Latest / Adventure Sports Podcast / Ep. 1114 Sailing, Science, and Purpose Driven Adventure - Teresa Carey

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Ep. 1114 Sailing, Science, and Purpose Driven Adventure - Teresa Carey · Adventure Sports Podcast

0:06
[SPEAKER_00]: You're listening to the Adventure Sports podcast.
0:08
[SPEAKER_00]: We talk with adventurers from around the globe to bring you the inspiration and motivation you need to get started in the outdoors or to keep you moving if you're already there.
0:17
[SPEAKER_00]: Now here's your host, Kurt Lindville.
0:19
[SPEAKER_03]: episode 1,114.
0:23
[SPEAKER_03]: It's crazy how quickly these episodes are piling up.
0:27
[SPEAKER_03]: This one is about Teresa Carey.
0:30
[SPEAKER_03]: Teresa Carey has multiple podcasts of her own, and it is the morning musters sailing podcast.
0:38
[SPEAKER_03]: We're going to be talking about sailing today.
0:41
[SPEAKER_03]: It's going to be a great one, but before we dive in.
0:44
[SPEAKER_03]: I wanted to give you an update from the adventure capital of the planet, the base camp of the Rockies, right here where we live.
0:53
[SPEAKER_03]: And maybe I'm hyping it up a little bit, but I love where we are.
0:58
[SPEAKER_03]: And I thought, you know what?
1:00
[SPEAKER_03]: Some cool things happen this weekend that are worth sharing, so this weekend was get in the firewood weekend.
1:07
[SPEAKER_03]: We pulled a permit to clear some dead wood out of forest land, and that that helps keep the fire danger down, and also we'll heat our house.
1:17
[SPEAKER_03]: And for you who are thinking, oh no, that's not a good thing to burn wood because of carbon.
1:22
[SPEAKER_03]: Well, think about it.
1:24
[SPEAKER_03]: Firewood is carbon neutral.
1:27
[SPEAKER_03]: The carbon it absorbs as it grows is the carbon that it releases as it rods, and when you burn it, you're not adding any more than was already there, so at least it's carbon neutral, unlike fossil fuels.
1:38
[SPEAKER_03]: But that's a whole other topic.
1:39
[SPEAKER_03]: Let's talk about why this matters.
1:49
[SPEAKER_03]: and what's super cool about this location is that the Colorado Trail goes through there and the continental divide trail overlaps the Colorado Trail at this point.
2:02
[SPEAKER_03]: So we met tons of throughhikers.
2:05
[SPEAKER_03]: So I just want to give a shout out to Abby.
2:07
[SPEAKER_03]: I want to give a shout out to Alex and to Dan
2:11
[SPEAKER_03]: And to the gentleman whose name I didn't get, who is with Alex, but we got to meet these people who were hiking the Colorado Trail, and they were all kind of in a rush because this time of the year fall is setting in already in the high altitude of the Rockies, and snow is not far away, and they were all wondering if they were going to make it too during going time.
2:34
[SPEAKER_03]: To beat the winter cold.
2:36
[SPEAKER_03]: I think they have a pretty good chance at it, but they still have high passes That they have to cover in the San Juan Mountain.
2:44
[SPEAKER_03]: So anyway Super fun.
2:46
[SPEAKER_03]: So the adventure for the weekend last weekend the adventure was snorkeling in high altitude mountain lakes This weekend it was just gathering firewood which was so much fun
2:57
[SPEAKER_03]: But even more fun because of a beautiful, wonderful through hikers that we met.
3:02
[SPEAKER_03]: I just wanted to draw some tidbits about what it's like to live an adventure-focused lifestyle and an adventurous place.
3:10
[SPEAKER_03]: And right now, what's going on is crazy, a thunderstorm, just rolled in at sunset.
3:15
[SPEAKER_03]: And if I look out the window, huge drops of rain, lightning, some wind,
3:22
[SPEAKER_03]: But on top of all of that, the sun is setting, so the whole sky is kind of a yellow orange glow.
3:29
[SPEAKER_03]: And the seasons are definitely changing.
3:33
[SPEAKER_03]: We are headed into a rainy, rainy fall, or so it looks for the next week or so.
3:38
[SPEAKER_03]: This is the perfect weather to find a cozy dry spot.
3:42
[SPEAKER_03]: And listen to someone, regal us with amazing adventures.
3:46
[SPEAKER_03]: So here we go, Teresa Carey.
3:50
[SPEAKER_03]: Teresa, she's done so many things.
3:52
[SPEAKER_03]: Let me see if I can hit some of the highlights here.
3:55
[SPEAKER_03]: Teresa is a National Geographic Explorer.
3:58
[SPEAKER_03]: She is a Coast Guard licensed captain, spends a lot of time on the sea.
4:04
[SPEAKER_03]: She has multiple podcasts of her own, one of them being the morning mustard sailing podcast, and her focus is about purpose,
4:20
[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you, it's good to be here.
4:23
[SPEAKER_03]: Tresa, I don't know a lot about you and I'm just being really, really open and honest here.
4:28
[SPEAKER_03]: I don't know a lot about the various things that you've done.
4:32
[SPEAKER_03]: So I'm looking forward to getting to know you and more about sailing in particular and how that becomes a purpose-driven adventure.
4:40
[SPEAKER_03]: So I guess the first thing is, give us a little background, who is Tresa?
4:46
[SPEAKER_01]: who is Teresa.
4:47
[SPEAKER_01]: I was very complicated person.
4:48
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't even know yet, so we might have to table that question.
4:54
[SPEAKER_01]: I think you've touched on some of it already, but I am a mother first and a creative person.
5:04
[SPEAKER_01]: I do science media and also a little bit of an adventure.
5:09
[SPEAKER_01]: And I say a little bit, but really kind of a lot in the past and it kind of the pace of life changes when you
5:17
[SPEAKER_01]: Still adventurous, but in other ways, in another timescale.
5:21
[SPEAKER_03]: Well, Theresa, I'm going to use the sinusoidal wave on you since you're a science person.
5:27
[SPEAKER_03]: Your adventure will be like a sinusoidal wave.
5:30
[SPEAKER_03]: Your adventure life.
5:33
[SPEAKER_03]: It'll shift its focus, but as your child or children is a case maybe, as they get older, then adventure just gets that much bigger and more exciting because you get to do it with a
5:47
[SPEAKER_03]: You know, it's unhealthy for parents to live by carryously through their children too much.
5:52
[SPEAKER_03]: But when you are caring for a younger child and you see the sense of discovery and joy of experience, you know, on their faces, then it adds such a beautiful level to adventure all over again.
6:09
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, it's such a gift to be able to give a child an opportunity of some sort of adventure.
6:14
[SPEAKER_01]: We went and lived in Italy last year for three months and that was a land-based adventure, not sailing, even though we have a sailboat in this great opportunity and we're planning a big family sail next year for 2026 for a year and I say planning because it's only in the planning phases so we could still change our mind, but it is really a gift to be able to give
6:35
[SPEAKER_01]: a child some adventure, but it doesn't have to be grandiose either.
6:39
[SPEAKER_01]: We just went camping last weekend for one night.
6:43
[SPEAKER_01]: We had such a wonderful adventure collecting feathers and fancy rocks and creating this magical little scenario with these treasures we found in nature and then then sleeping in a tent by lake.
7:00
[SPEAKER_01]: It was amazing.
7:01
[SPEAKER_01]: For one night.
7:02
[SPEAKER_03]: How old is your child?
7:04
[SPEAKER_03]: six such a beautiful age and I always tell parents having lived it myself I tell parents younger children are not into the huge macro adventure you know you go in a hike to get to the big view the vista so you can look out across
7:20
[SPEAKER_03]: whatever it is you're supposed to look out across.
7:23
[SPEAKER_03]: They don't care so much about that.
7:25
[SPEAKER_03]: They want to play under a bush and look at the the roly polis and the ants and you know experience nature kind of on the micro level.
