The Sci'more Podcast

Join us as we discuss light pollution in Baltimore and its effects on birds, bugs, and even you with Lights Out Baltimore and Dr. Clint Francis from the California Polytechnic State University. We’ll be touching on what light pollution in Baltimore looks like and how it impacts our local wildlife, namely the birds that migrate through the mid-Atlantic each year. Then, we’ll learn more about how light pollution is studied by researchers and gain more insight on the human health aspect of it before wrapping up with simple and easy ways you can help cut down on light pollution.

---

We rely on listeners like you to ask us questions! Submit any questions you have at: https://anchor.fm/scimore, call us at 443-776-1282, or message us on Twitter (@ScimoreP), Instagram (@scimore_podcast), or Facebook (@scimorepodcast).

Follow our social media to stay up-to-date on the latest episode releases!

Links

http://www.lightsoutbaltimore.org/

https://francisecologylab.wixsite.com/francislab

---

Credits

Music: ‘Lucky Massive Dangerous’ by Speck

Editing: Yun-Fei Liu

Intro & Outro: Chris Seong Yeol An and Niki Gooya

Interviewers: Chris Seong Yeol An and Niki Gooya

Interviewees: Lindsay Jacks and Clint Francis

With help from other members of the Sci’more podcast team!

On this episode of the Sci’more podcast, Dr. Megan Latshaw, from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and Samuel Jordan, president of the Baltimore Transit Equity Coalition, join us to share their thoughts on how a data-driven approach could bring a more equitable future to public transit in Baltimore. We discuss the current state of the transit system, its roots in Baltimore’s segregated history, and steering away from car culture. We also delve into the potential benefits of better transit on social mobility, the economy, and environmental and public health, how research and data can help guide where and how investments should be made, and the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on transit.

—--

We rely on listeners like you to ask us questions! Submit any questions you have at: https://anchor.fm/scimore, call us at 443-776-1282, or message us on Twitter (@ScimoreP), Instagram (@scimore_podcast) or Facebook (@scimorepodcast).

Follow our social media to stay up-to-date on the latest episode releases!

Links

Transit equity and environmental health report involving Johns Hopkins and BTEC  (article contains link to report pdf): bit.ly/baltimoretransitequity

Ways to get involved

https://www.moretransitequity.com/take-action/

https://actionnetwork.org/letters/more-equitable-transit-in-md

BTEC, the Red Line Light Rail project

https://www.moretransitequity.com/

https://www.jhunewsletter.com/article/2021/10/baltimore-transit-equity-coalition-aims-for-completion-of-red-line

Racial segregation in Baltimore, and redlining

https://www.baltimoresun.com/citypaper/bcpnews-two-baltimores-the-white-l-vs-the-black-butterfly-20160628-htmlstory.html

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/04/29/the-long-painful-and-repetitive-history-of-how-baltimore-became-baltimore/

https://blogs.library.jhu.edu/2017/09/the-baltimore-redlining-map-ranking-neighborhoods/

Fund for Educational Excellence Report on inadequate transit as a barrier to education (“Not in Service”) - https://ffee.org/not-in-service/

APTA report on public transit and COVID: https://www.apta.com/research-technical-resources/research-reports/public-transit-and-covid-19-pandemic-global-research-and-best-practices/

Music: ‘Lucky Massive Dangerous’ by Speck

Host: Steven Jerjian

Intro, Outro, & Editing: Varun Chokshi, Steven Jerjian

With help from: Michael Xie, Emily Han, Yun-Fei Liu, Camille Jaime

Happy holidays, B'more! We bring you another deep dive with an episode on sound and a very important sense for the members of our audience-- hearing. A Ph.D. candidate at Johns Hopkins shares her experiences with investigating the mysteries of sound waves and why we should be thankful this holiday season for our cochleas! (Please note: The interviewee discusses the controversial use of animals in scientific research, and thus has asked to remain anonymous. Please submit any questions or concerns to the Sci'more Podcast.)

