Time to Eat the Dogs

A podcast about science, history, and exploration. Michael Robinson interviews scientists, journalists, and adventurers about life at the extreme.

An Empire of Solitude: Isolation and the Cold War Sciences of the Mind 04/01/2024

An Empire of Solitude: Isolation and the Cold War Sciences of the Mind 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.” /episode/index/show/timetoeatthedogs/id/30631888

The Making of French Polar Exploration 08/20/2023

The Making of French Polar Exploration 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. /episode/index/show/timetoeatthedogs/id/27801468

Sovietistan 06/30/2020

Sovietistan 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. /episode/index/show/timetoeatthedogs/id/15016937

Replay: American Arctic Exploration 06/27/2020

Replay: American Arctic Exploration Al Zambone talks with me about American polar exploration, the origin of Time to Eat the Dogs, and the history of science as an academic discipline. Zambone is the host of the podcast Historically Thinking. He’s the author of Daniel Morgan: A Revolutionary Life. You can hear an extended version of this interview on the Historically Thinking podcast, available on most podcast platforms as well as online at historicallythinking.org. /episode/index/show/timetoeatthedogs/id/14984924

How to be an African Travel Writer in Africa 06/23/2020

How to be an African Travel Writer in Africa 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. /episode/index/show/timetoeatthedogs/id/14926646

Replay: The Mystery of Altitude Sickness 06/20/2020

Replay: The Mystery of Altitude Sickness Lachlan Fleetwood talks about debates about altitude sickness in the Himalaya and the ways these debates became tied up with ideas about the physiology of Europeans and Himalayans in the 1800s. Fleetwood is the author of “Bodies in High Places: Exploration, Altitude Sickness, and the Problem of Bodily Comparison in the Himalaya, 1800-50,” published in the journal Itinerario 43, no. 3 (2019): 489-515. /episode/index/show/timetoeatthedogs/id/14894579

Empires of the Sky 06/16/2020

Empires of the Sky 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.' /episode/index/show/timetoeatthedogs/id/14837867

Replay: Love, Travel, and Separation 06/13/2020

Replay: Love, Travel, and Separation Kate Hollander talks about Bertolt Brecht’s life and work. She also talks about the community of artists who were his friends, lovers, and collaborators. Hollander is a historian of modern Europe. She’s also the author of a book of poems, My German Dictionary, which was awarded the Anthony Hecht Poetry Prize by USA Poet Laureate Charles Wright. /episode/index/show/timetoeatthedogs/id/14803592

Why Did Scientists Collect the Blood of Indigenous Peoples? 06/09/2020

Why Did Scientists Collect the Blood of Indigenous Peoples? 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. /episode/index/show/timetoeatthedogs/id/14749676

Replay: Floating Coast 06/06/2020

Replay: Floating Coast Bathsheba Demuth talks about the history and exploration of the Bering Strait, from the early 1800s to the present day. Demuth is Assistant Professor of History & Environment and Society at Brown University. She’s the author of Floating Coast: An Environmental History of the Bering Strait. /episode/index/show/timetoeatthedogs/id/14716499

A History of Modern Tourism 06/02/2020

A History of Modern Tourism 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. /episode/index/show/timetoeatthedogs/id/14656481

Replay: Fifteen Million Years in Antarctica 05/30/2020

Replay: Fifteen Million Years in Antarctica Rebecca Priestley talks about her journeys to Antarctica and the process of bringing them to life in her writing. Priestley is an associate professor at the Centre for Science in Society at Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand. She is the author of Fifteen Million Years in Antarctica which was recently longlisted for the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards. /episode/index/show/timetoeatthedogs/id/14620610

A Strange Week at NASA 05/26/2020

A Strange Week at NASA Eric Berger talks about the sudden departure of Doug Loverro, the head of human space flight at NASA, only days before the agency sends astronauts into space after almost a decade. Berger is the Senior Space Editor at Ars Technica. /episode/index/show/timetoeatthedogs/id/14562443

Replay: An Update from the Hobbit Cave 05/22/2020

Replay: An Update from the Hobbit Cave Paige Madison talks about recent discoveries at the Liang Bua cave where researchers are trying to understand the complicated story of the hominin Homo Floresiensis. Madison is a PhD candidate in the history of science at Arizona State University where she also works with The Center for Biology and Society and the Institute of Human Origins. She writes about paleoanthropology at the blog Fossil History. She recently wrote about her trip for National Geographic and Scientific American. /episode/index/show/timetoeatthedogs/id/14534954

Sea Wife 05/19/2020

Sea Wife 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. /episode/index/show/timetoeatthedogs/id/14466134

Replay: China is Going to the Moon 05/16/2020

Replay: China is Going to the Moon Dr. Namrata Goswami talks about the Chinese space program and its ambitious plans for lunar exploration. Goswami is a strategic analyst on space and great power politics. She’s the author of many books and articles including Great Powers and Resource Nationalism in Space soon to be published by Lexington Press. /episode/index/show/timetoeatthedogs/id/14439575

Women in Antarctica 05/12/2020

Women in Antarctica 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. /episode/index/show/timetoeatthedogs/id/14379458

Replay: Malaria, Tonic Water, and Empire 05/09/2020

Replay: Malaria, Tonic Water, and Empire Kim Walker talks about the history and science of cinchona bark as a tonic, medicine, and mixer. Walker is a biocultural historian completing her PhD work on the Cinchona Bark Collection at Kew Gardens. She’s the co-author (along with Mark Nesbitt) of Just The Tonic: A Natural History of Tonic Water. /episode/index/show/timetoeatthedogs/id/14342573

Pacific Exploration, Botany, and Revolution 05/05/2020

Pacific Exploration, Botany, and Revolution 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. He’s the author of “Publishing Nature in the Age of Revolutions: Joseph Banks, Georg Forster, and the Plants of the Pacific.” /episode/index/show/timetoeatthedogs/id/14290892