7:34
[SPEAKER_03]: And if you can engage with them in their world,
7:37
[SPEAKER_03]: I mean, when you go drag in a younger kid on a 10-mile hike to get to the big view, they don't really get, no, that isn't really what it is.
7:46
[SPEAKER_01]: But all the leaves and sticks you collect along the way and all the magical stories you come up with as the adventurer, maybe you see a squirrel, you know, that's exciting.
7:55
[SPEAKER_01]: But, you know, it makes me think of something that I always say, we take a lot of people's sailing.
7:59
[SPEAKER_01]: My husband and I, it's part of one of our businesses we have is we take a lot of people's sailing.
8:03
[SPEAKER_01]: And the sun sets are very, very beautiful on the ocean, and it's just, the colors can be stunning, and I might be sleeping when sunset happens.
8:14
[SPEAKER_01]: It depends on what kind of passage we're on, but I, I, I
8:18
[SPEAKER_01]: My husband's always like, come up and see the sunset, come and see it, and I'm always like, you know what?
8:22
[SPEAKER_01]: Seeing one, seeing a mall.
8:24
[SPEAKER_01]: This is not what I'm here for.
8:25
[SPEAKER_01]: It's not the sunset.
8:26
[SPEAKER_01]: It's not the view.
8:28
[SPEAKER_01]: It's feeling the feeling the salts on my face and having the experience of working with my hands and moving the boat and doing all of that is more of the more of the adventure that I'm here for.
8:40
[SPEAKER_03]: Well, so it's a lot about the boat for you.
8:44
[SPEAKER_03]: It's a lot about the experience.
8:48
[SPEAKER_01]: just being on the water, feeling the salt on my skin, working with my hands to make the boat move and to keep myself in the boat and the people aboard say, like, that's the real adventure for me and not necessarily the beautiful sunset.
9:07
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a lot about the experience.
9:09
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, because I could be camping, like you said, hiking up a mountain.
9:13
[SPEAKER_01]: It's not for the view.
9:14
[SPEAKER_01]: It's to use your own two legs that we are so privileged to have to get to the top of the mountain.
9:20
[SPEAKER_01]: That's amazing.
9:22
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
9:24
[SPEAKER_03]: Well, just to revisit one more time, children, I took a hike this last weekend in a kind of a busier front-range area.
9:36
[SPEAKER_03]: whining and with her arms up, walking behind her dad, saying, up, he up, he up, he up, yeah, I was got a laughing because I remember the experience of that of course.
9:47
[SPEAKER_03]: You mean saying, upy, upy, upy, upy, upy, upy, upy, upy, upy, upy, upy, upy, upy, upy, upy, upy, upy, upy, upy, upy, upy, upy, upy, upy, upy, upy, upy, upy, upy, upy, upy, upy, upy, upy, upy, upy, upy, upy, upy, upy, upy, upy, upy, upy, upy, upy, upy, upy, upy, upy, upy, upy, upy, upy, upy, upy, upy, upy, upy, upy, upy, upy, upy, upy, upy, upy, upy, upy, upy, upy, upy, upy, upy,
10:08
[SPEAKER_03]: Hmm.
10:09
[SPEAKER_03]: Well, let's dive into a few things about sailing just to orient the audience.
10:14
[SPEAKER_03]: First of all, you are a master mariner with US Coast Guard.
10:18
[SPEAKER_03]: That doesn't mean you're in the Coast Guard and it does mean that you have a captain's license.
10:23
[SPEAKER_01]: That's correct.
10:24
[UNKNOWN]: Yes.
10:25
[SPEAKER_03]: So explain how that works for us.
10:26
[SPEAKER_03]: How do you acquire a captain's license?
10:28
[SPEAKER_01]: Um, it's, I imagine it's similar to getting like a pilot's license.
10:32
[SPEAKER_01]: You have to have to, you have to demonstrate your skills by, uh, see days at sea.
10:38
[SPEAKER_01]: You have to have 360 days at sea.
10:41
[SPEAKER_01]: Um, and you have to take a big exam.
10:44
[SPEAKER_01]: You have to pass a drug test and a physical, and then you can, you can apply for a license.
10:49
[SPEAKER_01]: You have to have references.
10:50
[SPEAKER_02]: Wow.
10:51
[SPEAKER_02]: So.
10:52
[SPEAKER_01]: And there's different grades of license.
10:54
[SPEAKER_01]: There's license for sailboats or powerboats or towboats.
10:56
[SPEAKER_01]: There's license for smaller boats or bigger boats.
11:00
[SPEAKER_03]: And what is your license?
11:02
[SPEAKER_01]: 100, 100 times.
11:04
[SPEAKER_01]: And then there's the license for coastal waters or offshore.
11:09
[SPEAKER_01]: But any license, any boat that has paying passengers, is a commercial boat.
11:15
[SPEAKER_01]: And so that person who drives that boat has a license of some sort.
11:19
[SPEAKER_03]: Well, a friend of mine took me out on his yacht.
11:22
[SPEAKER_01]: Did you pay him?
11:23
[SPEAKER_01]: Did he accept money?
11:25
[SPEAKER_03]: No, I did not pay him.
11:27
[SPEAKER_03]: We just had fun.
11:29
[SPEAKER_03]: But the reason I bring it up is he said, if I got a bigger boat, I'd have to hire a captain.
11:35
[SPEAKER_03]: Oh, maybe because- And I wasn't sure what that meant.
11:38
[SPEAKER_01]: I think what he's meaning is, if he has a bigger boat, he probably isn't prepared himself to sail it by himself without assistance.
11:46
[SPEAKER_03]: OK.
11:49
[SPEAKER_01]: And I could be wrong in this, but I'm not sure at what point you're required to have a captain on a commercial boat has to have a captain, but a recreational boat doesn't have to.
12:01
[SPEAKER_03]: Well, I was curious what he meant by that, and it very well could mean just that it would be too much.
12:08
[SPEAKER_03]: I wouldn't be having fun anymore.
12:09
[SPEAKER_03]: I want something that's more manageable, so if I got a bigger boat, I would have to have someone else taking care of that side, so I can enjoy myself.
12:17
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, and some bigger boats are a lot to manage, you need more people too, so.
12:22
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
12:23
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, well, we did get into a storm that was as big as the boat was rated for.
12:28
[SPEAKER_03]: I'll say it that way.
12:30
[SPEAKER_03]: And as we were coming into port, there was a horrible crosswind in a very narrow channel.
12:36
[SPEAKER_03]: And it was all he could do to keep us off the rocks.
12:41
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
12:42
[SPEAKER_03]: you know it's tough and those are those are the situations where it's like experience and know how and understanding how these things work you know that I could see the the huge advantages to that okay so you are a captain and that's super cool and you're saying because you did this because there's a commercial aspect to your sailing so what is it that you do?
13:06
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, I've been working as a captain for quite a long time.
13:11
[SPEAKER_01]: I mostly worked in sale training experiences, like teaching people to sail or taking them out for an experience.
13:18
[SPEAKER_01]: That's not my focus as of late.
13:20
[SPEAKER_01]: I still have a business with my husband, more self-expeditions.
13:24
[SPEAKER_01]: He's primarily on the captaining the trips,
13:29
[SPEAKER_01]: But it's a business we share and we're very proud of it and excited about it because we do sale training expeditions for people coastal and offshore and they're really robust, really solid training experiences.
13:41
[SPEAKER_01]: We've worked really hard to get it to be great.
13:46
[SPEAKER_01]: But we also have a family, so I'm home a lot with my child and so the other thing that I focus, I guess I have a split career
13:57
[SPEAKER_01]: right now I'm working on a podcast called Curiosity Weekly.
14:00
[SPEAKER_03]: Curiosity Weekly.
14:01
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, with the scum.
14:02
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay.
14:03
[SPEAKER_03]: And you said, Morris Alpha Expedition.
14:06
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, like Morris Code.
14:07
[SPEAKER_01]: A lot of people say Morris.
14:09
[SPEAKER_01]: But it's M-O-R-S-E.
