WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.160 --> 00:00:03.439 Imagine the place where you can escape for a day, 2 00:00:04.280 --> 00:00:08.800 get immerged in a world of rooms, inspiration and expertise, 3 00:00:09.359 --> 00:00:14.480 where you can lay in luxury, accommodation and kids cam 4 00:00:14.560 --> 00:00:20.320 fees from ninety five sets. Tickets are free to everyone 5 00:00:20.559 --> 00:00:25.559 and include all the attractions you've just imagined a day 6 00:00:25.719 --> 00:00:28.879 out at Ikia Ikia the Wonderful. 7 00:00:29.000 --> 00:00:31.960 Every day your flat out and your to do list 8 00:00:32.000 --> 00:00:35.719 is grown by the minute, But unfortunately so is your headache. 9 00:00:35.759 --> 00:00:41.000 And now you've gone from flat out to flattened. Luckily, 10 00:00:41.159 --> 00:00:44.880 Panodal extra film coated tablets are boosted by caffeine and 11 00:00:44.920 --> 00:00:47.159 they get to work in as little as ten minutes 12 00:00:47.960 --> 00:00:51.560 for powerful relief. That's more than just paracetamol. That's one 13 00:00:51.640 --> 00:00:56.240 for panadal speed based on absorption data contains paracetamol. Always 14 00:00:56.240 --> 00:00:57.320 read the label or leaflet. 15 00:01:00.399 --> 00:01:04.640 Oh hey, it's your weird lady uncle who sometimes finds 16 00:01:04.719 --> 00:01:07.719 Rhese's pieces in the pockets of blazers she hasn't worn 17 00:01:07.719 --> 00:01:11.359 in weeks and eats some Allie board. Now I'm kind 18 00:01:11.359 --> 00:01:13.239 of excited for you. You get to listen to this 19 00:01:13.319 --> 00:01:15.599 episode for the first time. It's all a bout to happen. 20 00:01:15.959 --> 00:01:18.400 Now I've already heard the conversation twice maybe three times 21 00:01:18.400 --> 00:01:21.079 now and edits but you haven't even heard it once, 22 00:01:21.359 --> 00:01:25.200 and it's amazing. So it's about the earth and also 23 00:01:25.319 --> 00:01:28.400 saving it. Now, in the coming weeks, we have episodes 24 00:01:28.400 --> 00:01:33.159 about ants and Egyptian mummies and crime and crow funerals 25 00:01:33.200 --> 00:01:36.680 and breast health. But last week's episode was on oceanology, 26 00:01:36.799 --> 00:01:39.920 and we really got a glimpse of how sick we've 27 00:01:40.000 --> 00:01:42.760 made the seas, and I heard from a lot of 28 00:01:42.760 --> 00:01:45.799 you that it was inspiring and informative, so I thought 29 00:01:45.799 --> 00:01:47.799 that could be the one punch, and this is the 30 00:01:47.840 --> 00:01:50.760 two punch. So this week we're following up with another 31 00:01:50.879 --> 00:01:56.000 eco episode that's really really colorful and adventurous and inspiring, 32 00:01:56.120 --> 00:01:59.120 and its gadget driven and it will restore your faith 33 00:01:59.159 --> 00:02:01.599 in the future even more, I think, so, I hope. 34 00:02:01.599 --> 00:02:03.959 So this one is such a weird ology because it 35 00:02:04.079 --> 00:02:07.359 might be one of the newest ologies out there, but 36 00:02:07.439 --> 00:02:10.719 it's also at the intersection of nature and the future 37 00:02:10.919 --> 00:02:15.199 and machines and animals and brainiac do goodery, all kind 38 00:02:15.240 --> 00:02:19.120 of suspended in an atmosphere of adventure. So this dude 39 00:02:19.159 --> 00:02:24.240 has good intentions a truly boggling capacity with technology and 40 00:02:24.319 --> 00:02:29.199 some stories. Dude has stories. But first, you know, I 41 00:02:29.280 --> 00:02:31.520 do a little effusive thinking up top, and I just 42 00:02:31.520 --> 00:02:33.280 want to say thank you to the patrons who spend 43 00:02:33.319 --> 00:02:36.159 as little as twenty five cents an episode supporting the show. 44 00:02:36.240 --> 00:02:39.319 It adds up and keeps it going. For the last year, 45 00:02:39.319 --> 00:02:42.520 this has been a totally independently made passion project, and 46 00:02:42.680 --> 00:02:46.000 patrons help me pay an editor to keep it professional. 