TED Radio Hour - What it takes to be an Antarctic explorer today

Episode Date: December 20, 2023

Ariel Waldman is a filmmaker and Antarctic explorer who first appeared in our 2021 episode, "Through the Looking Glass." Since then, she has written a new book and returned to Antarctica with a new mission. For this bonus episode, producer Matthew Cloutier reached out to get an update.This bonus episode was previously shared only with our TED Radio Hour+ supporters. To get access to all of our bonus content, listen to the show sponsor-free and support our work at NPR, sign up for TED Radio Hour+ at plus.npr.org/tedSee pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

Hey, it's Manoche. All year long, you've been hearing me plug this TED Radio Hour plus thing. Quick reminder, by supporting our show, you get all our episodes ad-free and you get bonus episodes. So thank you if you are a supporter. And if you're not yet, well, we thought we'd wet your whistle with a listen to a bonus episode that you would get to hear. So Ted Speaker and Antarctic Explorer, Ariel Waldman, is fierce. And she told producer, Max, Matthew Cloutier recently, all about her new expedition. We hope listening entices you to try out TED Radio Hour Plus. You can sign up using the link in the show notes or just go to plus.npr.org slash TED.

And yeah, if you're not a supporter yet, you're going to hear some ads real quick because they help us pay the bills too. But after that, enjoy Matthew and Ariel. Hey there, Ariel. Thanks so much for chatting with us again. I've really been looking forward to it. Me too. And just to kick us off, can you, you know, just remind our listeners what you do and what brought you to Antarctica in the first place? Yeah, so I'm an Antarctic explorer and filmmaker.

And really what brought me to Antarctica in the first place was to film the microscopic life that lives under the ice. Yeah, one of my favorite moments, I should say, it was when, you know, you described to Manusch going in this, like, pipe. that goes through the ice, and you can kind of climb underneath the ice and see this whole underwater world. And at the bottom of this tube, you're embedded between the sea ice and the seafloor. So you're kind of floating there, so to speak, with windows where you're able to see all of the life on the sea floor. And you can hear all of these amazing weddell seals, which sound like synthesizers all around you. It's really magical and it really changed my perspective on why anyone would ever want to be a diver in Antarctica. And you know, you got to take microbes from there.

I also will never forget the moment. You know, you and Manoush watched a ciliate poop, right? That was an otherwise very respectable interview. Fantastic, yes. Oh, and it's moving a bit. It's got a little shimmy. What is happening here, Ariel? Who is this?

Yeah, so this is a ciliate. It's a type of prose. And protists, they're not animals, they're not plants, and they're not fungi. They are their own thing. And you saw it just here, poop out like a little piece of stuff from its stomach. It pooped. What? This is what I love about ciliates.

Great. And so, you know, we wanted to speak with you again because you just went back and you just came back, really, a few months ago, right? Yeah, yeah. And so I've really been dying to know how much of the second trip was a, continuation of the film work that you, you know, did the first time around and really what part of this was new? So I went back to Antarctica this past year because I wanted to film a documentary about the unique region that I go to, the dry valleys. It's a polar desert and it's the largest area of

Antarctica that's not fully covered in snow and ice. And it's a place where you can actually study the continent itself. And when I went to Antarctica the first time, I was there. I was to film all the microscopic creatures that live there, which was amazing. But I really wanted to put them in context and really showcase the life that's there from multiple orders of magnitude and within the ecosystems that they live in, which are just super fascinating and really strange. And so I filmed for two months straight a documentary, which I'm currently working on post-production for. And when do you say filming life at multiple orders of magnitude, What do you mean by that?

Yeah, so filming a documentary in Antarctica this season, I wanted to look at life from multiple orders of magnitude, really inspired in part by the Eames's Powers of Ten film. Now every 10 seconds, we will look from 10 times farther away, and our field of view will be 10 times wider. So it's this film that came out in the 1970s. It showcases really our existence on Earth, both by zooming way out to get the galactic view

and also then zooming way in to the molecular level. The trip back to the picnic on the lakefront will be a sped-up version, reducing the distance to the earth's surface by one power of 10 every two seconds. So it really was kind of its kind film that's still shown in like art schools and science classrooms alike to this day.

And I think viewing the world through those different lenses really teaches us a lot about how we can relate to different things on planet Earth in space and also the microscopic level. And so I went to Antarctica and filmed this documentary from the satellite view down to the microscopic level and everything in between. So using drones, macro lenses, and the like to really get this fascinating view of what the ecosystems in Antarctica are like and how we can relate to them. You know, I remember seeing the power of 10 film, I guess in high school, I'm sure a science teacher showed it to me. And it's just one of those things that actually blows your mind. It kind of pulls it clear out of its standard frame.