14:12
[SPEAKER_03]: Morris.
14:12
[SPEAKER_01]: Morris.
14:14
[SPEAKER_03]: Morris Alpha.
14:14
[SPEAKER_01]: Morris Alpha.
14:16
[SPEAKER_03]: Okay.
14:17
[SPEAKER_03]: And that's where you train people on how to sail.
14:20
[SPEAKER_01]: That's right.
14:21
[SPEAKER_03]: Got it.
14:21
[SPEAKER_01]: Mm-hmm.
14:22
[SPEAKER_03]: Now, you keep coming back to the science side of this.
14:26
[SPEAKER_03]: Let's get to that in just a second.
14:27
[SPEAKER_03]: I'm going to leave that one dangling, okay?
14:30
[SPEAKER_03]: For just a moment.
14:31
[SPEAKER_03]: We don't know where you do all of this.
14:33
[SPEAKER_03]: Are you on the East Coast, West Coast, Golf Coast?
14:35
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, I'm on the best coast.
14:38
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm on.
14:38
[SPEAKER_03]: Which one is that?
14:39
[SPEAKER_01]: The Northeast Coast, the coast of Maine, the great city of Maine.
14:43
[SPEAKER_03]: Oh, lovely.
14:44
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, if you want to go sailing in the US,
14:47
[SPEAKER_01]: The coastal waters of Maine are amazing, absolutely stunning.
14:52
[SPEAKER_01]: They're rugged, they're rocky.
14:54
[SPEAKER_01]: The granite cliffs, the fog, they're mysterious.
14:59
[SPEAKER_01]: It's wonderful.
15:00
[SPEAKER_03]: Massive tides.
15:02
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, there's some big tides too, although the Northwest, like Puget Sound and North of that, has bigger tides or they have stronger currents at least.
15:11
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay.
15:12
[SPEAKER_01]: And that is my second favorite place in the U.S.
15:14
[SPEAKER_01]: to sail.
15:16
[SPEAKER_03]: What have sailed in the San Juan's in the Pacific Northwest?
15:19
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, that's a beautiful spot.
15:21
[SPEAKER_03]: And that's my one little sailing history is that I actually got to do that once, and we brought a captain on board to pilot the vessel because we didn't have the experience.
15:33
[SPEAKER_03]: And, but it was an amazing experience.
15:36
[SPEAKER_03]: I go ask the obvious question though.
15:39
[SPEAKER_03]: I've been landlocked, well, my whole life, except for when I go on vacation, right?
15:45
[SPEAKER_03]: and my whole family gets motion sickness and our sailing adventure we had a delightful time anyway and I have to say it that way because it was hard.
15:54
[SPEAKER_03]: We did not feel well.
15:56
[SPEAKER_03]: It was really hard.
15:58
[SPEAKER_03]: How do you address that Theresa?
16:00
[SPEAKER_03]: If people are worried about that it's got to be one of the biggest headwinds for getting into sailing.
16:05
[SPEAKER_01]: It's true and a lot of people say I could never do it because I get seasick and I'll tell you what, in my experience of all the people that I've taken sailing that get seasick, which is myself sometimes as well, it always goes away after 24 hours.
16:20
[SPEAKER_01]: Now having said that, 24 hours is a long time to sail for some people.
16:24
[SPEAKER_01]: Most people go out sailing for a couple hours, but their friends have dinner on the boat, maybe see the sun set, come back in, and so they never get over it.
16:32
[SPEAKER_01]: Because then you get on land at recess, you go back out sailing again a couple weeks later, and you've gotten seasick again.
16:37
[SPEAKER_01]: So you feel like I'm seasick all the time when I'm sailing.
16:41
[SPEAKER_01]: But if you're going to do a crossing, if you're going to sail a big passage, it almost always goes away after 24 hours.
16:47
[SPEAKER_01]: And I say this out of experience, this is not scientific.
16:51
[SPEAKER_03]: Okay, so I cannot make any promises to anybody will the funny thing in my experience is We were in some pretty decent waves.
16:59
[SPEAKER_03]: We had a lot of rock and enrol and and maybe that was part of it But we were out for almost exactly 24 hours and Probably it would have gotten better from that point but when we finally got back to port and stepped on dry land again I got sick all over again.
17:16
[SPEAKER_03]: Oh no, it wasn't moving.
17:18
[SPEAKER_02]: Right
17:20
[SPEAKER_03]: And so I thought, wow, this is inappropriate reception and all that kind of stuff.
17:25
[SPEAKER_03]: It takes a lot of adjustment.
17:26
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, we call that doc rock.
17:28
[SPEAKER_01]: We come back to land and you're on the doc.
17:30
[SPEAKER_01]: And you still feel like, whoa, I'm on a boat or an elevator.
17:35
[SPEAKER_03]: People make jokes about the old pirates and sailors who drank too much.
17:40
[SPEAKER_03]: It's not my personal.
17:41
[SPEAKER_03]: Already.
17:42
[SPEAKER_02]: How did they do it?
17:43
[SPEAKER_03]: They're doing that way, you know.
17:46
[SPEAKER_03]: Oh, well, let's move on from that.
17:48
[SPEAKER_03]: One other thought that I had, which is fascinating, but when astronauts come back from a microgravity experience, then they, they experience the same thing.
17:59
[SPEAKER_03]: It's not Doc Rock, right?
18:00
[SPEAKER_03]: It's, it's, it's earth rock.
18:03
[SPEAKER_03]: Exactly.
18:03
[SPEAKER_03]: They, some of them have to be laying down for days before they get their their ability to balance back.
18:12
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
18:14
[SPEAKER_03]: That's just sounds crazy.
18:16
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
18:17
[SPEAKER_03]: I guess that's what happens when we encounter new and wonderful things.
18:21
[SPEAKER_02]: Mhm.
18:22
[SPEAKER_03]: Well, let's talk just a little bit more about sailing.
18:25
[SPEAKER_03]: How did you get started in sailing?
18:27
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, I started, I lived a group of Michigan and my dad always talked about sailing and the legends and the history and all of that, and eventually we got a family seal boat.
18:38
[SPEAKER_01]: And so I learned there on Lake Michigan.
18:40
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a great place to learn and Northern Michigan.
18:43
[SPEAKER_03]: So how old were you when you started sailing?
18:45
[SPEAKER_01]: I was eight.
18:47
[SPEAKER_03]: So this is like long enough to say you're pretty much done at your whole life.
18:54
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, long enough to say that, but also the way I remember it is I was short enough to be able to stand up in the cabin.
19:00
[SPEAKER_01]: We had a tiny boat and I was saying we wanted to stand up in the cabin.
19:03
[SPEAKER_03]: It's almost like a playground.
19:06
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it was, it was my playground.
19:09
[SPEAKER_03]: that's really, really fun.
19:10
[SPEAKER_03]: So when did you decide that it needed to be a bigger part of your life?
19:14
[SPEAKER_03]: And you're like, no, I want to do this a lot.
19:16
[SPEAKER_01]: Honestly, I was, I had done a semester with the National Literature Leadership School, and I wanted to do anything but sailing, because I had done sailing so much in my life, and I had taught sailing when I turned 18.
19:27
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, sailed every summer with my family, and then I decided I wanted to work for Outward Bound, which is a great program, and I didn't want to do sailing.
19:37
[SPEAKER_01]: I wanted to do ice climbing, mountaineering, but my skills weren't there.
19:43
[SPEAKER_01]: And so I thought, well, my skills are in sailing.
19:46
[SPEAKER_01]: I will apply to their steep program, get my foot in the door withoutward bound, and then move into mountaineering, eventually.
19:52
[SPEAKER_01]: But there was a great need for sailing instructors there that had licenses, and I got mine the second year I was there, and I just fell in love with the islands, and the ruggedness of the boats, the boats are very much like Ernest Shackleton's lifeboats when all the men took to the lifeboats and rode around in the Arctic.
20:10
[SPEAKER_01]: And so, just the whole experience of that, and the seam and ship and the skills required were just far beyond what I had learned on Lake Michigan with my father.
