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On Planets, Poetry, and Patent Law with Oliver Strimpel
And The Next Thing You Know podcast
Episode 014: Oliver Strimpel
Episode 014: Oliver Strimpel
Oliver Strimpel in the field. Photo courtesy of Oliver and Harriet Strimpel
In this episode of And The Next Thing You Know, I talk with the creator and host of the podcast Geology Bites, Oliver Strimpel.
If you’re curious about what drives plate tectonics, or about the composition of rocks and the amazing amount of information they contain about Earth’s prehistoric climates, if you’ve ever wondered what shapes a mountain ridge, or a canyon, Geology Bites is a podcast for the geoscience informed and the just curious alike!
In the episode, we talk about the path Oliver has taken from his childhood in India, marveling in the Himalayas, to his PhD work in astrophysics studying galaxy clusters.
Oliver then worked at the Science Museum in London, and parlayed that work to his move to the United States in the 1980s to direct the Computer Museum in Boston. Oliver’s career path then took a sharp turn to patent law, and we talk about how the language of patents is kind of like poetry, and helps with podcast editing, as it turns out. Through it all, Oliver is driven by genuine curiosity and joy in learning about how the cosmos works, and the ingenuity humans use to understand it.
Find Oliver’s podcast Geology Bites at geologybites.com or in your podcast app.
Continuity and correction
A note on the timing of this episode and some corrections: At the beginning of the episode, Oliver says he started his podcast “last July” and that really means July of 2020, because it was already July of 2021 when we sat down together to talk. Later on, Oliver mentions that he’s about to publish episode number 37, which was his conversation with guest, Steve D’Hondt, about 100-million-year-old bacterial colonies living in the abyssal clay at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean.
That episode of Geology Bites was also posted back in July of 2021. Geology Bites is soon to break 60 episodes. I am posting this episode of And The Next Thing You Know several months after Oliver and I sat down to talk, so the time registry between our conversation and this episode are out of sync. My apologies for the continuity confusion.
One more correction, also at the beginning of the episode, Oliver guesses that Nanga Parbat is about the “fifth or sixth” highest peak in the world; it is in fact, the ninth highest peak.
Clockwise from top: diagram of the Walk-Through Computer at the Computer Museum in Boston, 1990; An image of the surface of Mars sent to Earth by Mariner 4 in 1965 (click this photo for a fascinating description of the rendering of this image); a photo collage of the Walk-Through Computer in Boston, with Oliver Strimpel posing in front of the keyboard and monitor, 1990. All photos courtesy of Oliver Strimpel.
References we talked about in the episode
Geology Bites podcast
Zoe Strimpel’s podcast Hyped!
Mike Searle on Geology Bites
Oliver’s first guest, mentioned in the episode. Mike Searle was also featured in the 50th episode of Geology Bites in December, 2021.
Kullu Valley in India
Nanga Parbat – the 9th highest mountain on Earth at more than 8,100 m/26,600 ft
The Science Museum, London
Dan McKenzie on Geology Bites (Oliver mentions this episode and Dan’s experiments with rocks on Venus.)
A wonderfully quaint 1990 educational video about how computers work, featuring the Walk-Through Computer at the Computer Museum in Boston.
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab – a dazzling collection of information about scores of missions to every planet in the solar system.
The Mariner Mission
The Smart Machines exhibit about robotics and Artificial Intelligence (this link opens a PDF newsletter from The Computer Museum archive.)
Illustrator David Macaulay
Poets Oliver mentioned
Seamus Heaney
Philip Larkin
Ted Hughes
Geology Bites episode with Steve D’Hondt on ancient bacterial colonies
Geology Bites episode with Katie Stack Morgan on the Mars Rover and the geology of Mars
Jezero Crater on Mars
The Drake Equation
The search for life on…
Enceladus
Europa and
Titan
Donna Haraway
Patron Shout!
A rock solid thank you to (ahem) all my patrons for making this show better, whether you’re are giving me a dollar a month or $100 a month, thank you for your support! And, as always, a very special shout out to my Failure and Redemption level patrons: Amy, Barry, Bonnie, Eidell, Elyse, Heather, Jeannie, Jen, Kristina, Kurt, Lisa, Liz, Marck, Melissa, and Noah, and to my Serendipity level patrons: Brittany, Dorian, Jodi, Kristi, Laurie, Micharelle and Steve and Cyndi, thank you for making your mark on this podcast, and my heart.
Become a patron to support the podcast and get some bonus content!
patreon dot com/nextthingpod
We are And The Next Thing You Know
Our official HQ is at
nextthingpodcast dot com
where you’ll find complete transcripts and detailed show notes for every episode, all the social links and subscribe buttons, and the archive of every episode. Maybe someday, we’ll even have some fun fan schwag for ya here!
Support the show by becoming a patron!
patreon dot com/nextthingpod
Join the discussion
facebook dot com/nextthingpod
Instagram dot com/soozenextthing
Twitter dot com/soozenextthing
Say hi, give us feedback, or send us your own And The Next Thing You Know story at
nextthingpod at gmail dot com – we might use it in a future episode!
The banana peel is by Max Ronnersjö.
The theme and interstitial music is by Jon Schwartz.