But right, so taking that as inspiration, but like applying it to Antarctica, that must have come with just a slew of challenges. First and foremost, like not an easy place to film, I'd think. Yeah, I mean, there were so many challenges to filming in Antarctica. It's really, honestly, one of the tougher jobs because I'm there embedded as a researcher with a research team and a lot of my colleagues are going on these huge hikes, you know, 10 mile hikes every day doing really difficult work, heavy backpacks, and it's so challenging. But my work actually isn't involved in doing huge hikes or anything like that. that what is involved is pulling out cameras and standing still and freezing temperatures and trying to film tiny organisms that I can't even see with my own eyes using a series of different lenses. And so while my work might not be the most physically challenging, it's certainly the coldest type of work. Because just going out in Antarctica and not moving for hours at a time, it's real cold. And honestly, it was the coldest I had ever been.

in Antarctica this time around trying to film all of these different orders of magnitude with different lenses. So I would be out there with my drone. And of course, I would have to keep my drone batteries warm enough so that I could use them. But then, you know, even doing drone work, you're typically standing still for a long period of time, just trying to get the right shot. And also it was challenging because this area of Antarctica is so highly protected that I wasn't able to bring a film crew with me. So when I say that I filmed, yeah, so when I say that I filmed a documentary in Antarctica over two months, it wasn't me with a film crew. It was just me. So I would have to set up cameras. I'm also trying to be the host of this documentary. So I'm filming myself. I'm

filming these creatures. I'm doing the drone work. You know, I'm setting up the macro shots on rails, a lot of different types of shots that I'm just trying to get over the course of two months, but all by myself and in freezing temperature. So it was certainly a challenge for sure. Yeah. You're reminding me of all people, Bo Burnham and his inside special. You know, like when he was all done in lockdown, it was just like him in a room. You're like the outside version of that.

It's funny that you mentioned that. Yeah, totally, because I think I said like in one of my newsletters or something like, this is like Bo Burnham's inside except in Antarctica. and with less lights. And tiny microbes. Yes, and tiny microbes. So it's really nothing like Bo Burnham except for really just shooting it myself

and having a hard go of it. And I guess also speaking of microbes, I'm dying to ask what the cast of creatures was this time, the ones you put under the scope, and I guess also the drone during this trip. So a lot of the creatures that I wanted to film in Antarctica and got the chance to film are the microscopic animals, you know, the tardigrades, the rotifers, the nematodes. And I got to also film creatures that I didn't get to see last time even.

So mites and springtails, these little tiny, tiny things that you can actually see them a little bit with your naked eye, but very barely. They're right, right at that edge between microscopic and macroscopic. So that makes them especially challenging to film because you have to sort of decide if you use a microscope or a macro lens. But, you know, it's like I went to Antarctica to film life under the ice to showcase to the world

that there's a lot of life in Antarctica. And this second expedition I went on blew my mind even further that there's really, truly, even more life than I even expected there to be in Antarctica. There's just so much. And so I got to film for the first time

predator tardigrades. which look a little bit different from the tardigrades that you'll typically find in moss. There are tardigrades that eat other things? Yes, yeah. So there's a predator tardigrade. You know, it's a milnesium tardigrade, and those ones feast on other nematodes, other creatures. And when you look at them walking around, they're sort of like these big lumbering, you know, lions of the microscopic jungle in Antarctica. And they look totally different from other tardigrades that are typically only, you know, eating moss or cyanobacteria.

And, you know, there's a thousand species of tardigrades out in the world. And so getting to see the different species that live in Antarctica and seeing how different they are and really building out this idea that there's a whole serengeti of microscopic animals in Antarctica was just amazing. Okay, so there's this film that you're working on with this one. microbe safari at all different scales. But you had also mentioned for this trip in particular, it wasn't just about film. It was also about research. And for that part, you were with a whole team, right? Yeah. So I am a formal collaborator with the McMurdo Dry Valley's long-term ecological research team. And they are a team that have been making measurements of the Dry Valley since 1993. And so they study the glaciers.

and the frozen lakes and the soil and lots of different aspects of this ecosystem. And they're able to really be the ones to tell us how climate change is affecting this area. And it's honestly affecting it in really unique ways in which people might not totally expect. So I was specifically embedded on the soils team and they study the microorganisms that live in the dry valleys. And so I was able to provide a lot of value by being a microscope. because while they make all these amazing measurements, they very rarely get the opportunity to film the creatures that they study in high fidelity and be able to actually make behavioral observations about them.

And that is really invaluable because we can't just send everyone to Antarctica. And so we really need high fidelity video to educate the next generation of scientists and also to make new scientific discoveries and any behaviors that we might see. Yeah, you know, I would think, too, it just, you know, helps to get the science out of the journals and into the actual world. And you sense that some of these findings, the ones, you know, related to climate change in particular, they're not exactly what we might expect to see. How so? What's been the surprise? Yeah, so this area of Antarctica is the closest to the South Pole that you can get while still being on the coast. And so this area of,

doesn't have the same story that people have come to expect of the Arctic or even the peninsula of Antarctica where you get just massive ice melting events and all the ice is going away and what are we going to do. That is absolutely happening in those locations. But in this location, the story of climate change is actually a story of habitability and what that means in a changing climate. So for a while, they weren't really sure how climate change was going to affect the dry value. valleys, like which direction it was going to go. And so it's really only in the last couple few years where they've been able to take measurements and really see the direction that it's going. And it's going windier, wetter, and warmer. This area of Antarctica has only been habitable for thousands of years by these tardigrades and rotifers and emetodes and certain types

