Overheard at National Geographic

Come dive into one of the curiously delightful conversations overheard at National Geographic’s headquarters, as we follow explorers, photographers, and scientists to the edges of our big, weird, beautiful world. Hosted by Peter Gwin and Amy Briggs.

Latest Episodes:

First Ascent of a Sky Island Mar 22, 2022

Show notes

In the most remote part of Guyana, plateaus called tepuis—also known as sky islands for poking through the clouds—rise up from the jungle. They’re topped by unique ecosystems, filled with plants and animals never before seen by human eyes. That’s because getting there is no small feat. Eager to find new species but unable to scale the sheer cliff faces, 80-year-old biologist Bruce Means teamed up with professional climbers and Indigenous people to trek through the jungle and get to the top of an uncharted tepui named Weiassipu in search of frogs and adventure.

For more information on this episode, visit nationalgeographic.com/overheard.

Want More?

To learn more about the expedition to the top of Weiassipu, take a look at Mark Synnott’s feature story in the upcoming April issue of National Geographic magazine.

And to see these stunning sky islands for yourself, check out the National Geographic special Explorer: The Last Tepui, streaming on Earth Day, April 22, exclusively on Disney+.

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Nowruz and the Night Sky Mar 15, 2022

Show notes

Not everyone celebrates the New Year in the middle of winter; for 300 million people around the world, their New Year begins at the moment of the vernal equinox. The holiday of Nowruz celebrates that “new day” by encouraging us to make poetic connections between life and death, and past and present. National Geographic photographer Babak Tafreshi reacquaints us with the shimmering origins of this ancient Persian holiday; they are above our heads, shining in the night sky.

For more information on this episode, visit nationalgeographic.com/overheard.

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The International Dark Sky Association is working to protect our skies from light pollution. They can help you find your way to the starriest viewing on the planet.

As Nowruz approaches, it’s not too late to learn more about Iran’s long history of poets going back to more than 10 centuries.

Also explore:

If you’d like to create your own haft-sin table, check out these gorgeous examples for inspiration.

Babak Tafreshi has published a book of his beautiful night sky photography, The World at Night.

For subscribers:

Learn more about how light pollution is affecting our planet through images that Tafreshi captured.

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Amelia Earhart Part II: The Lady’s Legacy Mar 08, 2022

Show notes

Behind her modest smile and windblown charm, Amelia Earhart was a rarity in the 1930s: a fiercely confident woman with a dream to fly. Her adventurous spirit went well beyond setting records as a pilot—her true goal was perhaps equality for women. This is a different Amelia, which might explain why the mystery of her disappearance remains unsolved—explorers are looking in the wrong place.

For more information on this episode, visit nationalgeographic.com/overheard.

Want more?

Read “My Flight from Hawaii,” the 1935 article Earhart wrote for National Geographicabout her voyage from Hawaii to California.

Peruse the Amelia Earhart archive at Purdue University, which is filled with memorabilia and images from Earhart’s life, including her inimitable sense of fashion and some revolutionary luggage.

Take a look through Earhart’s childhood home in Atchison, Kansas. It’s now the Amelia Earhart Museum.

Also explore:

Check out Earhart’s cherry red Lockheed Vega 5B, used to fly across the Atlantic solo in 1932. It’s on display at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, in Washington, D.C.

Learn about the Ninety-Nines, an organization founded in 1929 to promote advancement for women in aviation. Earhart was the Ninety-Nines’ first president. Today its membership is composed of thousands of female pilots from around the world.

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Amelia Earhart Part I: The Lady Vanishes Mar 01, 2022

Show notes

Ever since Amelia Earhart made her last radio transmission somewhere over the Pacific, theories about her disappearance have proliferated; more than 80 years later, the constant retelling of her story shows no signs of slowing. Although the search to find a “smoking gun” has yielded little evidence, there are many who believe they know how Amelia’s story ended. Whether they’re right or wrong, one thing remains true: Their stories have little to do with Amelia herself.