20:22
[SPEAKER_01]: And I just loved it and I just stuck with it and so from there I went on and did, you know, we started our own sale training business and to teach people the really, the rugged skills to be prepared to be self-reliant on modern yachts that kind of boats that people would buy to go cruising.
20:42
[SPEAKER_01]: And I just kind of stuck with it like that, and honestly, the sailing then drove me to science media.
20:48
[SPEAKER_01]: It all makes sense in my history and the timeline of my life, even though sometimes it's hard to make that connection between, you were a full-time working captain, you know, a mariner, a professional mariner, and now you're a science media producer, where's the connection there, but there is a clear connection.
21:06
[SPEAKER_03]: Well in your science media you're with a discovery.
21:10
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, right podcast discovery.
21:13
[SPEAKER_03]: How did that come about?
21:15
[SPEAKER_01]: Well that job I just applied for just sent in a residence and I'm I'm game for this but Is the question how I got that job or how I went into science media?
21:27
[SPEAKER_03]: How you went into science media, I guess.
21:30
[SPEAKER_03]: But before we skip over this, curiosity weekly.
21:34
[SPEAKER_01]: That's correct.
21:34
[SPEAKER_03]: Is where people can hear what you do with the discovery?
21:37
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes.
21:38
[SPEAKER_03]: OK, I wanted to make sure we got that out there.
21:40
[SPEAKER_03]: But how did you get into science media?
21:43
[SPEAKER_01]: I would say that there were three significant expeditions that I took on a bow, on a sail bow, that led me to science media.
21:53
[SPEAKER_01]: And each one of those was more and more purpose-driven in science or conservation media.
22:00
[SPEAKER_01]: And the first one,
22:02
[SPEAKER_01]: This was in a small sailboat with my husband, who was not my husband at the time, he and I decided, well, I decided that this is what I wanted, was to just sail north until we saw an iceberg.
22:14
[SPEAKER_01]: I was very interested in seeing an iceberg, and who we ended up seeing the Peterman Ice Island, which was the largest Greenland iceberg on record, and I believe it still is.
22:26
[SPEAKER_01]: And because, and we made a film about this, we had the production company approach just and say, hey, can we make a film about your trip?
22:34
[SPEAKER_01]: And I said, well, yes, but only if I can be an equal part of production, and I don't know anything about media production.
22:42
[SPEAKER_01]: But it was the great, you know, it was with Derek Row and Dr. Creative, and it was a great partnership there because his philosophy was, you can do anything that brings you joy.
22:52
[SPEAKER_01]: And I said, well, it brings me joy to be a producer.
22:55
[SPEAKER_01]: even though I had, so I was a part of making this film and I said this is no longer an adventure film.
23:01
[SPEAKER_01]: We've just seen the largest Greenland Iceberg on record.
23:05
[SPEAKER_01]: There's a story with this iceberg through the attention of climate scientists globally when it broke off of Greenland.
23:12
[SPEAKER_01]: There's a story to tell there, the Peter and I Silent is a character in our film, and so it became an eco-adventure documentary, and just a really holistic experience, not just a sail, to, you know, a holistic experience, to go up there, look for this specific iceberg, tell the story of the ice, the green and the ice, and climate.
23:31
[SPEAKER_01]: So that was, I would say, my first taste.
23:34
[SPEAKER_01]: of science media.
23:35
[SPEAKER_01]: There's nothing like jumping in, wholeheartedly, to a feature length film for your first taste of media production.
23:43
[SPEAKER_01]: But we did it.
23:43
[SPEAKER_01]: And we did it well for well for a first film.
23:46
[SPEAKER_03]: So what a beautiful opportunity.
23:48
[SPEAKER_03]: Where can people see that?
23:51
[SPEAKER_01]: I think the website simplequestionmovie.com is still up and running.
23:56
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm going to double check after we get off this call and make sure.
24:00
[SPEAKER_03]: That's super cool.
24:01
[SPEAKER_03]: So how long ago was that?
24:05
[SPEAKER_03]: 2011 so it's been a bit it's been a bit it's been a bit and a lot of water under the hall since then yes yeah I should calculate my miles I don't know what that would be a lot of people keep track but I don't well you know I don't count my mountains Teresa I just love to climb yeah and some there's some freedom in that too yeah
24:29
[SPEAKER_03]: After you got into, I guess it became a documentary feature link film, I mean, that's awesome.
24:36
[SPEAKER_03]: What came next?
24:38
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, after that, I think I really wanted to do more science media, do more stuff like that.
24:45
[SPEAKER_01]: And my greatest strengths was in sailing.
24:47
[SPEAKER_01]: And so what I ended up doing was I started a non-profit through the ocean foundation called HelloOcean.
24:57
[SPEAKER_01]: And the goal of that was to create these collaborative expeditions that provided early career scientists with a research vessel to get them out on the water because, you know, research vessels are expensive.
25:09
[SPEAKER_01]: It's hard to get time on a research vessel as a new scientist.
25:13
[SPEAKER_01]: So we provided early career scientists with a research vessel and we also brought people on board that were
25:20
[SPEAKER_01]: creatives, music musicians or filmmakers or artists in other ways, and so we had had these collaborative expeditions where everybody involved was involved in the research led by the scientists and also doing their art and media at the same time.
25:37
[SPEAKER_03]: What a beautiful idea.
25:38
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm a sailboat.
25:39
[SPEAKER_01]: Not a powerboat.
25:39
[SPEAKER_03]: It's right on a sailboat.
25:41
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
25:42
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
25:43
[SPEAKER_03]: So how big of a sailboat?
25:45
[SPEAKER_03]: What was the size?
25:46
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh.
25:46
[SPEAKER_01]: What was the length of that boat?
25:48
[SPEAKER_01]: It's, we used a catamaran.
25:50
[SPEAKER_01]: I honestly can't remember.
25:51
[SPEAKER_01]: I think it might have been like 55 feet.
25:53
[SPEAKER_03]: And a catamaran.
25:55
[SPEAKER_03]: So there's a lot of square footage.
25:56
[SPEAKER_01]: There's a lot of space.
25:57
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
25:58
[SPEAKER_03]: comparatively.
25:59
[SPEAKER_01]: Not a research, but not like a big, you know, research institute, but plenty to do what we needed to do.
26:06
[SPEAKER_03]: So I love that idea so much.
26:10
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, and we did, we did microplastics research, we had this big toe that we told, we did, um,
26:17
[SPEAKER_01]: Marine mammal research in Belize.
26:19
[SPEAKER_01]: It was the first survey of marine mammals in Belize to get a sense of what was out there.
26:24
[SPEAKER_01]: So there could be some decision making on offshore mining and things like that in noise pollution.
26:30
[SPEAKER_01]: And so we had drones on board.
26:32
[SPEAKER_01]: We had lots of people, of course.
26:34
[SPEAKER_01]: We had a musician that like a DJ style musician who is recording the sounds of the animal, the marine mammals, to use in his music.
26:44
[SPEAKER_01]: All sorts of things, so it was really great.
26:46
[SPEAKER_01]: It was a lot of fun.
26:47
[SPEAKER_01]: And a lot of learning between the disciplines, a lot of learning, you know, it was interesting to hear sometimes scientists say, well, why do I have to help with this art?
26:57
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, we need the science and it's like, well, you need both to tell a whole story.
27:01
[SPEAKER_01]: Right.
27:01
[SPEAKER_01]: Mm-hmm.
27:02
[SPEAKER_03]: Well, it's the art that touches the soul and gets people interested in the science.
27:06
[SPEAKER_03]: I think.
27:07
[SPEAKER_01]: We hope, but it's also the science that touches the soul.
27:10
[SPEAKER_01]: It's just everybody's soul is touched in different ways.
27:12
[SPEAKER_03]: Everyone's different.
27:13
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
27:14
[SPEAKER_03]: And I mentioned you earlier that I was a science teacher for a little while.
27:17
[SPEAKER_01]: Mm-hmm.
