South Pole | Antarctic Science & Polar Exploration

Elephant seals collect data beneath the Southern Ocean. Dr. Clive McMahon explains how researchers equip southern elephant seals with miniature conductivity, temperature, and depth sensors. As the seals dive and travel through remote waters that are difficult to observe, especially during winter, the animal-borne sensors collect information about temperature, salinity, depth, and ocean productivity before transmitting observations ...

Jackie Ronne changed who could explore Antarctica. Polar historian Dr. Joanna Kafarowski recounts how Ronne joined the Ronne Antarctic Research Expedition in 1947 as a full expedition member and became one of the first two women to overwinter on the continent. The episode follows her journey from the National Geographic Society to Antarctica, where male expedition members initially signed a petition opposing the women’s parti...

The Antarctic Treaty turned rivalry into cooperation. Political and environmental philosopher Dr. Alejandra Mancilla traces how overlapping territorial claims, international tensions, and the Cold War led twelve countries to sign the Antarctic Treaty in 1959. The resulting Antarctic Treaty System set the continent aside for peaceful purposes and international scientific cooperation while effectively freezing competing territorial c...

Pine Forest Media is proud to present Oceanography, a new podcast hosted by South Pole creator Clark Marchese. This weekly series explores the science and global cooperation needed to protect our oceans.

With guests ranging from marine biologists and oceanographers to UN policymakers and community organizers, the show connects science with society—diving into topics like whale communication, bioluminescent species, deep-se...

Women are written across the map of Antarctica. Researcher and writer Carol Devine connects two projects exploring polar history and environmental stewardship. Mapping Antarctic Women traces place names honoring queens, sponsors, family members, scientists, explorers, and other women whose stories are embedded in the continent’s geography. Devine also recounts Cleanup Project Antarctica, a 1990s initiative in which volunteer ...

Antarctic soil offers a preview of a warmer continent. Geomorphologist and planetary scientist Dr. Joe Levy takes listeners into the McMurdo Dry Valleys, where water, ice, salt, microbes, and sediment interact in one of Earth’s coldest deserts. Learn how Antarctic soil forms, why seasonal water tracks resemble miniature wetlands, and what permafrost thaw and summer melting could mean for a greening Antarctica. Levy also expla...

Antarctica is not as silent as it first appears. Musicologist and Antarctic studies scholar Dr. Carolyn Philpott explores how sound, silence, and music shape the ways people experience and imagine the continent. From songs performed during early polar expeditions and Vaughan Williams’s Antarctic film music to field recordings, iceberg cracks, wildlife, and modern soundscape compositions, the episode reveals Antarctica’s...

A legal movement wants Antarctica to have rights. Environmental lawyer Cormac Cullinan introduces Earth jurisprudence, the rights of nature, and the Antarctic Rights initiative. What would change if Antarctica could be represented in legal and political decisions, and if governments were required to consider the continent’s own interests? The conversation examines potential representatives, enforcement, examples from other ri...

Ancient air survives inside Antarctic ice cores. Antarctic climate scientist Dr. Tas van Ommen explains how compacted layers of snow preserve atmospheric gases, dust, volcanic sulphur, and water isotopes, creating a continuous climate record reaching back about 800,000 years. Hear what it takes to drill ice cores kilometres below the Antarctic surface, why researchers are searching for a continuous million-year ice core, and how an...

Antarctic krill connects wildlife, fishing, and policy. Marine biologist Dr. Javier Arata explains how a tiny crustacean supports penguins, seals, whales, and entire Southern Ocean ecosystems while also sustaining a commercial fishery. Drawing on his experience with scientific observation, fisheries management, CCAMLR, and the Association of Responsible Krill Harvesting Companies, Arata shows where science, industry, and internatio...

Squid beaks can reveal an entire Antarctic food web. Marine ecologist Dr. José Xavier explains how researchers use squid beak identification and predator diets to trace the relationships connecting penguins, squid, krill, and other Antarctic wildlife. The conversation explores Southern Ocean biodiversity, the identification of ecological hotspots, and how climate change could alter the length and stability of Antarctic food webs. I...

Satellites found fewer Weddell seals than expected. Dr. Michelle LaRue explains how satellite wildlife monitoring is transforming the study of Antarctic wildlife, including Weddell seals and emperor penguins. Through the Satellites Over Seals citizen science project, roughly 300,000 volunteers helped researchers estimate about 202,000 female Weddell seals, substantially fewer than an earlier estimate. Importantly, that difference d...

Antarctic ice holds 57 metres of sea level rise potential. That figure represents the theoretical effect of melting the entire Antarctic ice sheet, not a near-term prediction. Ice sheet modeler Dr. Heiko Goelzer explains the differences between ice sheets, ice shelves, sea ice, and icebergs before unpacking how researchers model ice sheet dynamics. Learn how field observations, satellite data, mass balance, climate scenarios, and t...

Lincoln Ellsworth crossed Antarctica by air in 1935. Yet the explorer behind this landmark achievement nearly disappeared from polar history. Jeff Maynard, author of Antarctica’s Lost Aviator, reconstructs Ellsworth’s repeated failed attempts, his successful flight with Canadian pilot Herbert Hollick-Kenyon, and the records preserved by fellow explorer Sir Hubert Wilkins. The conversation also examines Ellsworth’s...

Seal lice survive underwater with their diving hosts. Parasitologist Dr. Soledad Leonardi explores the coevolution of seals, sea lions, and the blood-feeding lice that followed them from land into the ocean. Learn how these rare marine insects endure cold, salinity, low oxygen, and pressure, synchronize reproduction with their hosts, and remain attached during molting and dives. The conversation also examines whether seal lice coul...

IceCube turns Antarctic ice into a cosmic detector. Astrophysicist Dr. Jim Madsen explains how the IceCube Neutrino Observatory uses instruments embedded deep in South Pole ice to study nearly invisible particles arriving from space. Learn the difference between astronomy and astrophysics, what neutrinos and cosmic rays are, and why Antarctica offers conditions for research that cannot be reproduced elsewhere. The conversation also...

Avian influenza has reached Antarctic wildlife. Wildlife disease specialist Dr. Meagan Dewar explains how highly pathogenic avian influenza, or HPAI, spread through wild bird populations and eventually reached Antarctica and the sub-Antarctic. Learn how the virus moves through respiratory droplets, contaminated environments, scavenging, and migration, and why it can also infect mammals. The conversation examines risks to penguins, ...

Stories have shaped how the world imagines Antarctica. Literature scholar Dr. Elizabeth Leane joins Clark Marchese to explore how novels, poetry, film, and expedition narratives create public ideas about a continent most people will never see. From Gothic fiction and heroic exploration stories to science fiction and contemporary environmental writing, the episode examines portrayals of Antarctica as sublime, hostile, empty, or vuln...

Antarctic fish evolved to survive below freezing. Marine biologist Dr. Jilda Alicia Caccavo introduces the pelagic notothenioids, the fish group that dominates much of the Antarctic continental shelf. Learn how antifreeze proteins keep their blood from freezing, why some icefish have white blood, and how Antarctic and Patagonian toothfish differ. Dr. Caccavo also explains climate genomics, the use of genetic data to study how popul...