All Episodes
Breaking the ice with a steam bath in rural Alaska
“I told him we have a sand dune that’s erupting in the middle of our airstrip and there was a tribal member who got stuck in a sinkhole.”
The professional life
“I feel that a lot of younger people really don’t want to be faculty and don’t want to be scientists because they feel very fed-up with the system. And I am really worried about that.”
A day in the life of a university scientist
“There’s a culture here of women, working moms, who are wanting to, outdoing each other, like, ‘Well I put the baby down at 8 but I still had to stay up until 2 in the morning to finish this grant.'”
Reflecting after a Commencement handshake
“We currently are the world leader in Arctic research. No other university, and really no other federal government around the world, does more research on the Arctic than University of Alaska Fairbanks.”
Bringing global experiences back home
“We were in Georgia, the Republic of Georgia, when they were being bombed. And all we had to eat for like six weeks straight was kasha, buckwheat.”
Growing up in a research lab
“I started working with my high school teacher who was very, very dedicated to helping me reach this goal. She used to drive me to the university where I did the research after school everyday.”
Growing a collaboration
“I think what I’ve been focusing on is how can we take something that can spill out of people in such a negative way and make it neutral?”
Caribou and bear before breakfast
“If you shoot a bear in self defense you have to take the hide and the paws and the head with you and we still had maybe two or so more weeks of floating this river.”