27:18
[SPEAKER_03]: And I very much enjoyed it.
27:19
[SPEAKER_03]: I've always been fascinated by nature and anything scientific.
27:23
[SPEAKER_03]: I'm going to just be raw physics and I'm happy.
27:25
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
27:26
[SPEAKER_03]: Not everybody is that interested in it.
27:28
[SPEAKER_03]: But for me, I'm just so darn curious about how the world works and the universe works and how it all fits together.
27:37
[SPEAKER_03]: that for me that that would be enough.
27:39
[SPEAKER_03]: But when you see a creative person do something that's I don't know inspirational on some level that just adds a sense of wonder for me.
27:51
[SPEAKER_03]: So I love the combination.
27:52
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
27:52
[SPEAKER_03]: I really do.
27:53
[SPEAKER_03]: I think it's fantastic.
27:54
[SPEAKER_03]: And
27:54
[SPEAKER_03]: You know, I never thought about this.
27:56
[SPEAKER_03]: You said, um, marine mammals, beliefs, and I thought, well, wait a minute.
28:01
[SPEAKER_03]: I always think of marine mammals as northern latitudes, not beliefs.
28:05
[SPEAKER_03]: So what, what kind of marine mammals were you encountering down there?
28:08
[SPEAKER_01]: Mostly dolphins and manatees.
28:10
[SPEAKER_03]: Okay, manatees.
28:12
[SPEAKER_03]: I didn't think about that either, but that makes sense.
28:14
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, but the manatees were closer to shore.
28:16
[SPEAKER_01]: And we did a lot of offshore stuff too.
28:17
[SPEAKER_01]: So we saw a lot of dolphins.
28:19
[SPEAKER_03]: That's fun.
28:20
[SPEAKER_01]: Mm-hmm.
28:21
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, it was a lot of fun.
28:23
[SPEAKER_03]: just a short story because I blew my mind.
28:25
[SPEAKER_03]: I'm so green to the water that anything excites me.
28:28
[SPEAKER_03]: Okay, so you'll laugh at me for this story probably.
28:32
[SPEAKER_03]: But my daughter and I rented a couple of jet skis and we were in the Gulf and we were the Gulf of America.
28:39
[SPEAKER_03]: Anyway, we were we were just out in this in this bay having fun and
28:46
[SPEAKER_03]: I saw some dolphins and I thought I'm not going to pastor him.
28:49
[SPEAKER_03]: So I cut the throttle, I just stopped and I'm like, I would love to be able to see them, but I don't want to give them any.
28:56
[SPEAKER_03]: And so what I started worrying about is that I was getting closer and closer and closer and closer and it was completely unintentional because I didn't want to bother them, you know?
29:06
[SPEAKER_03]: And then I realized I wasn't getting closer.
29:08
[SPEAKER_03]: They were coming to me.
29:12
[SPEAKER_03]: It was a delightful experience, and for me I got so excited, and it was just a briefest little encounter, but I totally get how fun it could be to interact with these curious and amazingly intelligent mammals.
29:28
[SPEAKER_03]: Do you have a story about that from the trip in Belize?
29:31
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, I remember.
29:34
[SPEAKER_01]: A lot of the interacting we did, we were counting and identifying marine mammals and making a survey of what's out there.
29:42
[SPEAKER_03]: Very scientific.
29:44
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, that's how you find out what lives in these waters.
29:47
[SPEAKER_01]: We don't know.
29:47
[SPEAKER_01]: No one knows exactly, so let's go out and count them and do transects back and forth back and forth and see how many we can see so we can get a sense of
29:58
[SPEAKER_01]: how many live out there, where they're concentrated, where they don't live, that sort of thing.
30:04
[SPEAKER_01]: And we had drones.
30:07
[SPEAKER_01]: Eric Ramos was the lead scientist on this, and he had some techniques with these drones for finding big pods of dolphins.
30:16
[SPEAKER_01]: Hundreds of them.
30:17
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't even know how many.
30:18
[SPEAKER_01]: It must have been hundreds in one group.
30:20
[SPEAKER_01]: and he would spot them with the drones and we'd sail over to them and they were also curious like you described on your jet ski and they would come to the boat and they loved splashing and jumping in the wave that it comes off the bow of the boat and they would just, and for just maybe an hour they would stay with us and sail with us.
30:37
[SPEAKER_01]: and we would be taking pictures, we would be counting them, we would be squealing and laughing, like children, and it was just a lot of fun.
30:45
[SPEAKER_01]: We had underwater cameras, we'd stick down in there and get pictures of the film of them swimming, and then, of course, recordings of the sounds that they were making, and it was just the whole thing was just delightful.
30:57
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, they're down there saying, get a load of these people.
30:59
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, what are they doing?
31:01
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm still in the jokes.
31:05
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, that's so much fun.
31:07
[SPEAKER_03]: Well, okay, back to sailing a little bit.
31:11
[SPEAKER_03]: I totally get the intersection.
31:14
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, of science and sailing.
31:16
[SPEAKER_03]: I mean, you're in a such an amazing natural environment.
31:20
[SPEAKER_03]: And the word I wanted to use was pristine, but I think pristine is hard to find these days.
31:26
[SPEAKER_03]: What do you think the biggest threat to our marine waters on this planet is right now?
31:31
[SPEAKER_03]: I know they're several,
31:34
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, I think the word climate change is probably not the answer you're looking for because it's become a blanket term that means so many things.
31:42
[SPEAKER_01]: Like everything is so integrated that one little adjustment of the climate is going to have.
31:49
[SPEAKER_01]: All these downstream effects just a ripple effect on so many things, but ocean acidification Also related to climate change like I really just think we need to get handle on this and That is what I think the biggest threat is the warming the temperature the acidification of course marine debris It's just even up here in Maine
32:12
[SPEAKER_01]: I have never seen, you know, this is not a scientific survey that I took this summer, but I have never seen so many jellyfish in my life in the coastal waters of Maine.
32:21
[SPEAKER_01]: I know they're there, but they were everywhere.
32:23
[SPEAKER_03]: So why do you think there's so many?
32:26
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, because of the changing temperatures, that's going to increase the jellyfish population.
32:32
[SPEAKER_01]: And so that might be what happened, what's happening.
32:36
[SPEAKER_01]: But that's my assumption.
32:38
[SPEAKER_01]: I, you know, like I said, it's not a scientific study, but we do know that the organisms that are in the Gulf of Maine that are anywhere are going to start to shift as the water temperatures change.
32:49
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, we could call it ecological adaptation or some big fancy buzzword.
32:52
[SPEAKER_03]: I just made that up.
32:53
[SPEAKER_03]: It's probably a word.
32:54
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, yeah, totally.
32:55
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, the word is gelefication when you have more gelefish, but some animals are moving out.
33:04
[SPEAKER_01]: They're saying this water is too warm, and some animals are moving in, saying, finally, I can live here.
33:08
[SPEAKER_01]: It's warm enough for me.
33:10
[SPEAKER_01]: And sometimes it just makes sense for the rest of the ecosystem and it causes a disruption.
33:16
[SPEAKER_03]: you know a couple of other things that people are probably voting on right now they're screaming at their iPod or whatever they're listening on you know and there's a bit what about what about all the plastics floating out there you know and that's I was talking to my wife I did this makes me feel so old Teresa and I'm not I'm only 23 even though you seem to you know I'm a lot older but I remember when two liter bottles came out
33:42
[SPEAKER_03]: and the, the soda pop, whatever you want to call it, they were all in glass bottles prior to that.
33:48
[SPEAKER_03]: The only thing that was in plastic that I can remember prior to that was milk jugs.
33:55
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
33:56
[SPEAKER_03]: Right.
33:57
[SPEAKER_03]: And I don't remember a time before milk jugs, but what I'm talking about here is that there was a time in my lifetime when plastics were not in-wide use.
34:07
[SPEAKER_02]: Right.
34:08
[SPEAKER_03]: That's not very long, and to see how they've impacted the environment in just a few decades.
