Plant Kingdom

Astrobiologist and science communicator Dr Luke Steller journeys deep into the primordial soup to discuss the enigma of Earth’s first life. In our conversation, we discuss what early life could have looked like 3 billion years ago, how scientists read the fossil and rock record, and what life might look like elsewhere in our universe.

Bio:

Dr. Luke Steller is a researcher in the field of astrobiology, the study of how life began on Earth and where it might exist elsewhere in the universe. His research consists of exploring the ancient hot springs of the Pilbara region in Western Australia, on Nyamal Country, where some of the oldest evidence for life on Earth are found. By studying the ancient environment in which this early life was found and conducting experiments that simulate early Earth conditions, Luke explores how simple chemical systems, like RNA and proto-cells, could have evolved into life. He has a PhD in geology from the University of New South Wales.

Hosted and produced by Catherine Polcz with music by Carl Didur.

Dr Eddie Game is the Lead Scientist & Director of Conservation for The Nature Conservancy’s Asia Pacific region. In our conversation, he discusses conservation as a collaboration with community, and his pioneering works into acoustic ecology – the study of the biology of natural soundscapes. He shares his field work in Papua New Guinea and Borneo, what a healthy jungle sounds like, and what it’s like waking up to the calls of gibbons.

Bio:

Eddie Game is the Lead Scientist & Director of Conservation for The Nature Conservancy’s Asia Pacific region, responsible for ensuring that the Conservancy remains a world leader in making science-based conservation decisions. He has had the privilege of working on conservation in over 20 countries. Eddie and his team have been enthusiastic adopters of ecoacoustics, developing partnerships that bring together cutting-edge academic research with real-world applications in countries including, Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, Myanmar, Australia, and Gabon. He has published more than 75 papers on aspects of conservation science and climate change, alongside his book Conservation Planning: Informed Decisions for a Healthier Planet, co-authored with Craig Groves.

Hosted and produced by Catherine Polcz with music by Carl Didur.

Additional Sound Credits:

Borneo Jungle - Day by RTB45 -- https://freesound.org/s/253291/ -- License: Attribution 4.0; Gibbons-Kao Yai National Park.wav by RTB45 -- https://freesound.org/s/147958/ -- License: Attribution 4.0; bat.wav by tomschuetz -- https://freesound.org/s/635147/ -- License: Attribution NonCommercial 4.0 ; 210504 American Robin, dawn song close, roof, urban residential, TORONTO 5am.wav by TRP -- https://freesound.org/s/616969/ -- License: Creative Commons 0; Scpsea (Scp Xqy18) Blowing by ShangASDFGuy123 -- https://freesound.org/s/712560/ -- License: Creative Commons 0

Associate Professor Dr Jenny Mortimer discusses plants as a technology, and how she applies genetic engineering as a tool to solve wicked problems of sustainability in agricultural and pharmaceutical production. Her lab uses synthetic biology to develop new crops in controlled growth environments – including plants for space settlement as part of the newly formed ARC Centre of Excellence in Plants for Space.

BIO:

Jenny Mortimer is Associate Professor of Plant Synthetic Biology in the School of Agriculture, Food and Wine at the University of Adelaide. She is also an Affiliate Staff Scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. After completing her PhD at Cambridge University, she began exploring how engineering the plant cell wall could deliver sustainable and economically viable biofuels. At Adelaide, her group is using synthetic biology to develop new crops for food and materials production in controlled growth environments – including for Space settlement, as part of the newly formed ARC Centre of Excellence Plants for Space (P4S). She is active in outreach and education, and collaborates with  media, schools and museums. She is a handling editor for the prestigious journals Plant Cell Physiology and The Plant Journal.

Plant Kingdom is hosted and produced by Catherine Polcz with music by Carl Didur.

Climate change biologist Dr Sharon Robinson takes us thousands of kilometres across the Southern Ocean to Casey Station, Antarctica. She is an expert on Antarctica’s ancient moss beds, which she describes as ‘miniature old growth forests’. In our conversation, we spoke about the adaptations that enable moss to thrive in some of the harshest environments on earth, and the impact of historic ozone depletion and climate change on these fragile ecosystems.

Bio:

Dr Sharon Robinson is a Climate Change Biologist at the University of Wollongong, Australia. An expert on Antarctic moss, she first visited East Antarctica in 1996 and has been on 12 expeditions to Antarctica with the Australian and Chilean National Antarctic Programs. Her research characterizes the impact of anthropogenic change including ozone depletion and climate change on fragile moss ecosystems. She is a member and lead author of the UN Environment Programme, Environmental Effects Assessment Panel; and a Faculty Member of Homeward Bound, helping to create a global network of women with a background in STEMM leading and solving our world’s greatest challenges. She is a 2024 Australian Laureate Fellow and Deputy Director of Securing Antarctica’s Environmental Future.

