Advertise on podcast: Citizen Science Show

How does a frog surveyor end up running a wildlife sanctuary in the PNG Highlands, working with gold mines, earning an OBE and then farming redclaw in far north Queensland? Dani sits down with Rod Ingersoll, environmental scientist, conservationist, farmer and author of Crayfish Cashflow: From Gold Mines to Gumboots. Rod talks about his 22 years in Papua New Guinea, where he survived kidnappings and hundreds of gunpoint encounters, and helped protect 200,000 hectares of wilderness that turned up more than 50 species new to science. He tells us how he bought an aquaculture farm while looking for a single barramundi and lost it all in Cyclone Jasper. He also explains how he rebuilt with grants, volunteers and citizen science, running his own trials on pond aeration and redclaw trapping that challenge what many farmers believe. It's a conversation about resilience and community, and about how much you can learn from your own backyard. In this episode: - Running a PNG wildlife sanctuary with no outside management - Talking his way out of danger as the "Jungle Warrior" - Working inside the mining industry to protect wilderness - Surviving Cyclone Jasper and rebuilding Barron River Redclaw - Farm-based research on aeration and trapping techniques - Aquaponics, food security and starting small Content note: This episode includes a reference to suicide. If you need support, contact Lifeline on 13 11 14. More Information https://book.australianredclaw.com/ https://www.aquaponicgardener.com.au/ https://barronriverredclaw.com.au/ https://www.facebook.com/BarronRiverRedclaw https://www.facebook.com/AustralianRedclawCrays https://www.facebook.com/AquaponicGardener If you enjoy this podcast, please like and subscribe to our show wherever you get your podcasts. Leave us a review and share this show with your friends. It really helps us to reach more citizen scientists, like you. Contact the Show We are always looking for more guests to tell us about interesting citizen science projects, research and events. You can email us at: [email protected] Watch on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@citizenscienceshow Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Where does the water go when it rains, and what happens when we help the landscape hold onto it? In this episode, John Marsh talks with Carolyn Hall, CEO of the Mulloon Institute, a not-for-profit restoring the health of Australian landscapes through landscape rehydration, science and community engagement. Carolyn explains how the Institute grew from a single farm pilot into a 23,000 hectare catchment project, why winning farmers' trust comes before moving any earth, and what twenty years of data reveals about more water, not less. She shares how restored creeks help protect Sydney's drinking water, buffer against drought, flood and bushfire, and even brought native fish back from the brink, plus the regulatory red tape doubling the cost of restoration, and simple ways city dwellers can reconnect with the waterways around them. More Information https://mullooninstitute.org/ https://www.scienceaustralia.org.au/carolyn-hall/ https://waterpartnership.org.au/partner-logos/mulloon-institute/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNK3wAtDHq0 https://www.facebook.com/MulloonInstitute/ If you enjoy this podcast, please like and subscribe to our show wherever you get your podcasts. Leave us a review and share this show with your friends. It really helps us to reach more citizen scientists, like you. Contact the Show We are always looking for more guests to tell us about interesting citizen science projects, research and events. You can email us at: [email protected] Watch on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@citizenscienceshow Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Recorded live in the Citizen Science Show podcast booth at the Hunter Science Festival, Dani sits down with Nick Whalan-Daniels, Head Teacher for the TAFE NSW Manufacturing Centre of Excellence at Tighes Hill, to talk about a stand packed with augmented reality welding, robotics and renewable energy demonstrations. Nick explains how the new centre is training the Hunter's next generation of advanced manufacturing workers, why the region's shift away from coal is creating fresh skills gaps in renewable energy, and how "micro skills" and "micro credentials" are opening trade pathways to people who've never picked up a tool. Plus, why Nick thinks AI is a tradesperson's friend, not their replacement. More Information https://www.tafensw.edu.au/specialty-schools/manufacturing-centres-of-excellence About the Hunter Science Festival 2026 https://newcastlemuseum.com.au/what-s-on/current-events/national-science-week-hunter-science-festival https://www.hish.org.au/ If you enjoy this podcast, please like and subscribe to our show wherever you get your podcasts. Leave us a review and share this show with your friends. It really helps us to reach more citizen scientists, like you. Contact the Show We are always looking for more guests to tell us about interesting citizen science projects, research and events. You can email us at: [email protected] Watch on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@citizenscienceshow Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Recorded live in the Citizen Science Show podcast booth at the