The Natural Curiosity Project

Just some intriguing thoughts about Halloween.

Philip Caputo wrote more than a dozen books, including ‘Notes from the Longest Road’ about a trip he took with his wife that started in Key West, Florida, and ended in Point Barrow, Alaska, towing an Airstream camper behind their pickup. The goal? Answer one question: After nearly 250 years, a Civil War, countless other conflicts, racial divides, and political turmoil, what is it that holds this country together, still governed by the same Constitution that the nation’s founders adopted in 1789? As I was reading Caputo’s book, I was also reading Walter Isaacson’s ‘Benjamin Franklin.’ And in fact, I finished them at about the same time. The weird thing is that both authors reached similar conclusions about the country. In this episode, I weave them together. Enjoy.

60 years ago, Peter Sugarman began a project that would consume his entire life: how could he develop a linguistic bridge between humans and another sentient species, specifically dolphins? In this interview, Peter walks us through the research, his ups and downs, and the remarkable aUI language that he believes will serve as that bridge.

The world is currently gaga over AI—artificial intelligence. It is a remarkable technology, with the potential to create remarkable opportunities in many fields in the coming years. It is, however, enormously powerful, and in my opinion, requires rigorous oversight and strong regulation. As I was thinking about the topic—something I find myself doing a lot—I began to think about the movie Jurassic Park, especially three quotes uttered by Ian Malcolm, the Chaos Theorist played by the inimitable Jeff Goldblum. I hope this episode makes you think. The quotes from Jurassic Park are used exclusively for education purposes and generate no revenue for the producer of this program. Jurassic Park is owned exclusively by the estate of Michael Crichton and by Universal Pictures and Amblin Entertainment.

This is part two of my series on soil ecosystem health. In this episode I’m in the Mad River Valley in central Vermont with ecologist Curt Lindberg, listening to the sounds of the soil in areas with and without invasive species present. The results are fascinating.