The So What? Project

Earlier work traced the Altar Stone to northeast Scotland, which immediately raised an obvious question: how did a six-tonne stone travel around 700 kilometres to Stonehenge? This project grew from wanting to test whether glaciers could have done some of that work, rather than simply assuming the stone was transported entirely by people.

About Our Guest:

Dr Anthony Clarke is a Research Fellow at Curtin University’s School of Earth and Planetary Sciences and Curtin FrontierInstitute for Geoscience Solutions in Perth, Australia. His research uses the chemical and isotopic fingerprints preserved in minerals to determine where rocks and archaeological materials came from. His work has included research into the provenance of Stonehenge’s Altar Stone and other prehistoric monuments, using geology to investigate long-distance movement, human connectivity and the landscapes of the past.

Resources & Mentions:

Clarke, A. J. I., Veness, R. L. J., Kirkland, C. L., Clark, C. D., Gandy, N., Emery, A., Bradley, S. L., Ely, J. C. & Ignéczi, Á. (2026). From Highlands to Henge: Refining the Provenance and Transport Pathways of Stonehenge’s Altar Stone. Journal of Quaternary Science, 41(6), 888–895. https://doi.org/10.1002/jqs.70080

Find more about Dr. Clarke at his institution's website: https://research.curtin.edu.au/scieng/research/timescales-of-mineral-systems/

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As a book, Getting Learning Right: The Promise of Higher Education asks what higher education could become if colleges and universities organized themselves around how students actually learn. The central thesis is based on a simple idea: if colleges and universities want to fulfill their promise, they need to listen carefully to students and design institutions around how they actually learn.

About Our Guest:

Dr. Kristi Girdharry is an Associate Teaching Professor of English in the Arts & Humanities division at Babson College.

Resources & Mentions:

Dr. Girdharry and colleagues’ book, Getting Learning Right: The Promise of Higher Education, is published by The MIT Press.

Gallagher, Chris W., Kristi Girdharry, and Kevin G. Smith. Getting Learning Right: The Promise of Higher Education. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2026. https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262054201/getting-learning-right/

Find more about Dr. Girdharry at her institution's website: https://www.babson.edu/about/our-leaders-and-scholars/faculty-and-academic-divisions/faculty-profiles/kristi-girdharry.php

Enjoyed this episode? Hit follow on Spotify to stay updated with future episodes of The So What? Project. Music by Dmitrii Kolesnikov from Pixabay

Black holes are commonly thought of as cosmic vacuum cleaners from which nothing can escape. In reality, before matter crosses the event horizon, it becomes extremely hot. This hot dense matter forms an accretion disk which can blow material at very high spees before it falls into the black hole. Dr. Gorski examines the impact of supermassive black holes, including these winds, have on their host galaxies.

About Our Guest:

Dr. Mark Gorski is a Research Assistant Professor in the Center for Interdisciplinary Research in Astronomy at Northwestern University.

Resources & Mentions:

Dr. Gorski and colleagues’ paper “The Discovery of an Active Wind from the Milky Way's Central Black Hole” can be found in the journal The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

Gorski, M. D., & Murchikova, L. (2026). The Discovery of an Active Wind from the Milky Way’s Central Black Hole. The Astrophysical Journal Letters, 1004(1), L7.https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2041-8213/ae63cf/pdf

Find out more about Dr. Gorski at his website: ⁠https://sites.google.com/view/astrogorski/home

Enjoyed this episode? Hit follow on Spotify to stay updated with future episodes of The So What? Project. Music by Dmitrii Kolesnikov from Pixabay

More women than men are enrolled in and graduate from institutes of higher education, yet most financial literacy is geared toward men.  An undergraduate education is arguably the largest financial decision that a young women will have made – and probably the most significant for a long time – so addressing financial wellness is important for women’s long-term success.In this episode, Dr. Sharon Lauricella discusses her book chapter, which addresses the importance of the need for women's financial literacy as they embark on their undergraduate education.

About Our Guest:
Dr. Sharon Lauricella is a Professor in the Faculty of Social Scienceand Humanities, Fraser Faculty of Education at Ontario Tech University.  

Resources & Mentions:

• Dr. Lauricella and colleagues’ chapter is “Paying Off: How Feminist Financial Plans Can Transform Higher Education” can be found in the book Women Transforming the Future of Higher Education

• Full citation: Lauricella, S., Bourne, J., Gary, B., Gruehl, K., Banfield, D., & Rosenberg, R. (2025). Paying off: How feminist financial plans can transform higher education. In S. Lauricella, T. Moeke-Pickering, & S. Sandill (Eds.), Women Transforming the Future of Higher Education. IGI Global.

• Find out more about Dr. Lauricella at her website: https://www.sharonlauricella.com

Enjoyed this episode? Hit follow on Spotify to stay updated with future episodes of The So What? Project. Music by Dmitrii Kolesnikov from Pixabay

The So What? Project is a short-form podcast where researchers from around the world and across disciplines talk about their recent research, books, articles, and ideas in plain language.

Each episode explores what researchers discovered, what surprised them, and why their work matters beyond the university.

No lectures. No academic jargon. Just interesting research, explained by the people who did it.

Launching September 23, 2026.