Hunter Science Festival, Dani sits down with Karen Eastwood, Program Delivery Officer for Newcastle Museum and Library, to talk about the library's new Little Bang Discovery Club, a hands on program turning preschoolers into "little scientists" (and their parents into "lab assistants"). Karen shares what's inside the program's take home discovery box, how the four week journey builds to a mini science fair, and how Newcastle Museum and Library is reshaping what a library can be, from a citizen science corner to borrowable fossil kits and a chill out zone stocked with genuine dinosaur poo. More Information https://newcastlelibraries.com.au/ About the Hunter Science Festival 2026 https://newcastlemuseum.com.au/what-s-on/current-events/national-science-week-hunter-science-festival https://www.hish.org.au/ If you enjoy this podcast, please like and subscribe to our show wherever you get your podcasts. Leave us a review and share this show with your friends. It really helps us to reach more citizen scientists, like you. Contact the Show We are always looking for more guests to tell us about interesting citizen science projects, research and events. You can email us at: [email protected] Watch on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@citizenscienceshow Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Recorded live in the Citizen Science Show podcast booth at the Hunter Science Festival, Dani sits down with Heather Wightman, biosecurity officer for the Hunter Valley Amateur Beekeepers, to find out about a gold medal winning Australian invention putting fresh, spin-your-own honey on the kitchen bench, and what's changed for beekeepers since Varroa mite arrived in Australia. Heather explains how a new mite strain resistant to standard treatments is spreading, what it could mean for pollination and our food supply, and how everyday beekeepers have quietly become citizen scientists, monitoring their hives every month just to keep their bees alive. More Information https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100063618307697 https://hunter-valley-amateur-beekeepers.org.au/ About the Hunter Science Festival 2026 https://newcastlemuseum.com.au/what-s-on/current-events/national-science-week-hunter-science-festival https://www.hish.org.au/ If you enjoy this podcast, please like and subscribe to our show wherever you get your podcasts. Leave us a review and share this show with your friends. It really helps us to reach more citizen scientists, like you. Contact the Show We are always looking for more guests to tell us about interesting citizen science projects, research and events. You can email us at: [email protected] Watch on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@citizenscienceshow Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ever wondered how you could contribute to ocean science without being a scientist yourself? In this episode, we speak with Dr Paige Maroni, founder of the Polar Blast Project, about how private yacht owners, captains and crews around the world are helping scientists access some of the most remote and least understood marine environments on Earth. From automated water samplers to remotely operated vehicles surveying the Antarctic seafloor, Paige reveals just how many ways an ordinary vessel, and an ordinary person, can help fill in the map of our unexplored oceans. We also dig into the incredible biodiversity hiding beneath the polar ice, a newly documented squid species, and why protecting these fragile ecosystems is a race against time. More Information Yachts for Science: https://www.yachtsforscience.com/ Polar BLAST: https://www.polarblast.org/ DONATE to Polar BLAST: https://giving.uwa.edu.au/online-giving?id=f6f8e736-5885-4772-ae45-9c98e6105894 Dr Paige Maroni: https://research-repository.uwa.edu.au/en/persons/paige-maroni/ A recent short film: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHIppptKE58 If you enjoy this podcast, please like and subscribe to our show wherever you get your podcasts. Leave us a review and share this show with your friends. It really helps us to reach more citizen scientists, like you. Contact the Show We are always looking for more guests to tell us about interesting citizen science projects, research and events. You can email us at: [email protected] Watch on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@citizenscienceshow Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Beneath the waves, one of the ocean's most important ecosystems is hiding in plain sight. In this episode, Sarah talks with Natalie Coy, a PhD candidate and founder of the citizen science project Seeds of the Sea, about Posidonia australis, an endangered, flowering seagrass found only in Australia, and home to a single clone in WA stretching 180 kilometres, making it the largest known organism on Earth. Natalie explains why seagrass meadows matter so much for carbon storage, coastline protection and marine nurseries, why NSW's Posidonia populations behave so differently to WA's, and what's driving the species' decline, from swing moorings to stormwater runoff. She also shares how everyday Australians can help simply by photographing seagrass they spot while diving, boating or walking the beach, and her hope for a future of small, community-led restoration projects up and down the coast. More Information https://www.seedsofthesea.org/ https://www.unsw.edu.au/research/cmsi/research-projects/Marine-Environmental-Sustainability/seeds-of-the-sea If you enjoy this podcast, please like and subscribe to our show wherever you get your podcasts. Leave us a review and share this show with your friends. It really helps us to reach more citizen scientists, like you. Contact the Show We are always looking for more guests to tell us about interesting citizen science projects, research and events. You can email us at: [email protected] Watch on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@citizenscienceshow Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What's really in the air over Darwin, and why wasn't anyone measuring it? In this episode, Dani talks with Dr Louise Woodward, a Darwin paediatrician and founder of CHANT (Community Healthy Air Northern Territory), Australia's first community-led air quality monitoring project. Louise explains how a Senate inquiry into a major gas industry expansion in Darwin Harbour revealed the Northern Territory wasn't monitoring for toxic chemicals like benzene at all, and how her community responded by crowdfunding over $130,000 to buy their own mobile air monitor. The conversation covers the real health risks of living near gas processing facilities, why "natural gas" isn't the safe, clean option it's marketed as, and how CHANT's advocacy has already led to formal prosecution over misreported emissions, plus what Louise sees as reason for real hope in the twilight of the fossil fuel era. More Information https://www.healthyairnt.au/ https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61591465550473 https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-08-05/nt-epa-prosecutes-gas-company-inpex/106998434 If you enjoy this podcast, please like and subscribe to our show wherever you get your podcasts. Leave us a review and share this show with your friends. It really helps us to reach more citizen scientists, like you. Contact the Show We are always looking for more guests to tell us about interesting citizen science projects, research and events. You can email us at: [email protected] Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What is the Australian landscape trying to tell us, and are we actually listening? In this episode, host John Marsh sits down with regenerative farmer Martin Royds of Jillamatong, near Braidwood, NSW, to explore a philosophy built over four decades: reading weeds, soil and water as feedback rather than problems to be sprayed away. Martin shares how a simple handful of urea outperforms a toxic, decades-old herbicide, why his nutrient-dense grass-finished beef was once rejected by a supermarket for having the "wrong" coloured fat, and the remarkable story of senior fast food executives travelling from the United States to see his water-positive farming system firsthand. The conversation ranges from Indigenous knowledge and the hidden marketing history behind "grain-fed" beef, to Sydney's multi-billion-dollar water infrastructure debate, and closes with Martin's simple advice for anyone, farmer or city dweller, wanting to reconnect with the living systems around them. More Information Jillamatong: https://jillamatong.com.au/ Soils for Life interview: https://soilsforlife.org.au/the-jillamatong-story/ Australian Museum Interview: https://australian.museum/learn/climate-change/climate-solutions/future-now-makers/green-solutions/ The Mulloon Institute: https://mullooninstitute.org/2019/11/06/braidwoods-secret-water-supply-waiting-in-weir/ Soils for Life PODCAST: https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/making-decisions-in-the-dry-with-martin-royds/id1582582411?i=1000709860943 The Land Article: https://www.theland.com.au/story/9179532/drought-resilience-lessons-from-aussie-farmers/ Charlie Arnott Podcast Episode: https://charliearnott.com.au/s2-e3-martin-royd/ ABC: https://www.abc.net.au/news/rural/2010-09-21/braidwood-farmer-looks-to-diversification/6195980 Landcare: https://landcarensw.org.au/landcarers-holistic-management-approach-is-paying-dividends-during-drought/ Matters Journal: https://mattersjournal.com/stories/regenerative-agriculture QPRC ‘Region’: https://region.com.au/braidwoods-secret-water-supply-waiting-in-weir/335126/  If you enjoy this podcast, please like and subscribe to our show wherever you get your podcasts. Leave us a review and share this show with your friends. It really helps us to reach more citizen scientists, like you. Contact the Show We are always looking for more guests to tell us about interesting citizen science projects, research and events. You can email us at: [email protected] Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It's National Science Week, and Dani welcomes back a familiar face: Dr Jessie Oliver, Technical Manager of SciStarter Australia, the local home for finding and sharing citizen science projects across the country. Jessie walks through what's currently on the platform, from backyard biodiversity spotting on iNaturalist to hyperlocal air-quality monitoring in Tasmania, and explains why physics-based projects remain rare while health and technology projects are on the rise. She also opens up about her background in tech design research, why so many people feel discouraged by "unfriendly" citizen science apps, and why that's rarely their fault. Plus: how project organisers, big or small, can get their own citizen science projects