Tag Archives: Ocean

Scholars’ Circle – Book Author interview – Melting Point: Family, Memory, and the Search for a Promised Land ; Mining the Ocean Floor – July 13, 2025

July 18, 2025 host

The search for a safe haven for Jewish people in the early 20th Century led some Zionists to land on Galveston, Texas as a potential homeland for Jewish refugees.

Collage of jewish people in search of homeland

What was the Galveston Movement and what happened to it? We interviews the author of a new book MELTING POINT: Family, Memory, and the Search for a Promised Land. [ dur: 35mins. ]

Rachel Cockerell is a writer and historian.

Then, the search for minerals is leading some corporations to begin mining the ocean floor but scientists warn that this could devastate fragile ecosystems that will have repercussions that we still don’t understand. What is going on in the deep sea? What precautions should be taken to prevent devastating fragile ecosystems? [ dur: 23 mins. ]

Craig Smith is Professor of Oceanography at the University of Hawai’i.
Verena Tunnicliffe is a marine biologist at the University of Victoria in Canada where she holds a Canada Research Chair in Deep Ocean Research.

This program is produced by Doug Becker, Maria Armoudian, Ankine Aghassian, and Sudd Dongre.

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Scholars' Circle Interviews

Scholars’ Circle – Sounds of nature ; Thanksgiving (history and memory) – November 26, 2023

November 26, 2023 host

How does deep listening to nature promote biodiversity and a deeper relationship with the natural world?

Book Cover of Civil War by Other Means has an red X on the title of the book

We discuss the book THE SOUNDS OF LIFE: How Digital Technology Is Bringing Us Closer to the World of Animals and Plants. [ dur: 34mins. ]

Karen Bakker ( 1971 – 2023 ) was Professor of Geography and Associate at the Institute for Resources, Environment, and Sustainability at the University of British Columbia. She was Visiting Professor at Harvard University’s Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. She was the author of Smart Earth: A meta-review and implications for environmental governance, The human right to water revisited (in The Right to Water), and THE SOUNDS OF LIFE: How Digital Technology Is Bringing Us Closer to the World of Animals and Plants.
Professor Karen Bakker passed away on August 14, 2023 after a brief illness.

References to clips of nature sound recordings included in the interview with Karen Bakker :

The American Thanksgiving story is one of cooperation and coexistence between white European settlers and the native peoples. But the real story is much darker.
How does this Thanksgiving narrative get the history wrong?

We discuss the history, the memory, and the meaning of Thanksgiving in the contemporary relationship between the United States and Indigenous people. [ dur: 24mins. ]

Robert J. Miller is Professor of Law at Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law. He is Interim Chief Justice at Pascua Yaqui Tribe Court of Appeals. He is the author of American Indian Sovereignty versus the United States (in Handbook of Critical Indigenous Studies) and A Promise Kept: The Muscogee (Creek) Nation and McGirt v. Oklahoma. You can access the Scholars’ Circle interview on the book A Promise Kept here . He is an enrolled citizen of the Eastern Shawnee Tribe.

This show was recorded November 27, 2022.

This program is produced by Ankine Aghassian, Doug Becker, Mihika Chechi and Sudd Dongre.

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Scholars' Circle Interviews

Scholars’ Circle – BBNJ Ocean Treaty to preserve Bio-diversity in the High Seas and Restoring ecosystem from invasive species – November 5, 2023

November 6, 2023 host

Biodiversity is under extreme attack in the high seas. With roughly 70% of the Earth’s surfaces as oceans, protecting biodiversity needed to extend beyond these national
jurisdictions. Hence, in June of this year, 2023, nearly 200 countries adopted the Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction treaty, also called the BBNJ. we will explore what this treaty seeks to accomplish and what mechanisms are in place to protect ocean species. And we will examine the most significant risks to this biodiversity. [ dur: 28mins. ]

Elizabeth Mendenhall is Associate Professor in the Departments of Marine Affairs at the University of Rhode Island. She is the author of Building a Regime Complex for Marine Plastic Pollution and Nuclear Weapons Free Zones and the issue of maritime transit in Latin America.
Rachel Tiller is a Chief Scientist at SINTEF Ocean in the Department of Fisheries and New Biomarine resources in Norway. She is also the Director of the key strategic research area of biodiversity and area use at SINTEF. She is the author of Orchestration within plastics governance – From global to Arctic and And so it begins – The adoption of the ‘Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction’ treaty.

Invasive species are wreaking havoc all over the world and costing hundreds of billions of dollars per year. The alarming rate of the spread of invasive species are threatening nature, food security, our economies, and human health. Some areas are more successful than others in maintaining or restoring ecosystems with their indigenous species. How bad is the damage from invasive species and what can be done about it? We explore the south pacific island of New Zealand. [ dur: 28mins. ]

Jacqueline Beggs is Professor at Waipapa Taumata Rau, the University of Auckland’s School of Biological Sciences at the University of Auckland in New Zealand. She is co-Executive Director of Ngā Ara Whetū (www.ngaarawhetu.org), UoA’s flagship research centre on Climate, Biodiversity and Society, and Director of Centre for Biodiversity and Biosecurity. She is the co-author of Science-based, stakeholder-inclusive and participatory conservation planning helps reverse the decline of threatened species.
Al Glen is is Associate Professor in the Faculty of Science, Biological Sciences at the University of Auckland in New Zealand. He is the co-author of What can wildlife-detection dogs offer for managing small mammalian predators?.

This program is produced by Ankine Aghassian, Doug Becker, Mihika Chechi, Melissa Chiprin, and Sudd Dongre.

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The Scholars' Circle Interviews

Tag Archives: Ocean

Scholars’ Circle – Book Author interview – Melting Point: Family, Memory, and the Search for a Promised Land ; Mining the Ocean Floor – July 13, 2025

Scholars’ Circle – Sounds of nature ; Thanksgiving (history and memory) – November 26, 2023

Scholars’ Circle – BBNJ Ocean Treaty to preserve Bio-diversity in the High Seas and Restoring ecosystem from invasive species – November 5, 2023

By Maria Armoudian