Not long ago I got a request from a young student to do an episode on the Podcast about roly polies, which happened to be this student’s favorite animal in the universe—his words. So, I did. And that kicked off a flurry of other requests, which I dutifully fulfilled.

This episode is the result of a request from a junior high student who wanted to know about the field of geology. So, I started to do some research on the topic, and after about 30 minutes of digging, I had an epiphany, which caused me to go stand in front of a mirror and slap myself a few times for being an idiot. My Dad is a retired hard rock geologist, so rather than research the field, I decided to go straight to the horse’s mouth, as it were, and ask him. So, in this episode, I’d like to introduce you to my dad, Bob Shepard. I asked him to share his story with me, as a way to answer the question that came in from Andrea in Oklahoma City. So, without further ado, here’s my dad!