Curiosity Daily Podcast: Explorers Club - Steve Elkins

Today, we are lucky enough to hear from a highly accomplished explorer who has some incredible experiences to share with us. Dr. Sian Proctor was the mission pilot for the Inspiration4, which is the all-civilian orbital mission to space and she’s the first African American woman to pilot a spacecraft. She also lived in a Mars analog environment to simulate what it might be like to live on the red planet.

Today we are speaking to another member of the Explorers Club, Peter Tattersfield. Peter has an awesome story for us today about his work finding the shipwreck of the Steamship Independence, which sank off the coast of Baja, Mexico in 1853.

Today, we’re hearing from an explorer's explorer, Victor Vescovo. His Five Deeps Expedition made him the first person to reach the deepest point of the Atlantic, Southern Ocean, and set a depth record in the Mariana Trench at 35,853 ft. He was the first person to reach the Mollow Deep in the Arctic Ocean, and thus has been to the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd deepest points in the ocean.

Today, we’re talking to Explorers Club member, Dr. George C. Nield. Dr. George C. Nield is currently the Associate Administrator for Commercial Space Transportation at the Federal Aviation Administration (or FAA).

Hear from Joe Rohde, a former Disney Imagineer and the Experience Architect for Virgin Galactic. As an Imagineer, he was the leader of the team behind Disney’s Animal Kingdom. Joe is also Co-Chair of the Explorers Club 50 program.

Learn about ESP; why people panicked about electricity in the 1800s; and how embryos use sound to prepare for the world.

Today, we are continuing our Explorers Club series today with a very special guest, Dr. Natalie Schmitt. Dr. Schmitt can do it all - really. She’s not only a conservation geneticist, but she’s a marine ecologist and documentary host.

Learn about a new computer model that may have gotten us closer to figuring out how we choose our mates; why Meno’s paradox says you can’t ever learn anything new; and whether the Earth weighs the same as it did billions of years ago.

Neil Shubin is back to talk about the viruses lurking in your DNA. You’ll also learn about whether it’s true that turkeys are so dumb that they drown in rainstorms, and why domineering people don't rise through the ranks any faster.

Learn about how hoarders’ brains see their belongings; why dolphins consciously lower their heart rates; and what scientists think happened before the big bang.