34:15
[SPEAKER_01]: you know you mentioned I said climate change has become like a blanket term and then you said plastics isn't you know maybe that's the big issue for the oceans right now and it is a big issue in your right but I would argue that that's a part of climate change because plastics are also 99% made from fossil fuels like oil and natural gases
34:39
[SPEAKER_01]: And so the entire life cycle of the plastic from extraction, refining a fossil fuels, plastic production, manufacturing, disposal, that whole process releases greenhouse gases along the way, and that's contributing to global warming.
34:53
[SPEAKER_01]: So, and then also, some of that plastic ends up in the ocean as waste, and, you know, so it's like a double whammy with plastics.
35:04
[SPEAKER_03]: Well, and then PFAS, is that what it's called?
35:08
[SPEAKER_03]: The forever chemicals that are in plastics and other things, but a lot of, and I'm gonna go ahead and say this for you outdoors, people out there, Gore-Tex.
35:18
[SPEAKER_03]: Ooh.
35:20
[SPEAKER_03]: But a lot of the modern clothing is spreading these chemicals into the environment.
35:26
[SPEAKER_03]: And some of these chemicals, I just saw a video on this, so I'm regurgitating what I remember.
35:30
[SPEAKER_03]: But some of these chemicals have a zero tolerance by the EPA.
35:35
[SPEAKER_03]: There is no level in parts per million or billion or even trillion that's considered acceptable.
35:41
[SPEAKER_03]: It's just, no, these should not ever be in anyone's body.
35:44
[SPEAKER_03]: They should never be in the environment.
35:46
[SPEAKER_03]: And it's sad to say that the outdoors industry is contributing.
35:51
[SPEAKER_03]: So I just want to throw that out there, not to make people feel bad, but just to build awareness.
35:56
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, there are some, though, I mean, that Gore-Tex is a wonderful material, and that lasts a long time.
36:02
[SPEAKER_01]: It keeps you dry.
36:03
[SPEAKER_01]: It's breathable.
36:04
[SPEAKER_01]: It's really great.
36:06
[SPEAKER_01]: The alternative, I guess, we could go to oiled Candace, which is awesome because you look so rugged and grizzly,
36:15
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it makes you strong when you carry it, but there are, you know, some really circular options for Gore-Tax and for these materials to have them recycled and reused.
36:25
[SPEAKER_01]: There are programs that will take used coats back and refurbish them or recycle them.
36:31
[SPEAKER_01]: And so I think there is certainly a growing awareness of this issue of these, we don't always need fresh materials to get the things that we want or need in life.
36:41
[SPEAKER_01]: Like a Gore-Tex jacket would be maybe a need sometimes depending on what you're doing.
36:46
[SPEAKER_01]: Of course, it's important to stay dry and warm.
36:50
[SPEAKER_01]: So,
36:51
[SPEAKER_01]: I think that's just unfortunate that responsibility relies primarily on the consumer around UNI to find ways to where do I take my jacket when it's time to be retired, and it's no good for anything instead of just throwing it away, who can I give this to that will recycle and reuse it?
37:09
[SPEAKER_01]: It's on us to find that out.
37:11
[SPEAKER_01]: I feel like there are some ways that people are tracking and tagging these items so that they can then go back to the manufacturer
37:20
[SPEAKER_01]: So I think more programs like that, we need to look for those circular options for things like that.
37:24
[SPEAKER_01]: Which I think are really interesting solutions.
37:26
[SPEAKER_01]: There's a lot of really innovative solutions out there.
37:28
[SPEAKER_01]: I really hope they become more mainstream.
37:31
[SPEAKER_03]: Well, one thing that I've realized treason, this I want to encourage everybody with this.
37:36
[SPEAKER_03]: It's very easy to have a kind of an honor off mindset.
37:40
[SPEAKER_03]: Good bad, right?
37:42
[SPEAKER_03]: And say we should just get rid of all of this stuff.
37:45
[SPEAKER_03]: But there's also a middle ground that says, we can do so much better.
37:49
[SPEAKER_03]: We can improve what we're doing, and we can do it in a way that benefits everybody and the environment and, you know, taking care of this planet.
37:59
[SPEAKER_03]: I think sometimes the on and off thinking gets us in trouble, because there are things we can't live without, literally, in our modern society,
38:09
[SPEAKER_03]: Um, for instance, if we cut off all false appeals right now, then about a third to half the population of the world would starve to death, you know, it's, the point is that there are ways to do things in a much more responsible, better way, where we can care for the planet and care for humans too.
38:28
[SPEAKER_03]: And I love your example, you know, of what do you do with your old adventure gear?
38:34
[SPEAKER_03]: you know why not why not be thoughtful about it and that's that's super cool you know there's another I don't want to spend all of our time on conservation but I think it's very important another huge one that I hear a lot about and this one actually speaks to me the fisheries being decimated and the decline of the fish populations and there's a beautiful solution that there have been studies done where you don't have to protect the
39:01
[SPEAKER_03]: from coming back or to get them to come back.
39:04
[SPEAKER_03]: If you can just kind of protect the areas where the fish spawn, what you might call a hatchery, then what happens is the fish spawn there and the fish pop, of course, the fish move on from there to other areas in the fish.
39:20
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
39:20
[SPEAKER_03]: Total populations rise because you're doing conservation in a small place, the entire ocean is better off.
39:27
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, there's a lot of people working on that and expanding marine protected areas and protecting places like that.
39:34
[SPEAKER_01]: I think it's important that we support those, they'll still be enough fish for the fishery.
39:38
[SPEAKER_03]: Yes, well, better for sure.
39:39
[SPEAKER_01]: Certainly they'll be more.
39:41
[SPEAKER_03]: There'll be more.
39:42
[SPEAKER_01]: Exactly.
39:44
[SPEAKER_03]: another documentary I listen to illustrated how a lot of a lot of people that do commercial fishing are actually subsidized by their parent countries because they're trying to make sure there's a sustainable food supply for their people but what happens is it's not even profitable to do the fishing the only reason that they fish is because their parent country whoever that is is paying them to go out to do it so that people can have food so the
40:14
[SPEAKER_03]: But at the same time, there's something to be said about whether or not something is economically viable.
40:21
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, so it should inform us.
40:24
[SPEAKER_01]: So in my work, especially with Curiosity Weekly and the other science media that I do, I get to learn about certainly all the problems with the environment, all the issues that scientists are like, oh, it's the warmest year on record.
40:39
[SPEAKER_01]: And all these things that happen, I get to learn about.
40:42
[SPEAKER_01]: But then I also get to learn about all the people doing really interesting,
40:46
[SPEAKER_01]: maybe tech forward solutions, maybe not tech forward, maybe they're a little bit bringing back how we used to do things back in the olden days.
40:55
[SPEAKER_01]: And so there's a lot of interesting things and a lot of things that people are working on for these solutions.
41:00
[SPEAKER_01]: But for me, I think that it having
41:05
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, I learn about these things and I have to share these stories so that people can stay informed and I really believe that being a journalist is part of having is a responsibility to have to really have an engaging democracy and a good, you know, informed citizens out there.
41:20
[SPEAKER_01]: But as far as like deciding,
41:22
[SPEAKER_01]: Should this fishery be closed?
41:24
[SPEAKER_01]: Should it be regulated?
41:25
[SPEAKER_01]: Should it be open?
41:26
[SPEAKER_01]: These are and why do the people need food?
41:28
[SPEAKER_01]: Is it subsidized and why are we subsidizing it?
41:31
[SPEAKER_01]: Those are really complicated things to consider and it's often Values driven and it's up to us to be informed so that we can know what our values are.
41:40
[SPEAKER_01]: Like what is the most important thing?
41:42
[SPEAKER_01]: that we need to do for my community, for the environment right now, and what is the most important thing that we need to do that'll hold for long-term, that'll be good for the community and the environment long-term.
41:54
[SPEAKER_01]: And they're just really complicated decisions to understand, and I think it's, I feel very lucky that in my job I get to learn about these issues.