For more information on this episode, visit nationalgeographic.com/overheard.

Want more?

Check out the maps of Amelia Earhart’s flight plan as well as archival photos, and take a peek inside Bob Ballard’s search vessel in a National Geographic story about Ballard’s expedition. You can also watch the documentary Expedition Amelia on Disney+.

See the final radio log between Earhart and the U.S. Coast Guard cutter Itasca on the morning she disappeared.

Also explore:

Learn about how cadaver dogs are used around the world to help uncover what humans can’t detect.

There’s a reason humans are such good storytellers—it’s to our evolutionary advantage. Learn about why we crave the ending to a story.

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Playback: The Battle for the Soul of Artificial Intelligence Feb 22, 2022

Show notes

With every breakthrough, computer scientists are pushing the boundaries of artificial intelligence (AI). We see it in everything from predictive text to facial recognition to mapping disease incidence. But increasingly machines show many of the same biases as humans, particularly with communities of color and vulnerable populations. In this episode, we learn how leading technologists are disrupting their own inventions to create a more humane AI.

For more information on this episode, visit nationalgeographic.com/overheard.

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In 2020 widespread use of medical masks has created a new niche—face-mask recognition. The technology would help local governments enforce mask mandates, but is it worth it?

Thanks to evolution, human faces are much more variable than other body parts. In the words of one researcher, “It's like evolving a name tag.”

Most people have difficulty accurately recognizing strangers. But a few individuals—called super-recognizers—excel at the task. London police have employed some of these people to help find criminal suspects.

Also explore:

Take a look at the documentary Coded Bias, featuring AI researcher Joy Buolamwini. The film explores Joy’s research on racial bias in facial recognition AI.

Read the NIST report, co-authored by Patrick Grother and discussed in this episode.

For subscribers:

Artificial intelligence and robotics have been improving rapidly. Our cover story from September 2020 explores the latest robotic technology from around the world.

In 1976 Isaac Asimov wrote an article for National Geographic predicting how humans might live in 2026.

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Summiting the World’s Most Dangerous Mountain Feb 15, 2022

Show notes

K2, a mountain in the Kashmir region of Asia, is the second highest peak on Earth and yet more dangerous than Mount Everest, especially in the winter. But in January 2021, a group of Nepali climbers attempted to accomplish what people thought was impossible. Team co-leader Mingma Gyalje Sherpa tells the story of the epic journey on what experienced climbers call the Savage Mountain.

For more information on this episode, visit nationalgeographic.com/overheard.

Want more?

Watch the video of the Nepali climbers summiting K2, singing their national anthem.

Check out Nims’s new, adventurous memoir, Beyond Possible.

And learn about previous attempts to summit K2. Our article follows a couple of European teams trying—and failing—to summit the mountain.

Also explore:

Curious about those Polish climbers who started this winter climbing craze? Read Bernadette McDonald’s book Freedom Climbers.

For reflections on the risks of mountaineering, listen to our recent episode about the tragic story of the late renowned climber Alex Lowe.

For subscribers:

There’s way more to this K2 expedition than we could cover in one episode. For more on Mingma G. and Nims’s journey, check out our magazine story.

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The Wonders of Urban Wildlife Feb 08, 2022

Show notes

National Geographic Explorer Danielle Lee takes us on a tour of potential research sites around her home in the St. Louis area, sharing her passion for witnessing how wildlife (particularly rodents) thrives in neglected urban spaces—along with the reality of doing fieldwork as a Black scientist and how she hopes to inspire young African Americans to join her.

For more information on this episode, visit nationalgeographic.com/overheard.

Want More?

Check out Danielle’s Ted Talks on how African pouched rats can help people find land mines and using hip-hop to communicate science.

And you can watch National Geographic’s video on Danielle’s work with field mice.

Also explore:

If you’re interested in the emerging field of segregation ecology, learn about how access to green space is affecting the behavior of urban coyotes. And here’s the scientific summary of the study on raccoons in St. Louis.