47 00:02:46.240 --> 00:02:48.319 They help me pay myself a little for the time 48 00:02:48.319 --> 00:02:51.560 I put into making it, and you know, we buy batteries, 49 00:02:51.719 --> 00:02:55.240 sound cards, things like that. Speaking of buying ologies, meerch 50 00:02:55.319 --> 00:02:58.039 dot com has all new back to school items like 51 00:02:58.199 --> 00:03:02.840 backpacks printed with sharp and coffee mugs about trains, and 52 00:03:02.879 --> 00:03:06.520 there are college sweatshirts that say ologies and crested items. 53 00:03:06.719 --> 00:03:08.759 Thank you to Bonnie Dutch and Shannon Felts for making 54 00:03:08.759 --> 00:03:12.080 those available and designing them. You can also rate and 55 00:03:12.159 --> 00:03:15.120 review and subscribe. That keeps ologies up in the charts, 56 00:03:15.120 --> 00:03:17.759 So thank you for that. It takes just a few 57 00:03:17.840 --> 00:03:20.199 minutes and it just feels like a good deed. It 58 00:03:20.240 --> 00:03:24.479 doesn't cost a time. Also, I lurk around the Apple 59 00:03:24.520 --> 00:03:27.199 podcast reviews and yeah, I take a peek and each 60 00:03:27.240 --> 00:03:29.719 week I read a fresh one just to prove it. 61 00:03:29.800 --> 00:03:33.039 And this week I want to thank de Hepting for 62 00:03:33.159 --> 00:03:37.400 saying I'm wicked stoked about this podcast. Y'all. It's every 63 00:03:37.439 --> 00:03:40.280 NERD's dream come true. The podcast is essential because it 64 00:03:40.280 --> 00:03:43.479 makes science fun. You'll even pick up useful phrases. I 65 00:03:43.560 --> 00:03:46.879 recently worked a boy Howdie into a presentation. I gave 66 00:03:46.879 --> 00:03:49.680 it work last week, So thank you de Hepting for 67 00:03:49.879 --> 00:03:53.840 your wicked good boy Howdy slip, keep doing it, Okay, 68 00:03:54.240 --> 00:03:57.840 Conservation technology ward, what is this all about? What kind 69 00:03:57.879 --> 00:04:00.759 of word sandwich is this? Oh, it's a good one. 70 00:04:00.800 --> 00:04:04.199 It's a real fluff or nutter of anology, you guys. 71 00:04:04.400 --> 00:04:07.080 So conservation in this sense refers to that of the 72 00:04:07.080 --> 00:04:11.000 earth or plants or animals, and techne comes from the 73 00:04:11.000 --> 00:04:14.840 Greek for art or craft, so it's the art of 74 00:04:15.000 --> 00:04:18.959 saving the world, no biggie. Now. This conservation technologist was 75 00:04:19.000 --> 00:04:25.079 recommended by our lepidopterologist Phil Torres aka Philly t Exoskeleators, 76 00:04:25.480 --> 00:04:29.120 and it turns out he also knows last week's oceanologist, 77 00:04:29.160 --> 00:04:33.040 doctor Ayana Johnson, so he runs in some great nerd circles. 78 00:04:33.639 --> 00:04:38.319 He started the nonprofit Conservatify, which makes open source technology 79 00:04:38.439 --> 00:04:42.199 to very broadly help save the planet. He's also a 80 00:04:42.279 --> 00:04:46.759 fellow at the National Geographic Society. He's been on expeditions 81 00:04:46.959 --> 00:04:49.519 all over the world, and in this episode we talk 82 00:04:49.600 --> 00:04:53.360 about tracking gorillas in the Congo, taking the pulse of 83 00:04:53.519 --> 00:04:57.720 Canadian glaciers, working with indigenous communities in the Amazon to 84 00:04:57.839 --> 00:05:02.360 monitor logging, some shark tech, and also fishing vests and 85 00:05:02.439 --> 00:05:06.240 hippo butts. To score this interview, I trecked all the 86 00:05:06.279 --> 00:05:10.040 way to the remote reaches of downtown Los Angeles to 87 00:05:10.079 --> 00:05:13.360 see his really cool lab slash office, and I made 88 00:05:13.439 --> 00:05:15.800 him give me a tour first, which really consisted of 89 00:05:15.839 --> 00:05:18.199 me like just pointing at objects and asking him what 90 00:05:18.240 --> 00:05:21.600 they were. So please shore up your hip waiters and 91 00:05:21.720 --> 00:05:25.079 roll up your sleeves to dig into a really wonderful 92 00:05:25.160 --> 00:05:48.720 chat with conservation technologist Shaw Selby. Okay, so you're gonna 93 00:05:48.720 --> 00:05:50.160 give me a tour of your lab. I walked by 94 00:05:50.199 --> 00:05:51.600 and I just saw that there's a whiteboard and all 95 00:05:51.600 --> 00:05:54.160 it says on it just suns like, okay, give me 96 00:05:54.199 --> 00:05:54.560 the tour. 97 00:05:54.800 --> 00:05:57.160 Yeah, okay, So yeah, so this is you know, this 98 00:05:57.199 --> 00:06:00.240 is our lab. It's kind of in between like a 99 00:06:00.279 --> 00:06:02.160 maker space or a hacker space. 