of bacteria. And so in a warmer, wetter environment, what you're actually going to be seeing in this area change is the fact that as microbes get blown. in the air around the earth, which they do. Typically, when they land in Antarctica, they immediately die off. Like it doesn't have a chance to adapt. It doesn't have a chance to adapt. These little creatures that do live there are extreme enough and have been able to get a foot hold in and survive there for a long time and might either decimate an entire species, create more competition, there might be less food. And so it's actually a slightly unpredictable environment because you now have an ecosystem with new players and more factors going on. And so we don't exactly

know who will be the winners and losers of these new environments that develop over time. And that's why it's so critical to study these ecosystems now, because if we're not filming these ecosystems and researching them, we might totally lose an understanding of what the ecosystem dynamics are before they ultimately change forever. You know, you're reminding me of conversations that, you know, minutia's had with, geez, any number of scientists who just, they all feel like they're in a race against time with climate change. Totally. But I guess in the spirit of ending with some joy, maybe, I want to make sure we get to talk about your book, too.

Because when I hear some of these places you're describing in Antarctica, they're really spectacular places. It reminds me of some of the science fiction I've read and watched. And, you know, clearly that's been an inspiration for a lot of the ideas there. And this book that you have is super fun because to me it kind of puts the science back in science fiction. And so can you just, you know, tell us what it's about, what it's called, and also, you know, how it took shape. Yeah. So my upcoming book is called Out There, the Science Behind Sci-Fi Film and TV. And it's really about having conversations with fascinating researchers and pop culture experts and artists and writers about science fiction, TV and film, and talking about,

through the science behind them. So talking about, you know, if we could actually outrun black holes, if suspended animation is something that we could even fathom for humans, talking about alien planets and what those could be like. One where I was really maybe not an expert in and didn't really know the way the conversation was going to go, it would be the chapter on if there are killer alien insects on another world, inspired by Starship Troopers.

It's a very out there, you know, to use the title of the book, sort of topic and conversation. And even when I first proposed that topic to my editor, it was like, well, how does this really fit in? But I had this fascinating conversation with a couple of insect scientists about Starship Troopers. And I was like, clearly, you know, something like Starship Troopers is totally made up, those bugs that they have, those gigantic bugs. Yeah, and I should just jump in real quick for folks who maybe haven't seen it. There's this group of like, I'll say military astronauts who try to colonize a planet for humans. But they soon discover that there's this, you know, whole, you know, horde of massive insects living on this planet. And they're not so crazy about this idea.

Yeah, you get like these spider-like things. You get these beetle-like things. And so I had this conversation with these researchers. And I was like, clearly this is all. like made up. There's not insects that like spit out like fiery acid or anything. And they were like, oh no, they exist on earth. They're like, that's completely inspired by actual things on earth. And so then I took the conversation further. I'm like, well, could they actually ever get to that size? And so we had this fascinating conversation about the right chemistry and the right gravity

that's needed to have killer gigantic insects on another planet. And I came out of the that conversation going like, oh, actually these could totally exist. Like, it's not that far-fetched, you know, but it's this ridiculous film and you want to believe that it's just equally ridiculous science. But there's actually, like, really fascinating stuff that teaches us so much about life here on Earth, but also how life could exist elsewhere in outer space. And so that's what I really love about, you know, all these different chapters is getting to really have fun and explore those topics. Yeah. Well, thank you for bringing up exploring, because before I let you go, I have to ask and bring us back to Antarctica here. This was expedition number two.

Do you think a third one is in the cards? I certainly hope so. You know, people say no one ever goes to Antarctica twice. You either go once and you are like, I'm good. That was great. I don't need to do that again. Right. Bucket list item checked off. Right. Totally. Or you're addicted and you're going to keep going as much as you can, and I absolutely want to go back. The more that I can help bridge that gap of allowing people to be explorers, whether or not they make it physically to Antarctica, the better. Well, I selfishly hope that you get to go again because it's a delight to hear you talk about these trips, the research that you're doing there, the filming, and, you know, what you're discovering along the way. This conversation has been just a total joy. Thank you,

much for chatting with me, Ariel. Oh, thanks so much. That was filmmaker and explorer, Ariel Waldman, talking to producer Matthew Cloutier. Their conversation was produced by Chow Too and edited by James Delahousie. Ariel's film series, Antarctica Unearthed, is out soon. Her new book is called Out There, The Science Behind Sci-Fi Film and TV. And if you like this, we've got more bonus episodes just for you and sponsor-free listening when you become a plus listener. Again, go to plus.npr.org or just check the show notes for the link.

Thank you so much for supporting our show and public media. We've got a new TED Radio Hour coming to you on Friday and a new bonus episode next week. You're going to be there? I hope so. Thanks for listening. Talk to you soon.