Episodes

Priya Nanjappa didn’t really have a career plan- she just followed her interests and was open to trying new things. That’s what led her to her current position as a commissioner for the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, where she helps implement laws that govern oil and gas development. We talked to Priya about…
Paula Buchanan is a disaster scientist and an emergency management researcher. Her job is to help effectively communicate the science of emergencies and natural disasters so they can empower themselves to do something- for Paula, there is no point to science if it isn’t benefitting others. In this episode, we talked to Paula about pivoting…
Dante Lauretta, Regents’ Professor of Planetary Science at the University of Arizona and the principal investigator for NASA’s OSIRIS-REx asteroid sample mission, has been working on bringing back samples from Asteroid Bennu since 2004- and he still has two more years before he might be able to touch them. We talked to Dante about the…
Wendy Bohon majored in theatre in college and moved out to LA to become an actor after graduation. So how did she end up becoming an earthquake geologist and the Senior Science Communication Specialist for the Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology?
After a summer of erratic weather and the recent IPCC report, the effects of climate change seem urgent now more than ever. Which is why we were so excited to talk to Saleh Ahmed on Sci & Tell. Saleh is a professor of Environmental Studies, Global Studies, and Public Policy at Boise State University. His…
The James Webb Space Telescope, which is the planned successor of the Hubble Space Telescope, is set to launch this October. I don’t know about you, but we here at AGU are very excited! We were lucky enough to talk to John Mather, the senior scientist for the James Webb, on our latest Sci &…
As much as Prosanta Chakrabarty loves his job as an ichthyology professor at LSU, his favorite part of the job is making human connections while doing fieldwork around the world. And whether it’s trying every single cocktail at a bar in Tanzania or trash talking bosses in Bengali to locals in Kuwait, Prosanta has made tons of great connections and memories throughout his career.
Ed Weiler only answered to one person when he was the Associate Administrator for Science at NASA Headquarters- the President of the United States. And after a decades long career in astronomy, working on everything from the Hubble telescope to the Mars program, he’s now spending his retirement playing tennis and raising a puppy.
Melissa Scruggs’s path to becoming a scientist is anything but straightforward. From getting pregnant in, and dropping out of high school, to being a single mom taking classes at a community college, to learning later in life that she has autism, Melissa has overcome a lot. But oh man is she kicking ass now as a Ph.D. candidate studying volcanology in beautiful California. We talked with Melissa about adversity, perseverance, and her dream to someday wear a certain silver suit.