Washington DCFebruary 12, 2010
On National Geographic Weekend radio this week, host Boyd Matson speaks with guests about extraterrestrials, drunken gorillas, orcas, beluga whales, running, sushi, Australia's drought, climate-friendly cuisine, and summer fun with kids.
Hour 1
- National Geographic Weekend goes hunting for aliens with Seth Shostak, author of the new National Geographic book Confessions of an Alien Hunter: A Scientist's Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence. Shostak, senior astronomer at the SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) Institute, joins Boyd to talk about life on other planets. Watch a video of Shostak.
- Thirty years after his father Jacques-Yves Cousteau took television viewers underwater, Jean-Michel Cousteau is exploring the depths in his new PBS series, Ocean Adventure. Cousteau joins Boyd to talk about two films, one on orcas and one on beluga whales.
- Photographer Andy Rouse has been to Africa multiple times and led many expeditions to see mountain gorillas in Rwanda. But what he saw and captured on film the last time he went surprised him. Rouse tells Boyd how he watched the great apes get drunk on bamboo sap! See Rouse’s photos.
- Planning ahead and wondering what to do with the kids this summer? Well Boyd and Susan Magsamen, authors of The 10 Best of Everything for Families: An Ultimate Guide for Travelers, have more suggestions.
Hour 2
- As a child, Kimi Puntillo used to read National Geographic magazines and dream about traveling the world. She finally found a way to see the exotic places she dreamed about: running. Marathons, half-marathons and shorter races have taken Puntillo all over the world. She writes about her experiences in the new book Great Races, Incredible Places: 100+ Fantastic Runs Around the World. Puntillo joins Boyd to talk about running in Antarctica and on Mount Everest.
- Australia has been suffering a major drought for seven years. Author Rob Draper writes about the hardship this has brought upon farmers and city dwellers alike in the April 2009 issue of National Geographic magazine. Boyd and Draper discuss the article, "Australia’s Dry Run."
- Sushi has taken America by storm, so much so that it's possible to find the Japanese treat in corner restaurants and supermarkets across the country. But this wasn't the case 20 years ago. In his book The Story of Sushi: An Unlikely Saga of Raw Fish and Rice, Trevor Corson spotlights "the fast food of old Tokyo." Corson joins Boyd in the National Geographic cafeteria to talk and taste sushi.
- Did you know that eating fewer hamburgers might do the planet more good than not driving an SUV? Eugene Cordero, co-author of Cool Cuisine: Taking the Bite Out of Global Warming, joins Boyd to talk about improving your carbon footprint and your diet at the same time.
- Boyd finds that eating a sustainable seafood diet is sometimes easier said than done.
Tune in to National Geographic Weekend on the Salem Radio Network or on XM/Sirius satellite radio (XM channel 133 Sundays at noon), subscribe to the iTunes podcast, or get it streamed to your iPhone, Blackberry, Palm, or Android OS phone with Stitcher Radio.
Image courtesy National Geographic Television.