You can also listen to stories Danielle’s told live on stage for The Story Collider podcast: one on a terrible exchange with a science website editor and another on her experiences in Tanzania.

And read her thoughts on science outreach at her Urban Scientist blog on Scientific American.

Find Danielle Lee’s Twitter @DNLee5.

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The Price of Adventure Feb 01, 2022

Show notes

Renowned mountaineer Alex Lowe had reached the summit of his career by 1999, scaling some of the planet’s most challenging peaks. Just a few months after he was featured in National Geographic as “one of the world’s finest all-around climbers,” he was killed in an avalanche in Tibet. His son Max Lowe and his best friend, Conrad Anker, share their reflections on what it means to be a mountaineer and the true price of adventure.

For more information on this episode, visit nationalgeographic.com/overheard.

Want more?

More information about Max Lowe’s documentary, Torn, can be found here: https://films.nationalgeographic.com/torn

The sport of rock climbing has a long and eventful history, this article explains some of climbing’s greatest moments.

Check out our interview with Dawa Yangsum Sherpa, a Nepali climber who shares her thoughts on overcrowding on Mt. Everest.

Also explore:

The Alex Lowe Charitable Foundation was founded in memory of Alex Lowe and helps people living in remote parts of the world.

If you like what you hear and you want to support more content like this, please rate and review us in your podcast app and consider a National Geographic subscription. That’s the best way to support Overheard. Go to natgeo.com/explore to subscribe.

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The Arctic Story Hunter Jan 25, 2022

Show notes

What’s it like to grow up underneath the aurora borealis, on the shores of the Arctic Ocean? Photographer Evgenia Arbugaeva describes leaving—and returning to—Tiksi, a Siberian coastal town that during her childhood slowly became a ghost town in the wake of the Soviet collapse. That experience led her to find beauty in unexpected places—riding reindeer with nomadic herders and watching Arctic storms in isolated weather stations.

For more information on this episode, visit natgeo.com/overheard.

Want More?

See Evgenia’s photos in National Geographic, which include stories of the lucrative “tusk rush” on woolly mammoth bones that have emerged from Russian permafrost as well as the murky world of butterfly trading in Indonesia.

Evgenia’s lens also focuses on the wild whimsy of her frigid hometown, Tiksi. See more photos on Instagram @evgenia_arbugaeva and @natgeo.

Also explore:

Learn how a gigantic offshore oil rig could radically alter the Arctic environment.

Listen to a Nat Geo photographer explain in a previous Overheard episode how climate change’s impact on the Arctic is threatening the way of life for Alaskan Natives.

If you like what you hear and want to support more content like this, please consider a National Geographic subscription. Go to natgeo.com/explore to subscribe today.

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Resurrecting Notre-Dame de Paris Jan 18, 2022

Show notes

National Geographic photographer Tomas van Houtryve documents the layered history and revival of one of the world’s most enduring landmarks, Notre-Dame de Paris. A reflection of the city and part of its soul, the cathedral has been ravaged, reimagined, and resurrected over the course of eight centuries. Badly damaged by fire in 2019, Notre-Dame is again in the hands of skilled artisans who are braving dizzying heights and dangerous conditions to bring the cathedral back to life.

For more information on this episode, visit nationalgeographic.com/overheard.

Want more?

For more on the restoration of the Notre Dame de Paris, read National Geographic’s magazine story, which features Tomas van Houtryve’s photography and drone videos.

Take a look at more than a century of photos of Notre Dame from National Geographic’s archive, including some very curious-looking gargoyles.

The late art historian Andrew Tallon had a vision to map Notre-Dame de Paris with lasers. His work has aided the reconstruction of the cathedral.

Also explore:

Victor Hugo is a literary icon with deep connections throughout French culture. See the source of his inspirations here.

Painter Henri Matisse could see Notre Dame from his window on Quai Saint-Michel; it was the subject of many of his paintings and sketches. But many other artists had their own angle on the cathedral. See 16 of them here.

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