100 00:06:01.920 --> 00:06:05.040 And now you also have a gurgling, algae filled ter areum. 101 00:06:05.120 --> 00:06:08.560 Let's go look at it. Yeah, so this is it's 102 00:06:08.600 --> 00:06:11.000 just a regular fish tank, but we've kind of allowed 103 00:06:11.000 --> 00:06:13.879 it to grow into this ecosystem in and of itself. 104 00:06:13.959 --> 00:06:16.480 But we wanted to do that because we build these 105 00:06:16.519 --> 00:06:18.920 sensors that can test water quality in different parts of 106 00:06:18.920 --> 00:06:20.839 the world, and if we were just using a regular 107 00:06:20.879 --> 00:06:23.600 fish tank, the data would be boring, so we allow 108 00:06:23.600 --> 00:06:26.519 it to kind of grow and get all this weird stuff. 109 00:06:26.680 --> 00:06:31.439 So for visual reference, imagine a small, gurgling aquarium, thick 110 00:06:31.680 --> 00:06:35.000 with algae strands, kind of like if Beetlejuice dropped his 111 00:06:35.079 --> 00:06:38.279 wig into a fish tank, but more vibrant and alive 112 00:06:38.519 --> 00:06:40.920 and with electronics submerged. 113 00:06:41.199 --> 00:06:43.279 And you can see there's a whole bunch of sensors 114 00:06:43.279 --> 00:06:45.000 that are sitting in there now, and we have some 115 00:06:45.040 --> 00:06:47.959 of them connected to some of our electronics monitoring it. 116 00:06:48.040 --> 00:06:50.319 And this is the sort of setup that we end 117 00:06:50.360 --> 00:06:52.759 up taking and deploying in places like Botswana or the 118 00:06:52.800 --> 00:06:55.879 Amazon rainforest or some of the other places that we work. 119 00:06:56.000 --> 00:06:57.680 And you're testing it in a fish tank in your 120 00:06:57.720 --> 00:06:59.040 office in Onetown, Los Angeles. 121 00:06:59.160 --> 00:07:01.360 Yeah, well, it's I like to call it our ecosystem. 122 00:07:01.439 --> 00:07:05.439 Pardon, pardon, fishank, I'm an ecosystem? How dare I? And 123 00:07:05.480 --> 00:07:07.759 then you have let's see, I'm just going to start 124 00:07:07.839 --> 00:07:14.399 naming things off. It appears you have mallets, hammers, soldering equipment. Yeah, correct, yeah, 125 00:07:14.519 --> 00:07:16.680 more microscopes. What are you doing with all this? Are 126 00:07:16.720 --> 00:07:19.439 you tinkering with technology to make it work better for you? 127 00:07:19.439 --> 00:07:21.800 You know? We use this setup to build the technology 128 00:07:21.839 --> 00:07:24.399 that we take out on expedition. It's it's actually a 129 00:07:24.439 --> 00:07:25.920 lot of the same gear that you would find in 130 00:07:26.000 --> 00:07:28.800 like your local maker space, because we use a lot 131 00:07:28.800 --> 00:07:31.439 of the same methods that that makers use when they're 132 00:07:31.759 --> 00:07:34.079 building their projects. But we do all the building and 133 00:07:34.120 --> 00:07:36.759 the testing and everything here before we take it out 134 00:07:37.360 --> 00:07:38.079 on expedition. 135 00:07:38.439 --> 00:07:39.480 Do you three D print things? 136 00:07:39.600 --> 00:07:41.319 We do? We have two three D printers, we have 137 00:07:41.399 --> 00:07:43.439 laser cutter. It's a lot of fun stuff. 138 00:07:43.720 --> 00:07:46.480 Dang, this is awesome. Okay, let's sit down. Okay, okay, 139 00:07:46.639 --> 00:07:49.560 let's get to the interview. What's Shaw's job? 140 00:07:50.120 --> 00:07:54.839 So I'm a conservation technologist, which it's actually a title 141 00:07:54.839 --> 00:07:57.639 that didn't really exist before I sort of made it up, 142 00:07:57.759 --> 00:08:01.240 and fortunately now other people are calling themselves conservation technologists. 