This week on the Sci'more podcast, Harbor Waterkeeper Alice Volpitta from Blue Water Baltimore joins us to talk about recent water quality concerns with the rivers that are flowing into the Chesapeake Bay, specifically at the Patapsco and Back River Wastewater Treatment Plants. We talk about how they came to discover this worrisome issue, what this means for the future of Chesapeake Bay, and what we can all do to help keep the Baltimore Harbor waters clean of pollution.

------

2021 is truly an exciting year for baseball! With incredible players such as Shohei Ohtani, Fernando Tatis Jr., and so many more, everyone's attention is on baseball right now. With the playoffs coming up so soon, there is going to be a big battle between the pitchers and the hitters. Hitters swinging their bats at a breaking ball curving, dropping, and deceiving the hitters - and strike out! 

Have you ever wondered how pitchers can throw these breaking balls? This week on the Sci'more podcast, Professor of Physics Dr. John Eric Goff joins us to talk about the science behind baseball. We talk about how pitchers can throw crazy pitchers, what affects the number of home runs at different stadiums, and how science can and have helped baseball.

------

We rely on listeners like you to ask us questions!

Submit any questions you have at: https://anchor.fm/scimore, call us at 443-776-1282, or messages us on Twitter (@ScimoreP), Instagram (@scimore_podcast) or Facebook (@scimorepodcast).

Follow our social media to stay up-to-date on the latest episode releases!

------

Useful information:

Dr. Goff's blog

Dr. Goff's recent work on the Wall Street Journal (about Simone Biles)

------

Music: "Lucky Massive Dangerous" by Speck

Editing: Yun-Fei Liu

Intro & Outro: Michael Dryzer

Interviewer: Chris Seong Yeol An

With help from: Emily Han, Sebastian Markert, Michael Xie, and Ashton Omdahl

During the pandemic, many of us find ourselves spending more time outdoors in nature. Baltimore City is home to many beautiful and unique gardens, and one of the community favorites is Sherwood Gardens. In this episode, we chatted with Baltimore’s local historian and garden enthusiast, Ann Giroux, about tulips, urban green spaces, the social life of trees and more.

We rely on listeners like you to ask us questions! Submit any questions you have at: https://anchor.fm/scimore, call us at 443-776-1282, or message us on Twitter (@ScimoreP), Instagram (@scimore_podcast) or Facebook (@scimorepodcast).

Follow our social media to stay up-to-date on the latest episode releases!

Useful links:

Ann’s website http://anngiroux.com/

‘The Social Life of Forests’ https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/06/podcasts/the-daily/tree-communication-suzanne-simard.html

10 Glamorous Gardens in Baltimore

https://www.lawnstarter.com/blog/maryland/baltimore/10-glamorous-gardens-in-baltimore-md/

Music: ‘Lucky Massive Dangerous’ by Speck

Host and Editing: Emily Han

Produced by: Emily Han, Yun-Fei Liu, Ashton Omdahl

With help from: Christopher An, Michael Dryzer, Michael Xie, Sebastian Markert

The crab season is here! If you are a Baltimore resident, you might have enjoyed dozens of our famous blue crabs, perhaps dozens of dozens every year. If you are new to Baltimore, you must have been encouraged to try them. Blue crabs are indeed tasty, but other than their nice savor, what do we know about them? This week on Sci'more podcast, crab biologist Shaun Miller from the Maryland Department of Natural Resources (Twitter: @MarylandDNR) and Maryland fishery scientist Dr. Allison Colden from the Chesapeake Bay Foundation (Twitter: @chesapeakebay) shares with us fun facts about blue crabs, what we can do to preserve them (so that, well, we can enjoy them with our children and grandchildren), and a concerning tale of a lone blue crab recently found in Ireland.

------

We rely on listeners like you to ask us questions!

Submit any questions you have at: https://anchor.fm/scimore, call us at 443-776-1282, or messages us on Twitter (@ScimoreP), Instagram (@scimore_podcast) or Facebook (@scimorepodcast).

Follow our social media to stay up-to-date on the latest episode releases!

