Don't Panic Geocast

Don't Panic Geocast rests on the rapport between John Leeman and Shannon Dulin, two voices who talk about geoscience with plenty of detours, teasing and laughter. Episodes open with the same deadpan line: 90% of all scientists who have ever been alive are alive today, and then the reminder that it is not an exact science. That motto sets the tone. The science is real, but it rarely arrives as a lecture. In one recent conversation, trace fossils lead to dinosaur trackways. The pair point out that a set of footprints can be a major draw at a state park, or something people pay to see on private land. Dinosaur Valley State Park in Texas comes up by name, though neither of them has been. Earthquakes get a more hands-on treatment. In a liquefaction discussion, the two list big historical examples in Japan, at Loma Prieta and in Christchurch, then turn to how much fun it is to shake sandy soil in a small box. Colored sand from a squeeze box becomes a possible next experiment. There is also a memory of heading out after the Prague earthquakes in Oklahoma to look at sand blows and mud blows. Science history is another strong vein. One stretch follows the thermometer from open instruments that reacted to air pressure and were calibrated in melting snow, through an early attempt to measure fevers, to the sealed design of the mid-1600s. Another explains why an absolute scale named for Lord Kelvin sits beside Fahrenheit and Celsius, with a stop at the ninth General Conference on Weights and Measures. The joke about that hard K sound ends up as an episode title, 'Hard K Sound is Hilarious'. Daily life is never far away. A snowstorm, an oil well burning near one of them, a bout of illness after travel and a long-postponed bathroom renovation all come up. There is even talk of bringing back a 'definitely panic' section for alarming news. A kitchen test about boiling eggs stretches across episodes, with more egg results promised. In an episode titled 'The rumors of our death', they are back after time away, amused that people kept emailing them the Mark Twain line, and they compare a year of reading that ran from biographies to Dungeon Crawler Carl. Pop culture gets a seat too: the two saw Twisters in different states and then reviewed it Siskel and Ebert style. Patreon supporters get thanked as always, a Discord channel gets a mention, and sign-offs note that the opinions are the speakers' own, not their employers' or funding agencies'. The back catalog is deep. For a first listen, 'How jiggly are your bits?' and 'Hard K Sound is Hilarious' show how the pair turn the history of measurement into easy, funny conversation.