Ice and Fire
Listen to climate change in Alaska through place-based narrative.
Ice and Fire is a podcast that uses audio storytelling to share cryosphere change as the global climate warms. The cryosphere is all of Earth's frozen surface water including frozen freshwater lakes, glaciers, permafrost and sea ice -- frozen saltwater.
It only takes a small temperature increase for water to melt or thaw from solid into liquid form, yet a cascade of impacts result when we lose ice to fastly flowing liquid.
Season one emphasizes the significance of glacier melt, and connects listeners to distant glaciers rapidly responding to anthropogenic climate change through dialogue with researchers, traditional knowledge-bearers, and by sharing audio of ice-melt in real time.
Season two, available now, is all about permafrost thaw.
Episodes
14 episodes
adaptation: managed retreat
In the closing episode of the Permafrost Thaw season, we hear stories of landscape change that have long-sustained and been observed by Native people in Alaska's Kuskokwim River area. We hear their stories of adaptation, including managed retre...
usteq
In this episode, we learn the Yup'ik term for climate change-induced catastrophic land collapse, which occurs due to permafrost thaw, erosion, and flooding: Usteq.We hear several definitions of the term, utilized by researchers ...
the carbon cycle and us
In this episode, we breathe and feel our human connection to the short carbon cycle. Long-sequestered carbon stores from deep underground -- as oil reservoirs or within frozen permafrost -- are brought to the surface by human activity, and then...
woolly mammoth bones
In episode four we learn about carbon stored within woolly mammoth bones and ancient plants, long held within the walls of the the Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory's permafrost tunnel located near Fairbanks, Alaska. ...
microbes reawaken
In episode three of Ice and Fire, we hear about a microbial reawakening of microscopic life that was frozen into permafrost, often for thousands of years. These small life forms spring back when permafrost thaws. Though individually ti...
layers
In episode two we drill into the soil profile to learn about soil layers in northern landscapes. This shows us how deep permafrost is, and the impacts to people as the soil profile changes and permafrost thaws. topics and purpose...
impermanently frozen soil
As global temperatures increase due to anthropogenic climate change, a myriad of impacts result for people and the planet. In this podcast, we share the ramifications of cryosphere change (melting/thawing water from solid ice) as the planet war...
fire and ice
In the last episode of the season, we dissect Robert Frost's 1920 poem, Fire and Ice, over a tent poetry session. This involves grappling with climate anxiety, and recognizing the role of personal behaviors in perpetuating the climate ...
glacier thread
In the last full episode of the season, we travel to the Greenland ice sheet and hear from a researcher who collects data at the face of tidewater glaciers, studying the turbulent zone where freshwater meets and mixes with seawater. This episod...
acoustic refuge
In episode five we hear what makes tidewater glacier habitat an acoustic refuge, and why glaciers are important to other species in the ecosystem. We also discuss One Health connections, how Traditional Ecological Knowledge has allowed us to tr...
roping up
In mini-episode four, we listen to part of the glacier travel story shared in the book Do Glaciers Listen? for a second time. Frank Olive from the University of Alaska Fairbanks shares risk mitigation strategies, like ro...
glacier walkers
In episode three we hear from Judy Ramos in Lingít Aaní. She tells us about the history of glacier travel in the region, and about the Spirit of the Glacier.topics and purpose: Indigenous people in Alaska and Canada have been trav...