Plant Kingdom is hosted and produced by Catherine Polcz with music by Carl Didur.

Translator, author and academic Dr Jon Pitt discusses his work in critical plant studies and the representation of plants throughout Japanese literature and media. He shares the joys of his recent translation of the work Tree Spirits Grass Spirits by acclaimed Japanese poet Hiromi Ito, and delves into what we can gain from becoming botanical – or thinking like a plant.

Bio:

Jon L Pitt is Assistant Professor of Japanese Environmental Humanities at the University of California, Irvine. He situates his work at the intersection of Japanese literary and media studies and critical plant studies. He is the translator of poet Hiromi Ito's Tree Spirits Grass Spirits (Nightboat Books, 2013). His first monograph is forthcoming from Cornell University Press. Selected publications include "Documenting Wordless Testimony: Botanical Witnesses of Hiroshima and Chernobyl" in the journal Angelaki, "Becoming Marimo: The Curious Case of a Charismatic Algae and Imagined Indigeneity" in the collected volume Being Algae: Transformations in Water, Plants (Brill, 2024), and "Of Miracles and Mourning: Reading COVID-19 Environmentally in Uchidate Makiko and Ito Seiko" in The Coronavirus Pandemic in Japanese Literature and Popular Culture (Routledge, 2023).

Plant Kingdom is hosted and produced by Catherine Polcz with music by Carl Didur.

Botanist and curator Åsa Krüger discusses her practice in connecting audiences with plants and shares behind the scenes stories from the Gothenburg Botanical Garden, Sweden. Investigating the role of botanical gardens in the modern world, she shares how the living collection is engaged in active research and conservation, and the importance of putting names to the living world around us.

Bio:

Dr Åsa Krüger is a curator at the Gothenburg Botanical Garden, Sweden. During her PhD, Åsa studied the phylogeny, biogeography and evolutionary history of plants in the coffee family (Rubiaceae), focusing on species in Madagascar. During her PhD, she was introduced to the world of botanical gardens and she divided her time between research and the Bergius Botanical Garden in Stockholm, Sweden. Since moving to the Gothenburg Botanical Garden, her focus has been on outreach, teaching and curating the tropical collections. She is the host of the podcast Botaniska trädgårds podden and in 2024 she was the recipient of the Marsh Award for Education in Botanic Gardens.

Plant Kingdom is hosted and produced by Catherine Polcz with music by Carl Didur.

Gamilaroi astrophysicist Karlie Noon dismantles sketchy ambitions to colonize the moon, asteroids and space. Grounded in indigenous sky sovereignty, she presents another way of knowing and caring for the solar system, Milky Way and universe. She shares her knowledge of moon formation, the growing discipline of space environmentalism, her research into the dynamics of the The Milky Way and all we can learn from Sky Country.

Bio:

Karlie Noon is a Gamilaroi astrophysicist and author with over a decade’s worth of experience in science communication and advocating for Indigenous astronomical knowledge systems. She is the co-author of the award-winning book Astronomy: Sky Country, which was awarded the Victorian Premier's Literary Awards 2023 People's Choice Awards. She is currently undertaking a PhD in astrophysics at the Australian National University where she researches the chemical and dynamic characteristics of the Milky Way.

This conversation is hosted and produced by Catherine Polcz with music by Carl Didur.

Plant biologist Dr Grace Fleming dissects the secret life of seeds. In a conversation covering everything from seed vaults to space seed trials, she examines the mechanisms of seed dormancy and how seeds sense and interact with their environment.

Bio:

Dr Grace Fleming is an Assistant Professor in Plant Biology at Michigan State University in East Lansing. Her work examines the physiological underpinning of seed dormancy and responses to varying environmental conditions, with a high priority placed on identifying and validating genetic and physiological factors contributing to seed longevity in the soil seed bank. Her research on the underlying mechanisms of seed death, viability and germination has applications in diverse areas including crop cultivation, weed management, and gene bank storage.

This conversation is hosted and produced by Catherine Polcz with music by Carl Didur.

Micropaleontologist Dr Francine McCarthy goes deep into the sediments of Crawford Lake, a small and unassuming lake in the Niagara Escarpment town of Milton, Ontario. In 2023, Dr McCarthy led a team that identified Crawford Lake as the best location on earth that captured evidence of human caused planetary change. Endorsed by the Anthropocene Working Group, It was proposed as the best ‘golden spike’ site of the Anthropocene. Dr McCarthy shares how she first encountered the lake, her research on microscopic organisms of the Great Lakes Region, and personal reflections on the Anthropocene.