143 00:08:01.240 --> 00:08:03.600 So it's become more of a thing. The work that 144 00:08:03.639 --> 00:08:05.519 I do came from stuff that I was doing when 145 00:08:05.560 --> 00:08:07.639 I was going to grad school at Stanford. I studied 146 00:08:07.639 --> 00:08:10.759 engineering in university. I always only wanted to be an engineer, 147 00:08:10.759 --> 00:08:15.120 That's all I wanted to do. But I always also 148 00:08:15.160 --> 00:08:17.839 felt that engineering kind of had this great role that 149 00:08:17.839 --> 00:08:19.680 it could do some amazing things in the world, right, 150 00:08:19.720 --> 00:08:23.839 I mean, it helps us, you know, protect people, solve diseases, 151 00:08:24.680 --> 00:08:28.000 build this, you know, these cities and everything that we 152 00:08:28.079 --> 00:08:29.639 live in. And so I thought that there was like 153 00:08:29.680 --> 00:08:31.240 a kind of more profound work that I could do 154 00:08:31.279 --> 00:08:33.200 with engineering. So I was always searching a. 155 00:08:33.120 --> 00:08:36.440 Bit so little aside. Shaw got his bachelor's at UC 156 00:08:36.639 --> 00:08:40.879 Riverside in chemical engineering and his master's at USC in 157 00:08:41.039 --> 00:08:45.639 systems architecture, and he also studied engineering at Stanford. Now 158 00:08:45.679 --> 00:08:49.639 in grad school, he started working with an environmental nonprofit 159 00:08:50.120 --> 00:08:54.799 using technology to address illegal fishing, and he was like, ooh, 160 00:08:55.159 --> 00:09:00.360 will I can use gadgetry to help address the Earth's 161 00:09:00.600 --> 00:09:01.320 this is a thing. 162 00:09:01.919 --> 00:09:04.639 And from then on everything just kind of took off. 163 00:09:04.679 --> 00:09:06.159 And so I was looking at ways that we could 164 00:09:06.240 --> 00:09:09.759 use new technologies. You know, like mobile technologies and drones 165 00:09:09.799 --> 00:09:11.879 and satellites and all sorts of stuff like that to 166 00:09:11.960 --> 00:09:14.840 help to find people who are fishing in places that 167 00:09:14.840 --> 00:09:15.799 they shouldn't be fishing. 168 00:09:16.120 --> 00:09:18.679 And then it kind of expanded to doing work in 169 00:09:18.879 --> 00:09:22.200 a lot of different areas in terms of like conservation 170 00:09:22.519 --> 00:09:28.080 and ecology and saving the general planet from just just 171 00:09:28.240 --> 00:09:30.600 current fuckedness that's happening, right. 172 00:09:30.600 --> 00:09:33.080 Yeah, yeah, totally. And so a lot of those technologies 173 00:09:33.080 --> 00:09:34.960 that I was looking at for that one very specific 174 00:09:35.000 --> 00:09:37.240 problem could be applied to other problems as well, And 175 00:09:37.279 --> 00:09:39.840 so I started branching out more and more and reaching 176 00:09:39.840 --> 00:09:43.000 out to beyond just ocean conservation stuff and to terrestrial stuff. 177 00:09:43.000 --> 00:09:44.720 And so now the work that we do is kind 178 00:09:44.720 --> 00:09:45.480 of a mix of both. 179 00:09:45.639 --> 00:09:49.000 Take me back to your childhood. At what point did 180 00:09:49.039 --> 00:09:52.080 you know you were good at engineering or mechanics or 181 00:09:52.799 --> 00:09:55.519 had a passion for environmental things. Did you take like 182 00:09:55.840 --> 00:09:56.639 toasters apart? 183 00:09:57.320 --> 00:10:00.000 Yeah? Actually, you know, I was that kid that would 184 00:10:00.080 --> 00:10:04.240 take things apart. I was very curious about what was 185 00:10:04.519 --> 00:10:07.279 inside of you know, it actually turns out that I 186 00:10:07.279 --> 00:10:09.080 was very curious about what was inside of my dad's 187 00:10:09.080 --> 00:10:14.399 expensive audio equipment, Like, uh, why did we have this try, 188 00:10:14.519 --> 00:10:17.440 Yeah exactly, but like, you know, credit to my dad, 189 00:10:17.440 --> 00:10:19.879 instead of getting angry at me, he would teach me 190 00:10:19.960 --> 00:10:21.720 how to put it back together. And I feel like 191 00:10:21.759 --> 00:10:23.879 that put that little engineering bug in me at an 192 00:10:23.919 --> 00:10:24.559 early age. 193 00:10:24.759 --> 00:10:27.440 Oh what a good dude, Yeah, what kind of I 194 00:10:27.480 --> 00:10:29.559 love that you went for the expensive audio quiber like 195 00:10:29.639 --> 00:10:32.000 not a Walkman from like nineteen eighty six, but you're like, oh, 196 00:10:32.240 --> 00:10:34.279 the new surround sound. What did you take apart? 197 00:10:34.480 --> 00:10:34.679 Yeah? 198 00:10:34.720 --> 00:10:37.480 I mean it was his amplifier and like who his 199 00:10:37.519 --> 00:10:40.000 whole setup that I ended up kind of taking it 200 00:10:40.039 --> 00:10:42.559 apart initially, and then we would we would just start 201 00:10:42.600 --> 00:10:44.840 to take other things apart and learn about how they worked. 