Be A Cave Diver

09/20/21 • 34 min

JILL HEINERTH is an underwater explorer, writer, photographer, speaker, and filmmaker. A pioneer of technical rebreather diving, she has led expeditions into icebergs in Antarctica, volcanic lava tubes, and submerged caves worldwide. Jill is the first Explorer-in-Residence of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society. Her memoir, INTO THE PLANET, has been lauded by the Wall Street Journal, Oprah Magazine, and the New York Times. Her children’s book THE AQUANAUT is a Blue Ribbon Selection for Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library. Jill is a Fellow of the International Scuba Diving Hall of Fame, Underwater Academy of Arts and Sciences, Women Divers Hall of Fame and the Explorers Club, which awarded her with the William Beebe Award for ocean exploration. Contact: www.IntoThePlanet.com Into the Planet, My Life as a Cave Diver is available through booksellers and Amazon, worldwide.

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Opening Remarks

Hi everyone, and welcome. One of the things I find fascinating as I interview people is the variety of things that attract us, how different are the subjects we want to learn, and the environments we want to explore. And how what scares one person makes another one come alive.

Jill Heinerth and I both love the water. We’d both jump on a flight to outer space if the opportunity presented itself. But Jill has trained to be a world class underwater explorer and boldly goes where no human has ever ventured. She faces her fear regularly and has taken away a lesson that I wholeheartedly agree with-- that stepping into the darkness might feel scary but it’s also exciting. If you focus on that and take small manageable steps you can come up with some amazing results.

One of my favorite parts of my conversation with Jill is how she learned to say no. Once in awhile she finds herself in a situation where her professional judgment tells her this is unsafe. Even though she’s close to the prize or others want her to go on, she knows it’s too dangerous and draws the line.

For most of us our decisions aren’t quite as much a matter of life and death. But from time to time we all need to resist social pressure and respect our our personal boundaries. Sometimes saying no is as courageous as diving into the unknown

I encourage you to visit the links in the show notes and see some of Jill’s videos. Her descriptions are excellent but the images take you to a whole new world. Here’s the interview.

(Full transcript at https://ialwayswantedto.net)

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Opening Remarks

I encourage you to visit the links in the show notes and see some of Jill’s videos. Her descriptions are excellent but the images take you to a whole new world. Here’s the interview.

(Full transcript at https://ialwayswantedto.net)

Previous Episode

Know What I Want To Be When I Grow Up

My guest, Annie Handmer, is a final year PhD Candidate at the University of Sydney’s Faculty of Science, in the School of History and Philosophy of Science. Her research traces the social history of Australian space science projects in order to better understand international and interdisciplinary cooperation, the social construction of achievement, and the nature of the military-industrial-academic complex in Australian space science.

In addition, she is on the Advisory Council for the Space Industry Association of Australia, a member of the Space Generation Advisory Council ‘Ethics and Human Rights in Space’ Project Group, the Space Law Council of Australia and New Zealand, program consultant to the Australian Youth Aerospace Association ASTRA Committee, and is also the host and creator of the Space Junk Podcast.

In Spring 2021 (southern hemisphere), Annie will be undertaking a residency at the Sydney Observatory.

Twitter / Instagram: @anniehandmer

Space Junk Podcast: https://play.acast.com/s/space-junk-podcast/

Space Junk Video: https://www.youtube.com/c/spacejunkpodcast/

Space Ethics Library: https://spaceethicslibrary.wordpress.com/

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Opening Remarks

Hi Everyone,

I’m so glad to have Annie Handmer as my guest on the podcast again. I love the way she sees the world and everything she thinks about.

In this conversation Annie and I turned things around. Instead of looking backwards to what we always wanted, we ponder the question of what do you want to be when you grow up. What effect does that question have on kids when they hear it? And what’s really the point of asking when the jobs available will be completely different in 20 years.

For example the work Annie does now was inconceivable when I was growing up. Annie actually teaches Space Law, she advises the United Nations on Space Ethics, and works for her state government predicting the future in order to come up with better policy. Wow.

If you haven’t yet listened to our previous conversation, do check out I Always Wanted to Go Into Outer Space from September 2020. She proposes some great alternatives to Space Tourism for those of us who are not billionaires. It’s not a prerequisite for this episode but it’s well worth a listen.

In today’s conversation we talk about better questions to ask children than what do you want to be, and discuss how our differences influence our point of view. Annie speaks on behalf of all millennials and I speak for all boomers and together we make sweeping generalizations that are absolutely sure to be true.

I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. Here’s the interview.

(Full transcript at https://ialwayswantedto.net)

Next Episode

Play the Harmonica

My guest, Mark Radel, describes himself this way: I have always been around music. I sang in the church choir, school choirs, acted in musicals in high school, was into music but never took up an instrument. After my wife and I moved to Seattle my commute was 30 minutes and I was bored driving back and forth each day. I thought about what I could do and saw a book named "harmonica playing for dummies", with it came a cheap C major harp and a cassette. So each daly as I drove to and from work I practiced playing. When we moved back to Bellingham, WA, I got serious and started playing with others. Now I can sheepishly say I am a musician.

Artists Mark mentions that he listens to: Kevin Moore, Taj Mahal Eric Clapton, Tracy Chapman, Jerry Portnoy, and Harry Manx.

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Opening Remarks

Today’s guest is a dear friend that I’ve known half my life. Before we moved away many years ago Mark was a fan of our music, my husband Michael’s and mine-- that’s that Cohen music I mention later on. Mark would often come see us perform, but he never played.

It is such a pleasure in this interview to hear about his transformation as a harp player and acceptance of himself as a musician. This is what is possible when we try something we’ve always wanted to do. The story of Mark’s journey is exactly what I was thinking about when I started this podcast.

One of the things that’s most interesting about Mark’s process is that he started with improvisation. He didn’t learn melodies or how to read music, but instead he plays by ear and instinctively. I think that’s unusual and kind of courageous. Plus he is fortunate to have good friends to play with and challenge him. And I miss them all very much.

I should mention that during our conversation I use some shorthand and don’t explain everything because we know each other so well. Also during the interview Mark is fiddling with his harmonicas and you can hear them rattling a bit.

It was a joy to reconnect with my friend and I look forward to joining in on one of the music nights he mentions in the near future.

Full transcript available at https://ialwayswantedto.net