Bio:

Dr Francine McCarthy is a professor of Earth Sciences at Brock University in St. Catharines, Ontario. She is a micropaleontologist who reconstructs paleoenvironments through careful analysis of small organisms fossilized in lake sediments. Her research has spanned small lake to marine environments and everything in between. She has worked around the world but primarily focuses in the Great Lakes Region of Canada. Her interdisciplinary research has been conducted in collaboration with several geologists, biologists, geographers, and archaeologists from government, university, and the private sector.

This conversation is hosted and produced by Catherine Polcz with Music by Carl Didur.

Micronesian marine botanist and ocean advocate Dr Nicole Yamase meditates on the Pacific with a conversation spanning Hawaiian seaweeds, snorkelling across the Federated States of Micronesia and her submersible expedition to the Mariana trench. She generously shares her cultural perspective as a Micronesian scientist and discusses what lessons she’s learned from the sea.

Bio:

Dr. Nicole Yamase is from the islands of Pohnpei and Chuuk in the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM). Although she is from the FSM, she spent parts of her childhood in the Republic of Palau and Saipan in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. She obtained her Ph.D. in Marine Biology from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa focusing on the ecophysiology of native Hawaiian macroalgae. Nicole is the Director of Impact for OneReef, a non-profit organization that supports community-led ocean management. Through her job, she works closely with local communities and scientists to define, measure, and communicate impact in a meaningful way that interweaves both science and traditional knowledge.

This conversation is hosted and produced by Catherine Polcz with music by Carl Didur.

Forest ecologist Jen Sanger spends more time in big trees than most. In our conversation, she takes us into another world of canopy of Australia’s tallest trees and into Tasmania’s aptly named Grove of Giants. She shares the story of the evolution of the distinctive Tasmanian flora, the ecology of these special forests and  the summer she helped get 500 community members nearly 100m up into the canopy.

Bio:

Dr Jennifer Sanger is the co-founder for The Tree Projects, a Tasmanian based an environmental outreach organisation which educates people about the worlds most notable trees. She is a passionate forest ecologist and has spent over a decade studying forests and the charismatic plants that inhabit them. She is both an expert tree climber and communicator and passionate advocate for Tasmanian forests.

This conversation is produced by Catherine Polcz with  music by Carl Didur.

Partners in life and work, herbalist Deatra Cohen and reference librarian and researcher Adam Siegel are the authors of the incredible resource Ashkenazi Herbalism. Together they spent years researching little known texts, translating ethnobotanical surveys and cross-referencing cultural databases to unearth lost Ashkenazi plant practices from the pale of settlement region. They share the stories and traditions of a few of their favourite plants along with Deatra’s own journey to plant healing work.

Bio:

Deatra Cohen is a former reference librarian and herbalist who trained with the Berkeley Herbal Center. She also belongs to a clinical herbal collective and is a Master Gardener at the University of California.

Adam Siegel is a research librarian at the University of California, Davis, and a historian of Central and eastern Europe, studying issues around cultural contact and plant knowledge in the region. Adam is also a literary translator, focusing on works in Russian, Czech, German, Croatian, Serbian, French, Italian, Swedish, and Norwegian. In 2014, he was awarded a Literary Translation Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts.

This conversation is produced by Catherine Polcz and music by Carl Didur.

Tennessee-based artist Ripley Whiteside creates art as a way to explore and connect to nature, history and speculative ecological futures. In a wide-ranging conversation spanning, contemporary ecological thought, invasive species and an ancient Medieval text—the Augsburg Book of Miracles—the conversation looks at the mysterious constructs of our understanding of nature. His place-based work is inspired by time spent Montreal, North Carolina and his home in Tennessee.

Bio:

Ripley Whiteside was born in 1982 and grew up in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. In 2012 he graduated with an MFA from SUNY-Buffalo, and he received a BFA from University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill in 2008. He is a drawer, painter and printmaker, and has participated in solo and group exhibitions in the US and Canada. His work is represented by Red Arrow Gallery in Nashville, and Pierre-François Ouellette Art Contemporain in Montreal. He is currently a Visiting Assistant Professor at Austin Peay State University, and lives in Nashville, Tennessee.

This conversation is produced by Catherine Polcz with music by Carl Didur.

Urban ecologist Manuel Esperon-Rodriguez in conversation with Catherine Polcz. 

He shares his journey from researching plant physiology in the Mexican Veracruz Montane Forests to future-proofing diverse urban forests of Western Sydney. His work is driven by understanding our relationship to the urban environment where people and plants are reliant on one another.

Bio:

Manuel Esperon-Rodriguez is a Sydney-based, Mexican ecologist who studies the effects of climate on plant function in urban ecosystems. He completed his PhD in Eastern Mexico assessing the vulnerability of the lush Veracruz cloud forest to climate change. In 2015 he joined Macquarie University with a project identifying climate refugia and plant migration corridors in Australia. In 2017 he joined the Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment at Western Sydney University where he continues his research on urban forests.

This episode is produced by Catherine Polcz with music by Carl Didur.