202 00:10:44.840 --> 00:10:47.440 My dad wasn't even an engineer, but he he was 203 00:10:47.519 --> 00:10:49.320 very caurious about that stuff all the time. So we'd 204 00:10:49.320 --> 00:10:52.159 explore it together. And I knew from then on that 205 00:10:52.240 --> 00:10:55.120 I wanted to, you know, be somehow involved in technology 206 00:10:55.120 --> 00:10:56.279 and making things like that. 207 00:10:56.639 --> 00:10:58.919 And then when you were deciding what your major was 208 00:10:58.919 --> 00:11:02.000 in college or deciding what your path was, I understand, 209 00:11:02.799 --> 00:11:04.960 and it seems to be well known that you were 210 00:11:05.000 --> 00:11:07.879 just like a casual rocket scientist professionally for a number 211 00:11:07.879 --> 00:11:13.080 of years. Like how did you go from you know, 212 00:11:13.200 --> 00:11:16.240 being a curious kid who took apart amplifiers and probably 213 00:11:16.279 --> 00:11:19.480 like made them even hell a sweeter before putting them 214 00:11:19.480 --> 00:11:21.639 back together. To being a rocket scientist. 215 00:11:22.320 --> 00:11:26.679 Yeah yeah, I did that for I worked as a 216 00:11:26.759 --> 00:11:29.759 rocket scient I don't like saying rocket science it sounds 217 00:11:30.120 --> 00:11:32.879 but okay, So my official title was I was a 218 00:11:34.039 --> 00:11:37.879 spacecraft propulsion engineer, so I would work on all the 219 00:11:37.960 --> 00:11:40.399 rocket engines and tanks and everything that would move around 220 00:11:40.399 --> 00:11:42.519 satellites when they're in space. And I did that at 221 00:11:42.559 --> 00:11:45.399 Boeing for ten years, and so I ended up going 222 00:11:45.399 --> 00:11:48.600 to school for chemical engineering, and coming out of school, 223 00:11:48.879 --> 00:11:51.039 I was looking around at the kinds of jobs that 224 00:11:51.080 --> 00:11:53.320 a chemical engineer could get, and the only thing that 225 00:11:53.360 --> 00:11:57.480 could find at that moment was working in waste treatment plants, 226 00:11:57.519 --> 00:11:59.519 which is a very important role. But it didn't I 227 00:11:59.519 --> 00:12:02.519 didn't feel very inspired by working in waste treatment at 228 00:12:02.519 --> 00:12:02.960 that moment. 229 00:12:03.320 --> 00:12:05.840 By the way, I have someone on deck to do this, 230 00:12:06.080 --> 00:12:10.960 a shall we say, reclamation hydrologist named Lori. I mean, 231 00:12:11.440 --> 00:12:14.399 I want to know about waste water and what happens, 232 00:12:14.440 --> 00:12:16.440 where does it go, what do we do with it? It's 233 00:12:16.320 --> 00:12:19.559 so important. Okay, but that's anology for another time. But okay, 234 00:12:19.600 --> 00:12:24.320 So Shaw was less interested in underground water works and 235 00:12:24.440 --> 00:12:29.200 instead looked to the sky for his first post college job, 236 00:12:29.519 --> 00:12:32.399 and he says he sent out letters and reached out 237 00:12:32.399 --> 00:12:34.799 to as many people as he could, and he landed 238 00:12:35.159 --> 00:12:37.960 a long running and very successful gig at a little 239 00:12:38.159 --> 00:12:42.639 space place called Boeing, where he worked on satellites, including 240 00:12:43.200 --> 00:12:47.559 thirteen satellite launches. He said, twelve of which made it 241 00:12:47.559 --> 00:12:51.399 into space. And I was curious. I had to ask, like, 242 00:12:51.639 --> 00:12:55.480 how does it feel when one does not make it? 243 00:12:55.840 --> 00:12:58.399 And so we sat around for about an hour hour 244 00:12:58.440 --> 00:13:00.679 and a half, everyone knowing some thing kind of went wrong, 245 00:13:00.720 --> 00:13:03.039 but we didn't get the official word from them until then. 246 00:13:03.759 --> 00:13:05.840 So people are starting to get more and more depressed. 247 00:13:06.159 --> 00:13:08.039 And finally we just all ended up at a bar. 248 00:13:08.399 --> 00:13:11.879 Well, yeah, you're like hot winks anyone, Yeah, let's do that. 249 00:13:13.000 --> 00:13:16.639 But I mean, that's part of science is failures. I mean, 250 00:13:16.679 --> 00:13:20.279 everything that you do that isn't a huge success out 251 00:13:20.279 --> 00:13:22.559 of the gate, like literally out of an out of 252 00:13:22.559 --> 00:13:26.679 a launch gate, you end up learning from right totally. 