42:01
[SPEAKER_01]: I have to, it's like my job.
42:03
[SPEAKER_01]: I have to read the news every day, but I think it's a privilege that we get to come to our conclusions
42:11
[SPEAKER_01]: I can't say what's best.
42:13
[SPEAKER_03]: That's a very optimistic way to encounter the challenges that we have in front of us is that there are people that are finding better ways of doing things and sometimes there are always sometimes or new ways.
42:25
[SPEAKER_03]: It's kind of like the quote from the Martian, I'm going to have to science to bleep out of this.
42:31
[SPEAKER_03]: There are solutions, and we can do better, and we can do better in a way that takes care of people and the environment at the same time.
42:40
[SPEAKER_03]: It is complicated, but I'm with you.
42:43
[SPEAKER_03]: I'm 100% optimistic about this.
42:46
[SPEAKER_03]: You have to know that there's a problem, and then you have to find the solution to the problem.
42:50
[SPEAKER_03]: If you ignore the problem, that's when you get in trouble.
42:53
[SPEAKER_03]: yeah and and there are solutions and humanity is so innovative and and we have the ability to do remarkable things as soon as there's a problem to solve it it wants to be solved you know people are lining up to solve problems because it's such a fun thing to do yeah so i i really believe that we can't say all good all bad instead we really need to
43:21
[SPEAKER_03]: Well, you stuck with sailing.
43:24
[SPEAKER_03]: You were really interested in mountaineering, I climbing, technical climbing, expedition climbs, it sounds like, but you stuck with sailing.
43:31
[SPEAKER_01]: I did.
43:33
[SPEAKER_03]: This is kind of the why.
43:34
[SPEAKER_03]: What does it do for your soul?
43:36
[SPEAKER_03]: Why do you continue to do it?
43:41
[SPEAKER_01]: I think every time I go sailing, I have a different thing that I'm looking for for my soul, perhaps.
43:48
[SPEAKER_01]: I think, you know, I told you that I did a trip that I wanted to see an iceberg.
43:54
[SPEAKER_03]: Right.
43:55
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, why?
43:56
[SPEAKER_01]: Why is the an iceberg?
43:57
[SPEAKER_01]: I scored so quite commonplace for some people who live in Newfoundland.
44:01
[SPEAKER_01]: a place up there called iceberg alley and they're a part of everyday life during iceberg season.
44:06
[SPEAKER_01]: But for me they were just like shrouded in mystery and I pictured them far in the remote Arctic which they're not that far.
44:13
[SPEAKER_01]: I thought they were in like uncharted and dangerous waters, you know.
44:17
[SPEAKER_01]: the Titanic and, you know, I thought they were like the stuff of legends and now I know now I know that they're not as mysterious as I once thought but at the time they in they still do they had a certain magic to them and so
44:34
[SPEAKER_01]: I really wanted to see one, and certainly there's plenty of destinations that you can reach by car or train where you can see an iceberg, but not by boat, you know, reaching something by boat, it looks different.
44:46
[SPEAKER_01]: I promise you.
44:47
[SPEAKER_01]: It looks different because you're coming from a different place in your mind and a different place physically, certainly on the planet.
44:53
[SPEAKER_01]: But
44:54
[SPEAKER_01]: You're just emotionally and mentally in a different place, and so things look different when you come by boat.
44:59
[SPEAKER_01]: And for me, I went north because I had already been south to warm waters and beaches, and that's not for me.
45:07
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't like lounging in the sun, I don't like squinting at all.
45:12
[SPEAKER_01]: I like being shaded, and I like being bundled up, I like the chill, I like cold water dips, and I like foggy kind of blistery days.
45:23
[SPEAKER_01]: For me, it's just that feeling of ruggedness and strength and challenge and steering safely through the mist in the cold.
45:32
[SPEAKER_01]: That for me is very satisfying, more so than lounging on a sunny beach.
45:35
[SPEAKER_01]: So, a lot of people think of sailing as a relaxing slow pace and it is all of that too.
45:43
[SPEAKER_01]: But for me, I'm here in Maine.
45:45
[SPEAKER_01]: I sailed north.
45:46
[SPEAKER_01]: I want to stay north.
45:48
[SPEAKER_01]: Nothing I'll never go south again.
45:49
[SPEAKER_01]: I will certainly do that.
45:51
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, probably, I assume.
45:52
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm not opposed, but I'm always looking for a different thing to get out of it.
45:58
[SPEAKER_01]: Then I think what Jimmy Buffett taught us sailing was a bit.
46:03
[SPEAKER_01]: Although I do like Jimmy Buffett music.
46:06
[SPEAKER_03]: Sorry, Jimmy Buffett.
46:08
[SPEAKER_03]: Well, I totally get it, and since we've been leaning into the science of stuff, I have wondered how many people are like you and they look for the cold.
46:16
[SPEAKER_03]: They like to bundle up and experience the refreshing sea breeze or mountain top wind.
46:24
[SPEAKER_03]: You know, I'm one of those people too, Teresa.
46:26
[SPEAKER_03]: You want to get to an area that's too hot in humid.
46:29
[SPEAKER_03]: I just start melting.
46:31
[SPEAKER_03]: I grew up in a place in Northeastern Oklahoma, where
46:35
[SPEAKER_03]: We would have times when the temperatures of break 100 degrees Fahrenheit for 30 days in a row and the humidity would be above 90% every one of those days.
46:45
[SPEAKER_03]: And it wasn't uncommon to have humidity at 99% you know and all that and I grew up in that environment and I was miserable.
46:53
[SPEAKER_03]: I made the most of it and the way I did that is by living in the water.
47:05
[SPEAKER_03]: And they're like, no, I can't stand the cold.
47:07
[SPEAKER_03]: Are you kidding me?
47:08
[SPEAKER_03]: Give me this warm air that, you know, it's so refreshing and then... Now, that would be a good science experiment.
47:15
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, what is it about our brains that makes us prefer one climate or the end of it?
47:19
[SPEAKER_03]: We have a seal in the other half.
47:22
[SPEAKER_03]: I don't know.
47:22
[SPEAKER_03]: What's the... That's not very... We're in the... Anyway, moving on, I'm just very, very curious about that.
47:30
[SPEAKER_03]: Because I'm like, you, I like the cold.
47:32
[SPEAKER_03]: And I've noticed with my kids,
47:34
[SPEAKER_03]: I have one son who really likes the heat more than the rest.
47:37
[SPEAKER_03]: I have another son who really likes the cold more than the rest.
47:40
[SPEAKER_03]: I'm like, they grew up in the same place in the same family, but there you go.
47:45
[SPEAKER_03]: There you go.
47:46
[SPEAKER_01]: I grew up in Michigan.
47:47
[SPEAKER_01]: I have one sister who's still in Michigan.
47:49
[SPEAKER_01]: I have one sister who's California, who's like, I never want to do a winter again.
47:52
[SPEAKER_01]: And I'm in Maine.
47:54
[SPEAKER_01]: The Maine winters are on the coast at least, are more mild than in where I was in Michigan.
47:59
[SPEAKER_01]: But we do have winter here.
48:04
[SPEAKER_03]: Well, and cold water saling is a completely different experience than or the equatorial stuff.
48:09
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, definitely.
48:11
[SPEAKER_01]: And there's less people, which I love.
48:13
[SPEAKER_01]: It's not as crowded.
48:14
[SPEAKER_03]: That's fun.
48:18
[SPEAKER_03]: That's fun.
48:19
[SPEAKER_03]: It's so you have a theme here.
48:20
[SPEAKER_03]: It's purpose-driven adventures.
48:23
[SPEAKER_03]: Can we dive into that a little bit?
48:24
[SPEAKER_03]: What do you mean by purpose-driven?
48:27
[SPEAKER_01]: Um, I think there's an opportunity to do adventures where you're the whole goal of it is to have an adventure or to have a relaxing time or to get away from your day-to-day grind to whatever that might be the, you know, the routine of life.
48:43
[SPEAKER_01]: And, you know, we went sailing as a family for a week this summer, and that's what that was for.
