Episode Fifteen: Live! From Ben’s Living Room! (March 30, 2012)

Two of the many historical signs around Edinburgh

Today we were recording in Ben’s living room, and unfortunately had some technological problems which is our excuse for the poor sound quality!

Mike Shmidt & Other Musical Trivia
By: Jake Barber
Jake offered him up to Ben’s whim today, and had his feature’s topic given to him right before he presented. It led to a discussion about Billy Ray Cyrus, and other nonsense.

Estrogen in Fish
By: Ben Garlick
Ben had a very-well original research piece today on the show about the history of estrogen in fish, a report that was definitely not entirely made up. From the early research of Bernard Matthews, to his later hanging in Luxembourg, Ben talked about it all. Then, Jake corrected just a few minor mistakes he had made.

Street Signs Around Edinburgh
By: Henry Hawkins
Based on a recent call for more historical plaques around Edinburgh, Henry talked about a few of the plaques around the city. Plaques for the Ratho murderer, Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee, Charles Darwin, & The Hammer of the Witches are just a few of the many interesting plaques around the city that were highlighted on the show today.

Listen [1:00:00]

Episode Eleven: The Mash-Up (March 2, 2012)

The Evolution of Life

Today on the show we had a special episode; we weren’t able to record in the studio, so we recorded all of our parts separately, stuck them together, and saw what happened. Much absurdity ensued, of course! Ben presented a feature on relevance in geographic research, Henry talked about wind farm opposition in the news, and Jake did a feature on life and non-life.

Wind Farm Opposition in the News
By: Henry Hawkins
Recently, Prime Minister Cameron was sent a letter signed by over 100 conservative MPs, opposing the future development of wind turbines. Many other stories of opposition to wind farms developments have been making news recently, and today Henry took a look at the future significance of this opposition, and what it means for Scotland.

Relevance in Geographic Research
By: Ben Garlick
Is relevance in geographic research based on current affairs, wider research, usefulness in the real world, or by popularity? There are a number of ways this topic can be addressed, and Ben considered a few of those ways.

Life & Non-Life
By: Jake Barber
Jake considered the boundaries of life and non-life – how does one consider where life begins and ends, how did it evolve, and how do we measure the fundamental requirements to being considered alive?

Listen [1:00:00]

Episode Five: Animals (November 28, 2011)

Today on the show we had our first of what it sure to be many episodes all about animals, looking at religion, fear, and meat eating. We also heard about the week’s headline news stories, and had our Environmental Song O’ The Week, with Life In Jail – Islands.

Eating Animals & Peter Singer
By: Henry Hawkins
Philosopher Peter Singer (who is a big fan of the show!) has published widely on theories about animals ethics since the 1970s, and is one of the few that don’t automatically put non-philosophers to sleep. His theory of speciecism, referring to the way humans implicitly give preference to humans was discussed, and the theory of making moral decisions based on achieving lesser harm.

Animals & Religion
By: Ben Garlick
This morning Ben talked about how animals are viewed through different religions, and religious frameworks. How they are valued, used, eaten (or not), and if animals have moral consideration, or are worthy of an afterlife.

Animals & Domestication
By: Jake Barber
Following on from Ben’s presentation about religion, Jake looked at the domestication of the wolf, of which there are apparently 80,000 domesticated in the US. Not surprisingly, it doesn’t tend to go well for most people.

Listen [56:45]

Episode Two: Hidden Histories of Edinburgh (November 7, 2011)

Greyfriars Bobby, The South Bridge Vaults, The Meadows

Greyfriars Bobby: Human-Animal Relations
By: Ben Garlick
This morning on the show we heard about some of the hidden histories of Edinburgh. First, Ben looked at the story of Greyfriars Bobby, the dog who supposedly sat by his master’s grave for 18 years, and he deconstructed what this story represents to human-animal relations.

Green Spaces in Edinburgh: An Accidental History
By: Jake Barber
Jake talked about the evolving history of green spaces in the city, focusing on the Meadows and Princes Street Gardens from their beginnings as Lochs to treasured green spaces within a busy city.

The Edinburgh Vaults: Storage, Squalor & Serial Killers
By: Henry Hawkins
Henry discussed the Edinburgh vaults, located in the foundations of the South Bridge near Cowgate, and their varying uses over the years, from storage spaces, to cramped dwellings, the haunt for serial killers, and a modern-day tourist destination.

Jake also brought us three quick stories from the week’s environmental news, and we had another edition of our Environmental Song Analysis with Bruce Cockburn’s If A Tree Falls.

Listen [49:36]