The first six months of 2026 have been busy. Between writing for my OpEd fellowship, working on congressional testimony, drafting my upcoming book on the use and misuse of the deep sea, and, well, working an actual job because I still have to keep my family fed and my daughter has developed a taste for Warhammer, it’s been a whirlwind. On top of it all, I did manage to appear on more than a few podcasts, where I talked about deep-sea mining, the weird (and a little tenuous) connection between hydrothermal vents and domestic cats, Star Trek, and ocean exploration.
Of course I started the year with our old friend Andrew Lewin at How to Protect the Ocean, with my annual run-down of what’s going on with deep-sea mining, this year.
I made an appearance on The Elements of Deep Sea Mining to talk about the state of our understanding of the environmental impacts of the industry and why I am still, somewhat inexplicably, convinced we will ultimately find our way to “begrudging consensus.”
Taking a break from deep-sea mining, I joined Bluesky friends Chad Kirchner and Benjamin Hunting to talk about Star Trek, space whales, the Star Trek movie with the whales who weren’t space whales until they went into space and thus became de facto space whales, and science fiction.
Back on How to Protect the Ocean, Andrew Lewin and I tested out a new concept, where I shared weird little anecdotes from my book research that probably won’t make the book but are too fun not to talk about.
I appeared on the Tiny Matters podcast to talk more about deep-sea mining and environmental uncertainty.
I got to hang out on Daniel and Kelly’s Extraordinary Universe to talk about deep-sea mining and ocean exploration. And space. Because who doesn’t love space? It’s where all our things are?
And, it’s not really a podcast (you could argue it’s the exact opposite of the podcast) but you can also catch my congressional testimony from earlier this year. Riveting stuff.
But wait! There’s more! If you can’t get enough of my grating, nasally voice, you can also listen to Dugongs and Seadragons, a weekly podcast where a bunch of marine scientists, artists, and educators get together and talk oceans while playing an entirely off-the-rails game of Dungeons and Dragons.