253 00:13:26.720 --> 00:13:29.399 I mean, and you know, I would say even more 254 00:13:29.440 --> 00:13:31.440 so now failure is part of our process. I mean 255 00:13:31.440 --> 00:13:34.360 we're trying to do some really hard things here at 256 00:13:34.360 --> 00:13:36.919 this lab where we're trying to bring technology in places 257 00:13:36.960 --> 00:13:38.799 where technology doesn't want to be, you know, in the 258 00:13:38.799 --> 00:13:41.039 middle of wetlands, at the bottom of the ocean, all 259 00:13:41.080 --> 00:13:43.639 sorts of places where the environment is drastic, and we're 260 00:13:43.639 --> 00:13:45.120 trying to do it in a way that's you know, 261 00:13:45.639 --> 00:13:48.879 affordable for anyone to use or for scientists that are 262 00:13:48.919 --> 00:13:51.480 outside of kind of the richest universities in the world 263 00:13:51.559 --> 00:13:54.159 to have access to. So that means sometimes things fail. 264 00:13:54.320 --> 00:13:56.120 You have to be okay with that. 265 00:13:56.720 --> 00:13:59.840 And now, when you left Boeing, what was it like 266 00:14:00.120 --> 00:14:02.879 to be like, I've been here for a long time. 267 00:14:02.960 --> 00:14:05.399 I'm good at what I do. It's time to move 268 00:14:05.440 --> 00:14:08.679 on to something that is maybe more like enriching on 269 00:14:08.720 --> 00:14:11.720 a personal level. What was that decision like? Did you 270 00:14:11.759 --> 00:14:13.360 just like wring your hands about it for a year 271 00:14:13.480 --> 00:14:15.519 or were you just like boom, I made a decision yesterday, 272 00:14:15.519 --> 00:14:16.000 it's happening. 273 00:14:16.320 --> 00:14:18.440 Yeah. It was a bit of a process, as these 274 00:14:18.480 --> 00:14:20.720 things tend to be. You know, I was kind of 275 00:14:20.759 --> 00:14:23.240 known at Boeing as the do good or engineer. I 276 00:14:23.279 --> 00:14:25.440 worked with engineers without borders for a long time, and 277 00:14:25.480 --> 00:14:29.000 then this stuff started happening. And towards the end of it, 278 00:14:29.039 --> 00:14:31.240 towards my last year at Boeing, I was going on 279 00:14:31.279 --> 00:14:33.559 expeditions all the time. I'd be gone for a month 280 00:14:33.600 --> 00:14:36.440 in Africa or something, and it just got to a 281 00:14:36.440 --> 00:14:39.759 point where it's like it very clearly made sense for 282 00:14:39.799 --> 00:14:43.159 me to move forward into this other one. The thing 283 00:14:43.200 --> 00:14:45.919 that kind of lit the fire underneath was I was 284 00:14:45.960 --> 00:14:50.279 offered a fellowship at National Geographic Society. So basically, you know, 285 00:14:50.360 --> 00:14:53.039 it's a very hard thing, a very prestigious thing to 286 00:14:53.039 --> 00:14:54.879 be able to get to be a fellow there. And 287 00:14:54.960 --> 00:14:57.080 so once I got it, that came with funding that 288 00:14:57.159 --> 00:15:00.639 allowed me to start my nonprofit and do this full time. 289 00:15:00.679 --> 00:15:04.240 But I had been doing this work for a decade before. 290 00:15:04.399 --> 00:15:06.000 What was it like when you gave your notice? 291 00:15:06.320 --> 00:15:07.279 It was very exciting. 292 00:15:07.360 --> 00:15:09.039 What did you do? Did you write it on a 293 00:15:09.039 --> 00:15:10.720 cake and be like, hey, guys, there's cake in the 294 00:15:10.759 --> 00:15:11.639 break room And it's. 295 00:15:11.519 --> 00:15:14.919 Like, I'm out. No, I mean, I remember I walked 296 00:15:14.919 --> 00:15:18.639 into my boss's office and I sat down next to 297 00:15:18.679 --> 00:15:20.759 her and I started to tell her, and she's just 298 00:15:20.799 --> 00:15:23.919 like I already knew, Yeah, I knew this was coming. 299 00:15:24.000 --> 00:15:26.919 This is like a surprise. So she said, this is fine. 300 00:15:27.039 --> 00:15:30.559 They actually, you know, Boeing really liked me being there, 301 00:15:30.879 --> 00:15:34.240 so they offered to put me on a extended leave 302 00:15:34.279 --> 00:15:37.919 of absence just to see if things worked out, right, Yeah, 303 00:15:37.960 --> 00:15:40.240 and I never went back, so they worked out. 304 00:15:41.240 --> 00:15:44.440 So can you tell me you work on so many 305 00:15:44.600 --> 00:15:47.559 things in so many parts of the world, can you 306 00:15:47.600 --> 00:15:48.960 give me a little bit of a rundown? 