Replay: Hawaiian Exploration of the World 05/02/2020

Replay: Hawaiian Exploration of the World David Chang talks about the history of indigenous Hawaiians (Kanaka Maoli) as explorers and geographers of the world. Chang is a professor of history at the University of Minnesota. He’s the author of The World and All the Things upon It: Native Hawaiian Geographies of Exploration. /episode/index/show/timetoeatthedogs/id/14246636

The Lost White Tribe 04/28/2020

The Lost White Tribe Babak Ashrafi and Jessica Linker talk to me about my book The Lost White Tribe: Explorers, Scientists, and the Theory that Changed a Continent. Ashrafi and Linker produced this interview for the Consortium for the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine. You can find many podcasts, video lectures, and other materials at the Consortium website CHSTM.org. Thanks to Tyler Putman, Mathilde Leduc-Grimaldi, and Nicholas Barron for contributing questions to the interview. /episode/index/show/timetoeatthedogs/id/14180762

Replay: How NASA Plans Big Missions 04/25/2020

Replay: How NASA Plans Big Missions Glen Asner and Stephen Garber talk about NASA’s efforts to plan ambitious missions in the face of huge political and financial challenges. Asner is the Deputy Chief Historian for the Historical Office, Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD). Garber works in the NASA History Division at NASA Headquarters. They are the authors of Origins of 21st-Century Space Travel: A History of NASA’s Decadal Planning Team and the Vision for Space Exploration, 1999–2004. /episode/index/show/timetoeatthedogs/id/14137904

Neptune's Laboratory 04/21/2020

Neptune's Laboratory Antony Adler talks about the history of ocean science in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Adler is a Research Associate in the History Department at Carleton College. He’s the author of Neptune’s Laboratory: Fantasy, Fear, and Science at Sea. /episode/index/show/timetoeatthedogs/id/14073827

Replay: How George Putnam's Arctic Expedition Got into Trouble 04/18/2020

Replay: How George Putnam's Arctic Expedition Got into Trouble Tina Adcock talks about the controversy over George Putnam's Baffin Land expedition and why it tells a bigger story about the changing culture of exploration in the 1920s. Adcock is an assistant professor of history at Simon Fraser University. She’s the author of the essay “Scientist Tourist Sportsman Spy: Boundary-Work and the Putnam Eastern Arctic Expeditions” which was published in the edited collection Made Modern: Science and Technology in Canadian History, edited by Adcock and Edward Jones-Imhot /episode/index/show/timetoeatthedogs/id/14038184

'Ruling the Savage Periphery' 04/14/2020

'Ruling the Savage Periphery' Benjamin Hopkins talks about the concept of the frontier: how it exists not merely as a place on a map but as a set of practices used by colonial states around the world. Hopkins is an associate professor of history at George Washington University. He’s the author of Ruling the Savage Periphery: Frontier Governance and the Making of the Modern State. /episode/index/show/timetoeatthedogs/id/13977440

Replay: Searching for Life Beyond Earth 04/11/2020

Replay: Searching for Life Beyond Earth Claire Isabel Webb talks about the search for extraterrestrial life and the different strategies used by astronomers and exobiologists to look for it. Webb is a PhD candidate at MIT's History, Anthropology, Science, Technology, and Society Program. Her dissertation project, “Technologies of Perception: The Search for Life and Intelligence Beyond Earth” won the HSS/NASA Fellowship in Aerospace History. /episode/index/show/timetoeatthedogs/id/13942472

American Arctic Exploration 04/07/2020

American Arctic Exploration Al Zambone talks with me about American polar exploration, the origin of Time to Eat the Dogs, and the history of science as an academic discipline. Zambone is the host of the podcast Historically Thinking. He’s the author of Daniel Morgan: A Revolutionary Life. You can hear an extended version of this interview on the Historically Thinking podcast, available on most podcast platforms as well as online at historicallythinking.org. /episode/index/show/timetoeatthedogs/id/13880063

Replay: Assembling the Dinosaur 04/03/2020

Replay: Assembling the Dinosaur Lukas Rieppel talks about dinosaur fossils in the Gilded Age – from the discovery and excavation of fossils in the American West to the re-construction of fabulous creatures in museums that were the darlings of wealthy philanthropists. Rieppel is an assistant professor of history at Brown University. He’s the author of Assembling the Dinosaur: Fossil Hunters, Tycoons, and the Making of a Spectacle. /episode/index/show/timetoeatthedogs/id/13837631

Replay: Jessica Nabongo is Traveling to Every Country in the World 03/31/2020

Replay: Jessica Nabongo is Traveling to Every Country in the World Annette Joseph-Gabriel speaks to Jessica Nabongo about her quest to be the first black woman to travel to all of the countries of the world. Joseph-Gabriel is an Assistant Professor of French and Francophone Studies at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Nabongo is a writer, entrepreneur, and the founder of Jet Black, a boutique luxury travel company that promotes tourism to Africa, the Caribbean, and Central and South America. /episode/index/show/timetoeatthedogs/id/13788746

Replay: Starlink is Blanketing the Earth with Satellites 03/28/2020

Replay: Starlink is Blanketing the Earth with Satellites Lisa Ruth Rand talks about the Starlink satellite program. She also talks about Project West Ford, which attempted to create an artificial ionosphere in 1961 by launching millions of copper needles into orbit. Rand is the Haas Postdoctoral Fellow at the Science History Institute in Philadelphia. Her op-ed on Starlink and Project West Ford appeared in the July 8th 2019 edition of Scientific American. /episode/index/show/timetoeatthedogs/id/13736150

Time to Eat the Dogs

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