National Geographic Soundscapes: National Parks USA

<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333339691162px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">What do Antarctica, quantum physics, climate change and hip hop have in common? The answer:&nbsp;<b style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333339691162px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">DJ Spooky<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333339691162px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">, aka&nbsp;<b style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333339691162px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">Paul Miller<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333339691162px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">. The musician visited the frozen continent to create his&nbsp;most recent album, "Of Water and Ice<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333339691162px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">," using climate data and sound he collected from Antarctica to inform the patterns that he incorporates into his songs. His songs "Of Water and Ice" and "Check Your Math" speak to the themes that drove this album, with Miller discussing the fact that many people don't believe in human-caused climate change; however, "You can't debate with a storm that just smashed your house." Miller, who grew up in Washington, D.C. says the city's many museums were a perfect escape from the city's punishing heat, while feeding his curiosity.

Antarctica: Of Water and Ice - DJ Spooky

Baba Brinkman isn’t just the University of Tennessee’s Singer in Residence. He’s their rapper in residence. Brinkman, who pursued a Master’s degree in Literature so he could better remix Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales into rap format. While in Tennessee, he’s learning math to fuel future raps, and performing The Rap Guide to Evolution about Darwin’s Origin of the Species, which can be just as controversial as rap itself. (June 2012)

Darwin's Delight: An Evolutionary Rap - Baba Brinkman

There are few similarities between creating rock music and decoding the DNA of viruses. But National Geographic Emerging Explorer Pardis Sabeti, has proven adept at both, but points out that they both take dedication and an extreme attention to detail. She pores over the human genome to try to better understand how we interact with these infectious diseases that continue to plague people around the world.

The Overlap Between Music and DNA Research - Pardis Sabeti

National Geographic Emerging Explorer Andrea Marshall lives just feet from the beach in Mozambique where she dives every day to study manta rays. Living in Paradise would seem to be perfect, but Marshall says the smallest amounts of human pressure can demolish a vulnerable animal. A small local fishery has reduced the manta ray population by 88% in recent years, and she's dedicated to rehabbing the numbers of these "pandas of the sea."

Manta Rays: Pandas of the Sea - Andrea Marshall

The holidays are a time to get together with friends and family to celebrate. Hosts and guests a lot often spend time pondering which is the best bottle to imbibe at Thanksgiving or other holiday meals. But without proper guidance, it can be hard to know what bottle of wine to offer. Sommelier Joshua Wesson provides guidance to avoid a faux pas in a bottle. For Thanksgiving, he suggests something affordable and refreshing and don't bother trying to pair it to what is being served. He also breaks down the merits of sparkling wine and offers a winning secret to improve the taste of any bottle of red wine.

How to Pick a Bottle of Wine for the Holidays - Joshua Wesson

Every year at least 38 million animals are pulled from Brazil's forests and sold into the wildlife trade. The macaws, songbirds, reptiles and small mammals are bought by people who, often, are well intentioned and think of themselves as "nature lovers". But National Geographic Emerging Explorer Juliana Machado Ferreira explains that their enthusiasm is simply robbing the environment of its value. She describes her fight to end the illegal wildlife trade in Brazil and explains the considerations that must be taken before returning a "kidnapped" animal back into the wild.

Re-Wilding Brazil's Stolen Animals - Juliana Machado Ferreira

Rappers often boast about the number of homes, cars or girlfriends that they have, but few crack open Canterbury Tales to distil the words of Geoffrey Chaucer into rhyme. But Baba Brinkman isn’t a typical rapper. He has a Master’s degree in literature and had a residency at the University of Tennessee while he was composing his album about Darwin’s ideas on evolution. In his newest album, “The Rap Guide to Wilderness,” Brinkman gives a shout out to National Geographic, while promoting a message of protecting the wilderness. Brinkman explains that rap is a generally urban art form, but humans were created in nature and we can’ t survive without it: “It’s a relatively new concept that we’re separate from it, but we’re just another species.”

Rap Guide to the Wilderness - Baba Brinkman

Salmon Migration on Kinak River

Bear Family Chatting at Katmai National Park

Fish Crow Sounds in Everglades National Park

Wolf on Beach at Katmai National Park

Alligator Nest at Everglades National Park

Bear Family Hunting Salmon at Katmai National Park

“The Weekly Wrap” is a look inside the minds of National Geographic photographers and editors. We’ll be talking with them about their work, and they’ll share their tips on preparing for assignments.

This week we’re talking to photographer Jill Schneider about her beginnings on Your Shot, and the success she has had since. Also, Darren Smith, curator of the “Photos Get Physical" assignment will share his secret sauce to his assignment.

For more on this podcast, and to see photos, visit our Editor's Spotlight: http://yourshotblog.nationalgeographic.com/post/139679760670/weekly-wrap-a-surreal-sensibility


Weekly Wrap: A Surreal Sensibility

The "Weekly Wrap” is a look inside the minds of National Geographic photographers and editors. We'll be talking with them about their work, and they’ll share their tips on preparing for assignments.

This week we’re talking to National Geographic's photo intern Carolyn Van Houten. Carolyn recently won the College Photographer of the Year award and Pictures of the Year International Newspaper Photographer of the Year award. She talks to us about what it's like to intern at National Geographic, her upcoming assignment she is photographing and her favorite image from her award winning portfolio. We also call photographer Peter Essick who will be running the Equinox assignment to get some tips on shooting images on the first day of spring, and for those of you in the southern hemisphere, the first day of autumn.

For more on this podcast, and to see photos, visit our Editor's Spotlight:
http://yourshotblog.nationalgeographic.com/post/141296020789/weekly-wrap-take-your-photo-pills


Weekly Wrap: Take Your Photo Pills

Six years ago today, the lights flickered on an offshore drilling rig. There were two heavy thuds. Minutes later, an explosion of gas, oil and concrete caught fire to the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig, forty miles off the coast of Louisiana. If you were watching the news in the following days, you would have seen two ships that came in to help with the ensuing oil spill. One drilled a relief well, and the other eventually capped the blown out well. Matt Partain was a driller on that second ship. He shared this memory with me.

Remembering The BP Oil Spill, Six Years Later

We believe in the power of science, exploration and storytelling to change the world.

Fish Crow Sounds in Everglades National Park

National Geographic

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