307 00:15:49.399 --> 00:15:52.360 Sure? Yeah, So yeah we do. We do a lot 308 00:15:52.440 --> 00:15:55.639 of stuff and it's quite exciting. The kind of the 309 00:15:55.679 --> 00:15:58.360 longest running project that we've had was what has now 310 00:15:58.360 --> 00:16:02.320 become a major initiative national joke called the Okavangle Wilderness Project. 311 00:16:02.440 --> 00:16:04.879 And so that's that's the project that's in Botswana and 312 00:16:05.039 --> 00:16:09.159 maybe an Angola, and it's really focused around how we 313 00:16:09.200 --> 00:16:13.039 can better protect the Okavango Delta in Botswana, which. 314 00:16:12.799 --> 00:16:15.399 Is where a lot of animals live. It's very rich 315 00:16:15.440 --> 00:16:16.360 with wildlife. 316 00:16:16.080 --> 00:16:19.000 Yeah, incredibly rich with wildlife, and it's just just this 317 00:16:19.080 --> 00:16:22.080 beautiful wetland that it's a series of rivers that flows 318 00:16:22.080 --> 00:16:24.879 into the middle of the Kalahari Desert and just becomes 319 00:16:24.960 --> 00:16:27.840 this paradise. I mean, there's so many, so much wildlife 320 00:16:27.840 --> 00:16:29.679 there that some of those days I'd be in my 321 00:16:29.720 --> 00:16:31.360 tent I'd open up my tent, I'd walk out, and 322 00:16:31.399 --> 00:16:32.480 it felt like you were in the middle of a 323 00:16:32.480 --> 00:16:36.039 Disney movie. There's elephants hanging out with giraffes and wildebeeste 324 00:16:36.120 --> 00:16:38.639 and I mean zebras everything. It's just it's amazing. 325 00:16:38.720 --> 00:16:41.559 You know, bird lands on your shoulder, butterfly comes and 326 00:16:41.600 --> 00:16:44.120 offers you coffee. You're like, what's happening totally. 327 00:16:44.159 --> 00:16:46.240 So what we're doing with that project was it's actually 328 00:16:46.279 --> 00:16:50.960 pretty interesting. You know. Traditionally, when scientists want to kind 329 00:16:50.960 --> 00:16:53.879 of protect an area or understand an area better, they 330 00:16:53.919 --> 00:16:57.840 do these biodiversity assessments. So they go in these expeditions 331 00:16:57.840 --> 00:16:59.759 through the area and they count wildlife and they take 332 00:16:59.799 --> 00:17:02.000 other kinds of scientific readings. But the way that had 333 00:17:02.039 --> 00:17:04.640 always been done in the past was they would write 334 00:17:04.640 --> 00:17:07.000 their stuff down in notepads or something, and then they 335 00:17:07.039 --> 00:17:09.279 would come back it all go in some Excel file 336 00:17:09.480 --> 00:17:11.680 or something on their desktop, and then it gets locked 337 00:17:11.680 --> 00:17:14.599 away and eventually the scientists would want to publish it, 338 00:17:14.640 --> 00:17:16.240 so it'd take them a couple of years to publish 339 00:17:16.279 --> 00:17:17.839 the papers on it. And we thought, you know what, 340 00:17:17.920 --> 00:17:21.640 that whole process isn't really welcoming to anyone outside of 341 00:17:21.680 --> 00:17:24.000 the science field. Right there's scientists are going to these 342 00:17:24.200 --> 00:17:27.759 amazing places all the time and they're not really sharing 343 00:17:27.799 --> 00:17:30.039 what they're seeing, and we wanted to try and facilitate 344 00:17:30.039 --> 00:17:32.319 a better way to do that. So that's what became 345 00:17:32.440 --> 00:17:35.480 the Okavongo Wilderness Project. We thought, we can build these 346 00:17:35.519 --> 00:17:38.400 technology tools that allow the scientists who are on expedition 347 00:17:38.440 --> 00:17:40.759 to be able to share everything that they're seeing and 348 00:17:41.200 --> 00:17:44.519 all the data they're collecting absolutely live, like immediately as 349 00:17:44.559 --> 00:17:46.759 it's happening. And so with other partners, we built this 350 00:17:46.799 --> 00:17:49.319 website called into the Okavango that you would go to 351 00:17:49.920 --> 00:17:52.160 while we were on expedition and you would see where 352 00:17:52.480 --> 00:17:54.400 where we were at. You'd see the pictures were taking, 353 00:17:54.480 --> 00:17:56.359 you'd hear the audio of the places we were at. 354 00:17:57.079 --> 00:17:59.079 I mean, if you went to the website, you'd see 355 00:17:59.079 --> 00:18:00.519 a little bubble that had an on it, and that 356 00:18:00.599 --> 00:18:02.640 was me traveling down expedition as we're going. 