://www.australasiandarkskyalliance.org
This Episode of Talking Australia is hosted by Angela Heathcote (Digital Producer at Australian Geographic) and produced by Ben Kanthak (www.beachshackpodcasts.com).
You can also follow us on Instagram @australiangeographic
Building an Ark to protect Australia´s Wildlife: Tim Faulkner
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Tim Faulkner is well known for his passion for Australian wildlife and his conservation work with the Australian Reptile Park. He’s also a highly energetic TV personality who’s trying to save the Tasmanian devil from extinction with the “Devil Ark” protection program. Tassie devils are getting wiped out by an aggressive and infectious cancer, and trying to protect a few of them in an enclosed territory might be the only hope for their survival. Tim also talks about his fascinating life, the start of the Ark program and its huge success, which has led to its extension – using the “Ark” to protect other endangered native species. He also reveals the details of the difficult and labour-intense process of running an anti-venom program – for most of Australia´s venomous spiders and snakes – to save human lives. Tim reckons since the late 1950s the program saved roughly about 20,000 people.
For more info visit https://reptilepark.com.au
Or follow Tim on Instagram @timswildlife
This Episode of Talking Australia is hosted by Chrissie Goldrick (Editor-in-chief at Australian Geographic) and produced by Ben Kanthak (www.beachshackpodcasts.com).
You can also follow us on Instagram @australiangeographic.
Shark lady and dead set Aussie legend: Valerie Taylor
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Valerie Taylor is the Grand Madame of Australian nature filming and to this day a passionate diver and wildlife advocate. Together with her husband Ron Taylor she produced some of the most iconic nature films about sharks and other marine wildlife. From their days as professional spearfishing champions the couple became wanted experts in their field of filming and swimming with sharks. This led to Hollywood knocking on their door in the mid 70s and asking for their help in making Steven Spielberg´s breakthrough film “JAWS” – one of the most iconic, successful and genre-breaking films of all time. On this episode Valerie shares some stories of her unique life, from her childhood in New Zealand during the war to her present passionate engagement for the environment.
Make sure to check out Valerie´s latest children’s book “Melody the Mermaid”.
This episode of Talking Australia is hosted by Chrissie Goldrick (Editor-in-chief at Australian Geographic) and produced by Ben Kanthak (www.beachshackpodcasts.com).
You can also follow us on Instagram @australiangeographic.
How to handle fear and BASE jump off a cliff: Glenn Singleman (Part 2)
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Dr. Glenn Singleman has achieved so many things in his life that one might ask whether his day has more than 24 hours. He is an emergency doctor, a mountaineer, a skydiver, a record-breaking high-altitude BASE jumper and wingsuit pilot, a motivational speaker, a husband, a father and submarine medical doctor who joined both world-famous director James Cameron and businessman and explorer Victor Vescovo on their journeys to the bottom of the ocean.
He also goes trail running every morning, is a passionate vegan and has obtained several university degrees covering everything from medicine to film making.
But it all started with Glenn overcoming his fears. And he says that everyone can do the same, treating fear as a good friend rather than letting it take over and stop us from doing things we think are otherwise impossible.
Here you can find out more about Glenn:
https://www.baseclimb.com
This Episode of Talking Australia is hosted by Liz Ginis (Managing Editor Digital at Australian Geographic) and produced by Ben Kanthak (www.beachshackpodcasts.com).
You can also follow us on Instagram @australiangeographic.