------

Useful information:

The website of Chesapeake Bay Foundation

------

Music: "Lucky Massive Dangerous" by Speck

Editing: Yun-Fei Liu

Intro & Outro: Yun-Fei Liu

Interviewers: Sebastian Markert and Michael Xie

With help from: Chris Seong Yeol An, Michael Dryzer, Emily Han, and Ashton Omdahl

If you’ve been anywhere outside around Baltimore over the past few weeks, you’ve probably seen or heard the summer cicadas. This year is special for cicadas, as the Brood X of periodical cicadas have emerged en mass in some regions of the eastern United States after 17 years of underground living. In this episode, we discuss why the cicadas are emerging now and what they are doing. Food policy expert Dr. Jess Fanzo (twitter: @jessfanzo) shares with us why some people even try cooking up and eating these insects and why our food choices matter (and even how you might cook up some cicadas yourself)!

We rely on listeners like you to ask us questions!

Submit any questions you have at: https://anchor.fm/scimore, call us at 443-776-1282, or messages us on Twitter (@ScimoreP), Instagram (@scimore_podcast) or Facebook (@scimorepodcast).

Follow our social media to stay up-to-date on the latest episode releases!

Useful links:

Dr. Fanzo on WMAR Baltimore: https://www.wmar2news.com/news/local-news/why-eating-cicadas-is-good-for-you-and-good-for-the-environment

A free cicada cookbook: http://www.tullabs.com/cicadaworld/cicadarecipes.pdf

Music: ‘Lucky Massive Dangerous’ by Speck

Editing: Yun-Fei Liu

Intro: Chris Seong Yeol An

Interviewers: Ashton Omdahl and Yun-Fei Liu

Outro: Chris Seong Yeol An

With help from: Michael Dryzer, Emily Han, Sebastian Markert, and Michael Xie

Have you walked out to a nearby lake, river, or the harbor and saw garbage floating on the water? Have you ever seen plastic water bottles and plastic bags on the ground at a nearby park? Why should we care about plastic waste? Should we worry about using plastic bags when we get a takeout from our favourite restaurant, or when we go to a grocery store? In this special Earth Day episode of the Sci'more Podcast, we speak with Laura Bankey, Vice President of Conservation Programs at the National Aquarium in Baltimore. 

If you ever been to the National Aquarium here in Baltimore and ever wondered what they do (other than house beautiful animals of course), also come and check out this episode!

We rely on listeners like you to ask us questions!

Submit any questions you have at: https://anchor.fm/scimore or call 443-776-1282.

Follow us on Twitter or Facebook @projbridge

Useful links:

Laura's Profile: https://aqua.org/about/our-people/laura-bankey

National Aquarium Conservations: https://aqua.org/support/conservation

City Nature Challenge: https://citynaturechallenge.org/ join at the end of April!

Music: ‘Lucky Massive Dangerous’ by Speck

Editing: Yun-Fei Liu

Intro: Chris Seong Yeol An

Interviewers: Chris Seong Yeol An

Outro: Chris Seong Yeol An

With help from: Michael Dryzer, Emily Han, Ashton Omdahl, Sebastian Markert, and Michael Xie

From the early stages of the pandemic, the world has looked to the COVID-19 dashboard produced by Johns Hopkins University as a guide for tracking the spread of the novel coronavirus. Maps have always been important to epidemiology and the containment of contagious disease, but the JHU dashboard has been lauded for its accessibility and accuracy, with Time Magazine naming it as one of the best inventions of 2020. But, where does the data presented by the dashboard come from? How can we trust it? And how might we build from it to track, and hopefully mitigate, the spread of future pathogens? In this episode of the Sci'more Podcast, we discuss the answers to these questions and more with Dr. Amesh Adalja, an expert in epidemiology from the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security.

We rely on listeners like you to ask us questions!

Submit any questions you have at: https://anchor.fm/scimore or call 443-776-1282.

Follow us on Twitter or Facebook @projbridge

Useful links:

Dr. Adalja's Twitter: @AmeshAA

Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists: https://www.cste.org/

Music: ‘Lucky Massive Dangerous’ by Speck

Editing: Yun-Fei Liu

Intro: Sebastian Markert

Interviewers: Michael Dryzer and Emily Han

Outro: Michael Dryzer

With help from: Christopher An, Ashton Omdahl, and Michael Xie