357 00:18:02.920 --> 00:18:05.960 That's better than watching Coachella live on YouTube and avoiding 358 00:18:06.079 --> 00:18:09.440 having to wear sunblock. So for more on this, nat 359 00:18:09.440 --> 00:18:12.400 GEO made the Dock into the Okavango, which came out 360 00:18:12.559 --> 00:18:16.559 this April, and it details the challenges of doing research 361 00:18:16.680 --> 00:18:21.480 in the region. From dried up riverbeds to leftover land 362 00:18:21.559 --> 00:18:24.799 mines from ankle As Civil War. It's also a really 363 00:18:24.799 --> 00:18:28.119 really great portrait of the teams going out doing the 364 00:18:28.160 --> 00:18:32.039 work from tons of local scientists and guides and then 365 00:18:32.119 --> 00:18:35.480 researchers from all over the world with different specialties. And 366 00:18:35.559 --> 00:18:39.200 of course I started poking around the Instagram into the 367 00:18:39.200 --> 00:18:43.880 ogabango for visuals, and one recent post is a stunning 368 00:18:43.920 --> 00:18:48.920 photo of a field scientist writhing from having a tick 369 00:18:49.119 --> 00:18:52.720 embedded in his ear. It was clasping onto his ear drum. 370 00:18:53.079 --> 00:18:57.400 But mostly there's just gorgeous photos of wildlife. So in summary, 371 00:18:57.799 --> 00:19:02.039 it's beautiful and it's no easy work. So what was 372 00:19:02.079 --> 00:19:03.160 Shaw up to there? 373 00:19:03.440 --> 00:19:05.720 Yeah, No, it was cool, and we would gather all 374 00:19:05.759 --> 00:19:07.640 sorts of data because we were just curious about what 375 00:19:08.559 --> 00:19:10.680 would come out of gathering all this data and seeing 376 00:19:10.680 --> 00:19:14.119 these interesting stuff. So I built sensors that would measure 377 00:19:14.160 --> 00:19:16.519 water quality and weather. We took three hundred and sixty 378 00:19:16.559 --> 00:19:18.960 degree photos, you know, through the whole expedition, so you 379 00:19:18.960 --> 00:19:21.119 could put on VR goggles and see. We even took 380 00:19:21.160 --> 00:19:23.559 the measurements of the heartbeats of the researchers while they 381 00:19:23.559 --> 00:19:25.720 were on expedition. We gathered as much data as we 382 00:19:25.759 --> 00:19:28.160 possibly could, and we had it all streaming up live 383 00:19:28.319 --> 00:19:31.200 via satellite. And part of what we were trying to 384 00:19:31.240 --> 00:19:34.119 do with that project was was outreach, right reach out 385 00:19:34.119 --> 00:19:36.160 to the public. Explain to them what a wonderful place, 386 00:19:36.240 --> 00:19:37.920 this is why it's so special. As part of the 387 00:19:37.960 --> 00:19:40.640 twenty fifteen expedition, the team was in a part of 388 00:19:40.960 --> 00:19:43.720 Angola that was very difficult. It was like rough, you know, 389 00:19:44.319 --> 00:19:48.519 the rivers were windy, boats kept oncapsizing their bees everywhere. 390 00:19:48.640 --> 00:19:50.799 It was just a very brutal part of the expedition 391 00:19:51.160 --> 00:19:53.680 and you know a lot of fires and land mines 392 00:19:53.680 --> 00:19:55.240 and all sorts of things that you have to avoid, 393 00:19:55.319 --> 00:19:57.039 and so it kind of in the nature of sharing 394 00:19:57.079 --> 00:19:59.440 everything with the public, we complained about it on Twitter, 395 00:19:59.519 --> 00:20:02.079 you know, we told everyone about what a horrible time 396 00:20:02.079 --> 00:20:03.640 we were having at that time. Well, so one of 397 00:20:03.640 --> 00:20:07.400 our followers actually ended up seeing that complaint and tweeted 398 00:20:07.480 --> 00:20:10.480 us down this message of support, and that follower was 399 00:20:10.599 --> 00:20:14.640 Samantha Christoph Ferretti, who was a European Space Agency astronaut 400 00:20:14.839 --> 00:20:19.039 on the International Space Station and following our expedition from space. 401 00:20:19.279 --> 00:20:22.000