Seas The Day

In this first of a three episode series, Amy Buckalew reads her story of Ollie the Orca. The story explores concepts of resilience and was written as part of a Duke Engage summer program at Duke University Marine Lab. The program was run by Dr. Liz DeMattia, director of the Community Science Initiative, with the assistance of PhD student Laura Givens, who was the site coordinator for Duke Engage, in 2022. Following the 'reading', Laura interviews Amy on her experiences in the program and the logic of the story.

Seas the Day is back from a summer break! Summer at a marine lab is a busy time when many faculty and students take advantage of the weather and a break from teaching to do 'field work'. Field work is a core activity in many disciplines, sometimes described as a 'rite of passage' on the road to earning a PhD, and something many researchers look forward to throughout their careers. We asked Duke marine lab faculty, staff, and students to share their favorite (and often funniest) stories of field work. To kick off season 3 of Seas the Day , Lisa Campbell and Rafa Lobo weave together these stories of fieldwork fails and follies. Featuring Jillian Wisse, Brian Silliman, Dana Grieco, Stephanie Valdez, Matthew Godfrey, Xavier Basurto, Lisa Campbell, and Marty Smith.

For this episode of PhDeep, Becca Horan interviews Duke Marine Science and Conservation alumna and current postdoctoral fellow, Dr. Hillary Smith, to learn more about her research on gender equity in small scale fisheries and how she navigated the PhD while becoming a parent, mentoring undergrads, and facing the daunting task of dissertation writing with a buddy.

In this episode, Cat and Jingyi discuss artificial islands and their role in ocean development. They examine some of the island nations in the Pacific Ocean, such as Kiribati, that are ‘sinking’ due to sea-level-rise and explore how artificial islands might offer such places a solution to this imminent crisis.

In this episode, Lisa Campbell shares a story of sailing, science, and Sargassum. Based on a 3-day research cruise to the Sargasso Sea, the story was originally developed during a workshop with The Story Collider, a non-profit organization that “helps people of all walks of life -- from scientists to doctors to patients to engineers to teachers to firefighters -- tell their true, personal stories about science.” Not only did the workshop inspire this particular story, it motivated Lisa to think about podcasting as something she might do.

How old were you when you found out whales were mammals? It feels like an obvious fact now, but did you ever wonder who first decided to put these fish-like titans of the ocean in the same group as mice and foxes? In this episode, Brandon Gertz follows the story of how whales became mammals, from the birth of natural history over 2,000 years ago to modern genetics.

On this episode, Nora Ives sits down with faculty member Dr. Doug Nowacek to discuss his newly awarded Department of Energy funded WOW project, which stands for Wildlife and Offshore Wind. They explore some of the potential impacts of offshore wind on wildlife, mitigation measures, and goals of the WOW Project.

On this episode, Rafa Lobo introduces two new members of our team: Rebecca Horan and Junyao Gu. Junyao runs the show, exploring the ins and outs of a PhD program application process. She interviews five PhD students and our doctoral program coordinator, to learn about the biggest challenges, reasons to do it, tips for those wishing to apply, as well as some systemic inequalities inherent in the process - and how to potentially overcome them!

In this episode, former students Bo Baney, Victoria Grant, and Katie Ridgeway take on the controversial issue of wildlife poaching. Whether hunting is illegal or legal, for sport or for food, for sale or consumption, it is almost always controversial, particularly if charismatic wildlife are involved. Bo, Victoria, and Katie tackle the topic from a variety of angles, looking at history of the term ‘poaching’, changing attitudes to hunting over time, the role of social media, and the lengths to which governments and organizations will go to combat illegal practices. Part of our Conservation & Development series.

This episode features an interview with Duke Professor Martin Smith by The Doorstep, a podcast by the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs. Hosts Nikolas K. Gvosdev and Tatiana Serafin interviewed Marty in April 2021, on topics of fisheries sustainability, food security, and ocean governance generally. Their conversation ranges widely, from new policy initiatives of the Biden administration to old policy legacies of the cold war. It is 'on topic' for Seas the Day and we are grateful to The Doorstep for permission to republish it here . Regular listeners may remember Marty from episode 3 of Seas the Day, when he was interviewed by Kendall Jeffferys and Lauren Mariolis on the future of aquaculture.