What Do Fungi, a Methane Tracking Satellite, and One of NASA’s Most “Storied” Astronauts Have in Common?
The answer: You’re Looking at It! It’s SPI!
Ours is a one-of-a-kind collection of primary source stories told by world-class scientists, adventurers, artists, writers, captains, colonels, cowgirls, thinkers and doers from all disciplines and walks of life. You won’t find another collection quite like it and it is only getting better over time!
We’ve worked hard for more than a decade - and we’re still at it - recording first-person stories of extraordinary people in the arts, sciences, and humanities for use as an educational resource, grades 4-12. For little ones, grades K-3, we added folktales and fables. These are timeless tales told by internationally acclaimed master storytellers. In 2021, we produced a series of ASL-interpreted and captioned story-based videos for deaf and hard-of-hearing kids that feature an eight-year veteran of the National Theatre of the Deaf as the storysigner. And this summer, we launched our new Handwerks project.
Handwerks is a German word that means “the work of the hands.” The project shares primary source stories told by tremendously talented and skilled trades and craftspeople with middle and high school age listeners. Handwerks stories engage and inform students about career opportunities that are creative, fulfilling, and every bit hands-on. So, click this link to access SPI’s website! Take a look around and listen. We’re wholly open-source.
Here’s what we just uploaded to our science collection.
Fungi - The Third Kingdom of Life: SPI’s Conversation with Merlin Sheldrake
SPI’s recording of Merlin Sheldrake offers an introduction to the fascinating world of fungi. We point students who want to find out more (and who doesn’t?) in the right direction with links to newspaper articles and nonprofit foundations to which Merlin is a principal contributor.
From his website: [Fungi] are inside you and around you. They sustain you and all that you depend on. As you read these words, fungi are changing the way that life happens, as they have done for more than a billion years. Fungi provide a key to understanding the planet on which we live, and the ways we think, feel and behave.
But that’s just a teaser.
When asked to describe “What is it like to be a fungus?” Sheldrake replied, “If you had no head, no heart, no center of operations,” he began. “If you could taste with your whole body. If you could take a fragment of your toe or your hair and it would grow into a new you — and hundreds of these new yous could fuse together into some impossibly large togetherness. And when you wanted to get around, you would produce spores, this little condensed part of you that could travel in the air.” * (NY Times, The Man Who Turned the World onto the Genius of Fungi, June 8, 2023.)
We have a lot of catch-up to do to understand this vital part of our world. It is a fascinating field of study that young people would do well for themselves - and for the Earth - to learn about. Click here and scroll down to be redirected to Merlin’s SPI recording.
Merlin Sheldrake is a biologist, writer, and speaker with a background in plant sciences, microbiology, ecology, and the history and philosophy of science. He received a Ph.D. in tropical ecology from Cambridge University for his work on underground fungal networks in tropical forests in Panama, where he was a predoctoral research fellow of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute. He is a research associate of the Vrije University Amsterdam, works with the Society for the Protection of Underground Networks (SPUN), and sits on the advisory board of the Fungi Foundation.
MethaneSAT - Putting the Brakes on Climate Change: SPI’s Conversation with Harvard’s Steven Wofsy
Dr. Steven Wofsy is, in my personal opinion, an American hero. He is an atmospheric and hydrospheric scientist and was named the Abbott Lawrence Rotch Professor of Atmospheric and Environmental Science at Harvard University. Dr. Wofsy is also the principal investigator on the project MethaneSAT, an advanced methane-tracking satellite capable of measuring methane emissions virtually anywhere on Earth. MethaneSAT, when launched, promises to be a game-changer in the fight against global warming.
MethaneSAT is scheduled to launch in early 2024. Dr. Wofsy is its principal investigator. Throughout his career, Dr. Wofsy's research has focused on measuring, modeling, and mitigating the vast impacts that human beings have on the atmosphere. As is now well documented, man-made emissions have severe effects on the environment of the Earth and society, such as climatic warming and global, regional, and urban air pollution.
Professor Wofsy's research over many years has been motivated by the need for scientific information and analysis to make wise decisions on the future development and conservation of the world's resources. This recording, like that of Merlin Sheldrake, offers students an introduction to the work of Steven Wofsy and a basic understanding of the effect of methane on our environment, its sources and efforts now underway to curb emissions. Click here to be redirected to Steven Wofsy’s recording.
One of NASA’s Most Storied Astronauts: SPI’s Conversation with Story Musgrave
If the image of the Pillars of Creation changes everything you ever thought about everything, you can thank Story Musgrave. Story Musgrave was born on a dairy farm in Stockbridge, MA. He was in the forests alone at three and, by 5, floated his homebuilt rafts on the rivers. He rode combines at 5, drove trucks and tractors at 10, and when alone in remote fields, repaired them by 13.
Story never finished school and went to Korea with the U.S. Marines, where he was an aircraft electrician and an engine mechanic. He started flying with the Marines and, over the next 55 years, accumulated 18,000 hours in over 160 aircraft.
He is a parachutist with over 800 freefalls. He has seven graduate degrees in math, computers, chemistry, medicine, physiology, literature, and psychology. He has been awarded 20 honorary doctorates. He was a part-time trauma surgeon during his 30-year astronaut career. Story was a NASA astronaut for over 30 years and flew on six spaceflights. He performed the first shuttle spacewalk on Challenger's first flight, was a pilot on an astronomy mission, conducted two classified DOD missions, was the lead spacewalker on the Hubble Telescope repair mission, and on his last flight, he operated an electronic chip manufacturing satellite on Columbia.
And that's just the beginning! Click here to be redirected to Story’s SPI recording.
The 2023 / 2024 academic year is off to a good start. We’re excited to keep our stories coming!
SPI’s Mission: Story Preservation Initiative believes in the transformative power of story to connect people around our common humanity and create a better future.
Our Work: We are a leading producer and online distributor of original, content-rich audio-based narratives for K-12 students. SPI stories are the raw materials of history, roadmaps to scientific discovery, and windows to the mind of artists and skilled tradesmen and women.
What We Achieve: SPI brings listeners into personal contact with extraordinary people whose stories engage their hearts and minds, imparting content knowledge and fostering curiosity, creativity, and critical thinking as they open doors to possible career paths in professions associated with the arts, sciences, humanities, and skilled trades.
SPI was founded in 2010. We are fully and proudly open-source.
“When educating the minds of our youth, we must not forget to educate their hearts.”
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