View all episodes
By Suzie Sherman
4.9
3636 ratings
And The Next Thing You Know podcast
Episode 014: Oliver Strimpel
Episode 014: Oliver Strimpel
Oliver Strimpel in the field. Photo courtesy of Oliver and Harriet Strimpel
In this episode of And The Next Thing You Know, I talk with the creator and host of the podcast Geology Bites, Oliver Strimpel.
If you’re curious about what drives plate tectonics, or about the composition of rocks and the amazing amount of information they contain about Earth’s prehistoric climates, if you’ve ever wondered what shapes a mountain ridge, or a canyon, Geology Bites is a podcast for the geoscience informed and the just curious alike!
In the episode, we talk about the path Oliver has taken from his childhood in India, marveling in the Himalayas, to his PhD work in astrophysics studying galaxy clusters.
Oliver then worked at the Science Museum in London, and parlayed that work to his move to the United States in the 1980s to direct the Computer Museum in Boston. Oliver’s career path then took a sharp turn to patent law, and we talk about how the language of patents is kind of like poetry, and helps with podcast editing, as it turns out. Through it all, Oliver is driven by genuine curiosity and joy in learning about how the cosmos works, and the ingenuity humans use to understand it.
Find Oliver’s podcast Geology Bites at geologybites.com or in your podcast app.
Continuity and correction
A note on the timing of this episode and some corrections: At the beginning of the episode, Oliver says he started his podcast “last July” and that really means July of 2020, because it was already July of 2021 when we sat down together to talk. Later on, Oliver mentions that he’s about to publish episode number 37, which was his conversation with guest, Steve D’Hondt, about 100-million-year-old bacterial colonies living in the abyssal clay at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean.
That episode of Geology Bites was also posted back in July of 2021. Geology Bites is soon to break 60 episodes. I am posting this episode of And The Next Thing You Know several months after Oliver and I sat down to talk, so the time registry between our conversation and this episode are out of sync. My apologies for the continuity confusion.
One more correction, also at the beginning of the episode, Oliver guesses that Nanga Parbat is about the “fifth or sixth” highest peak in the world; it is in fact, the ninth highest peak.
Clockwise from top: diagram of the Walk-Through Computer at the Computer Museum in Boston, 1990; An image of the surface of Mars sent to Earth by Mariner 4 in 1965 (click this photo for a fascinating description of the rendering of this image); a photo collage of the Walk-Through Computer in Boston, with Oliver Strimpel posing in front of the keyboard and monitor, 1990. All photos courtesy of Oliver Strimpel.
References we talked about in the episode
Geology Bites podcast
Zoe Strimpel’s podcast Hyped!
Mike Searle on Geology Bites
Oliver’s first guest, mentioned in the episode. Mike Searle was also featured in the 50th episode of Geology Bites in December, 2021.
Kullu Valley in India
Nanga Parbat – the 9th highest mountain on Earth at more than 8,100 m/26,600 ft
The Science Museum, London
Dan McKenzie on Geology Bites (Oliver mentions this episode and Dan’s experiments with rocks on Venus.)
A wonderfully quaint 1990 educational video about how computers work, featuring the Walk-Through Computer at the Computer Museum in Boston.
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab – a dazzling collection of information about scores of missions to every planet in the solar system.
The Mariner Mission
The Smart Machines exhibit about robotics and Artificial Intelligence (this link opens a PDF newsletter from The Computer Museum archive.)
Illustrator David Macaulay
Poets Oliver mentioned
Seamus Heaney
Philip Larkin
Ted Hughes
Geology Bites episode with Steve D’Hondt on ancient bacterial colonies
Geology Bites episode with Katie Stack Morgan on the Mars Rover and the geology of Mars
Jezero Crater on Mars
The Drake Equation
The search for life on…
Enceladus
Europa and
Titan
Donna Haraway
Patron Shout!
A rock solid thank you to (ahem) all my patrons for making this show better, whether you’re are giving me a dollar a month or $100 a month, thank you for your support! And, as always, a very special shout out to my Failure and Redemption level patrons: Amy, Barry, Bonnie, Eidell, Elyse, Heather, Jeannie, Jen, Kristina, Kurt, Lisa, Liz, Marck, Melissa, and Noah, and to my Serendipity level patrons: Brittany, Dorian, Jodi, Kristi, Laurie, Micharelle and Steve and Cyndi, thank you for making your mark on this podcast, and my heart.
Become a patron to support the podcast and get some bonus content!
patreon dot com/nextthingpod
We are And The Next Thing You Know
Our official HQ is at
nextthingpodcast dot com
where you’ll find complete transcripts and detailed show notes for every episode, all the social links and subscribe buttons, and the archive of every episode. Maybe someday, we’ll even have some fun fan schwag for ya here!
Support the show by becoming a patron!
patreon dot com/nextthingpod
Join the discussion
facebook dot com/nextthingpod
Instagram dot com/soozenextthing
Twitter dot com/soozenextthing
Say hi, give us feedback, or send us your own And The Next Thing You Know story at
nextthingpod at gmail dot com – we might use it in a future episode!
The banana peel is by Max Ronnersjö.
The theme and interstitial music is by Jon Schwartz.