48:49
[SPEAKER_01]: Was to just go sailing amongst the islands, anchor, go tide pooling, sleep in, drink tea in the cockpit, and drink good books, yeah, and that was wonderful.
49:01
[SPEAKER_01]: But, um, I really, I think if I were to do another long-term adventure, it's, it's really,
49:08
[SPEAKER_01]: I guess for me that I've done that kind of selling off so much that I'm ready for the next way to enrich my life, you know, like adventure on itself is very enriching.
49:22
[SPEAKER_01]: You feel accomplished, it opens your mind to new thoughts because you're in a different space, you're at a living life at a different pace, you become more reflective, maybe more creative.
49:34
[SPEAKER_01]: and you come back from that adventure with new ideas and it's a reset on life and and maybe you can create new habits or grow as a person and you know, you can still get into your life.
49:46
[SPEAKER_03]: It's all good.
49:47
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes.
49:48
[SPEAKER_01]: And then, but to go back and do the same event, the same type of adventure again and again, at some point I wanted something different.
49:57
[SPEAKER_01]: And so that's why I looked for, like, why not a nice book.
50:01
[SPEAKER_01]: I've never seen one.
50:02
[SPEAKER_01]: There's so mysterious.
50:03
[SPEAKER_01]: And then, why not do research and work with these different creative people and scientific people and learn from them and have that?
50:11
[SPEAKER_01]: kind of adventure, and then my next journey was to Panama, to an indigenous village, and to sail the migratory path of the leatherback sea turtle, and really get to know the sea turtle in this village, and in Newfoundland, and so forth, and why not have, you know, every time it was a little bit, it evolved a little bit.
50:31
[SPEAKER_01]: My next adventure is what can I give to my child for them to have such an enriching life.
50:36
[SPEAKER_03]: right so there's a different purpose each time yeah adventure just for the sake of adventure and doing what you like is is that's a good enough reason but it's not the only reason and I agree with you 100% when you can involve other people in a way that encourages them or you can do adventure in a way that benefits other people or builds awareness around something
51:02
[SPEAKER_03]: Um, then it takes on a new meaning, and I'll take it a step further.
51:07
[SPEAKER_03]: Theresa, I think what it's really about is sorting out our own personal values, what really resonates with us, and then being able to incorporate the things we love to do with that value system in a way that makes a difference for others a positive difference in the world.
51:24
[SPEAKER_03]: I mentioned to you before we hit record that we once had I think one time in 10 years But we had someone accused of just being a bunch of hedonists you just want to play all the time go get a job You know and I kind of laughed because I thought now you don't get it
51:41
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, there is some of that, of course.
51:43
[SPEAKER_03]: But, no, this is, this is about a health your life and living a meaningful life that makes a difference for the world, a difference for the people, a difference for the planet.
51:53
[SPEAKER_03]: There's so many ways that you can incorporate meaning into your adventures.
51:58
[SPEAKER_03]: And so, I love your idea, you know, the purpose, driven adventures.
52:03
[SPEAKER_03]: That's cool, super cool.
52:06
[SPEAKER_03]: I mean, I'm going to recap a little bit here.
52:08
[SPEAKER_03]: You do the Morning Muster Sailing Podcast.
52:12
[SPEAKER_03]: We didn't even touch on this.
52:13
[SPEAKER_03]: National Geographic Explorer.
52:17
[SPEAKER_03]: I'm not even sure what that means, though I've interviewed several.
52:19
[SPEAKER_03]: But it's like, well, how do you become that?
52:22
[SPEAKER_03]: What does that work?
52:24
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm not sure all the ways to become a National Geographic Explorer, but the way I became one is I proposed a project and I had already been working on the project so I proposed the finished, the second half of this project to National Geographic and received a grant from them, an Explorer's grant and that made me an National Geographic Explorer.
52:47
[SPEAKER_01]: The project that I proposed was, I briefly mentioned it earlier, I sailed the migratory path of the leatherback sea turtle between Panama and Newfoundland, between, you know, met with the researchers in Newfoundland that are tagging and studying the sea turtles up there and then went to this indigenous village in Panama where it's one of the largest nesting leatherback sea turtle populations in the world, or in the Atlantic.
53:12
[SPEAKER_01]: And I met with the indigenous village there and just learned about the sea turtle and their connection to us to people in these two very dramatically different cultures and locations.
53:26
[SPEAKER_01]: It was a storyteller's grant and that is a film that is in progress.
53:30
[SPEAKER_01]: It's one of my neverending projects actually.
53:34
[SPEAKER_01]: It's hard to finish.
53:36
[SPEAKER_01]: It's hard to finish because there's so much learning that I did from this experience and there's so much to say, but I also want to be thoughtful and careful with telling and handling the stories that you know that I learned about when I was in Panama and then also in Newfoundland.
53:52
[SPEAKER_01]: So it's a really challenging project to finish.
53:55
[SPEAKER_03]: Well, that's super fun, so the idea is that if you can apply for something with a project and say, hey, I'm going to do this, and this is the reason, and that is one way to become a National Geographic Explorer.
54:07
[SPEAKER_03]: You know, the first time I heard the term, I grew up with a National Geographic Magazine with... Yes, me too.
54:13
[SPEAKER_03]: Just loved.
54:14
[SPEAKER_03]: You know, I just loved.
54:16
[SPEAKER_03]: It was so cool.
54:18
[SPEAKER_03]: It's probably the best-peer-autical thing.
54:22
[SPEAKER_03]: and the picture was better than the day.
54:24
[SPEAKER_03]: I just thought it was so inviting.
54:27
[SPEAKER_03]: So many ideas to explore and places to see and I just couldn't believe it was my wishbook.
54:34
[SPEAKER_01]: And that's one way to spark adventure.
54:35
[SPEAKER_01]: Or just get up onto those magazines and look through the pictures.
54:40
[SPEAKER_03]: Um, you also have the Morse Alpha expeditions, and that's where you train people how to sail.
54:47
[SPEAKER_03]: And what did I miss?
54:48
[SPEAKER_03]: You have a lot going on, don't you?
54:50
[SPEAKER_01]: I do.
54:50
[SPEAKER_03]: I'm just going to miss.
54:53
[SPEAKER_01]: We can just leave it at that.
54:54
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm a mom.
54:55
[SPEAKER_01]: I gotta say that.
54:55
[SPEAKER_01]: That's like the most important thing.
54:57
[SPEAKER_01]: But I know that's not what you're looking for.
54:59
[SPEAKER_01]: Let's see.
55:00
[SPEAKER_01]: You said Morse Alpha expeditions.
55:02
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes.
55:02
[SPEAKER_01]: The morning mustard sailing podcast and working on Curiosity Weekly with Discovery.
55:07
[SPEAKER_03]: Right.
55:07
[SPEAKER_01]: Those are the main things.
55:09
[SPEAKER_03]: Okay, well, Teresa, thank you for sharing sailing with us and cold water sailing.
55:16
[SPEAKER_03]: That's kind of fun Yeah, because we don't always get that.
55:19
[SPEAKER_03]: I love you the idea of hey, I want to sail until I see an iceberg Those are the kinds of things that I think are so cool because it's it's unknown It's mysterious and it's variable and what a way to take on an adventure
55:33
[SPEAKER_03]: just super cool.
55:35
[SPEAKER_03]: But thank you for informing us on sailing and letting us know more about not just that, but the environment.
55:41
[SPEAKER_03]: Ideas about how we can care for it and maybe the number one way is to be informed.
55:46
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, that's where it starts.
55:48
[SPEAKER_03]: I super love that and I like your science approach to things.
55:53
[SPEAKER_03]: So anyway, thank you very much for your time today.
55:56
[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you so much for having me.
55:58
[SPEAKER_03]: you are most welcome and for all the listeners out there you know I always say get out there and have some fun but it's fun with purpose it's that purpose driven adventure that Theresa's talking about so thank you for listening to day and take care.
56:13
[SPEAKER_03]: Thanks