listed on SciStarter Australia, and why Jessie is personally offering to help anyone who gets stuck. Event details Hunter Science Festival, Newcastle Museum, Sunday 23 August 2026. Free entry. Presented by the Hunter Innovation and Science Hub (HISH) and the City of Newcastle, supported by the Australian Government. https://newcastlemuseum.com.au/ More Information https://www.scistarteraustralia.au/ If you enjoy this podcast, please like and subscribe to our show wherever you get your podcasts. Leave us a review and share this show with your friends. It really helps us to reach more citizen scientists, like you. Contact the Show We are always looking for more guests to tell us about interesting citizen science projects, research and events. You can email us at: [email protected] Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It's National Science Week, and this episode is all about physics and the people bringing it to life across Australia. Dani sits down with Associate Professor Dr Karen Livesey, Chair of the NSW branch of the Australian Institute of Physics and a 2023 Marie Curie Lecturer, to talk about the AIP's first-ever stall at the Hunter Science Festival, the 2026 Marie Curie Lecture Series touring the country with astrophysicist Dr Karelle Siellez, and the surprising careers a physics degree can lead to. Karen also shares her "secret mission" to find physics hiding in the everyday world, from rainbows to nanomagnets, and reveals her other secret life running Ghost Fungus Tours, where quantum mechanics meets glowing mushrooms in the bush. Catch the AIP at the Hunter Science Festival on Sunday 23 August at Newcastle Museum, and the Marie Curie Lecture live in Newcastle on Friday 21 August. Event details Hunter Science Festival, Newcastle Museum, Sunday 23 August 2026. Free entry. Presented by the Hunter Innovation and Science Hub (HISH) and the City of Newcastle, supported by the Australian Government. https://newcastlemuseum.com.au/ More Information https://www.aip.org.au/Women-in-Physics-Lecture-Tour If you enjoy this podcast, please like and subscribe to our show wherever you get your podcasts. Leave us a review and share this show with your friends. It really helps us to reach more citizen scientists, like you. Contact the Show We are always looking for more guests to tell us about interesting citizen science projects, research and events. You can email us at: [email protected] Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ben Newsome, founder and director of Fizzics Education, has spent over two decades turning kids into scientists, reaching more than four million young Australians since 2004. In this episode, recorded ahead of National Science Week 2026, Ben joins Dani to unpack this year's "Seeds of Science" theme, runs three physics experiments live on the podcast using nothing but a balloon, a straw and his own elbow, and shares how student-designed experiments have made it all the way to the International Space Station, including an ongoing project tackling real NASA engineering problems for future lunar habitation. Ben also previews his lineup for the Hunter Science Festival at Newcastle Museum on Sunday 23 August, a free, family-friendly event where the Citizen Science Show will be running a live pop-up podcasting booth. If you're in the Hunter region, come find us and say hello. Event details Hunter Science Festival, Newcastle Museum, Sunday 23 August 2026. Free entry. Presented by the Hunter Innovation and Science Hub (HISH) and the City of Newcastle, supported by the Australian Government. https://newcastlemuseum.com.au/ More Information https://www.fizzicseducation.com.au/ https://www.fizzicseducation.com.au/free-resources/ https://www.fizzicseducation.com.au/programs/ https://www.churchilltrust.com.au/fellow/benjamin-newsome-nsw-2013/ https://www.virtualexcursionsaustralia.com.au/events/inspiring-australia-training/ https://www.facebook.com/fizzicseducation https://www.youtube.com/@fizzicseducation https://www.lakemac.com.au/Events-directory/Council-events/Maker-Con-26 https://www.virtualexcursionsaustralia.com.au/events/scifest-2026/ https://avachallenge.org/simple-seeds/ https://stars-align.org/ If you enjoy this podcast, please like and subscribe to our show wherever you get your podcasts. Leave us a review and share this show with your friends. It really helps us to reach more citizen scientists, like you. Contact the Show We are always looking for more guests to tell us about interesting citizen science projects, research and events. You can email us at: [email protected] Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Two billion years ago, a microscopic organism invented photosynthesis and changed the fate of life on Earth. In this episode, we go micro with Steph Scott, founder of the East Coast Algae Group and a micro-documentary filmmaker who spends her days peering through a microscope at nearly 1,000x magnification. Steph unpacks the surprising world of microalgae, from beta-glucan compounds that could replace antibiotics in aquaculture, to the ancient partnership between algae and fungus that gave rise to every plant on land, to the citizen science platforms anyone can use to get involved. It's a journey into a universe most of us walk past every day without ever seeing. More Information https://coastalscience.noaa.gov/monitoring-and-assessments/pmn/ East Coast Algae Website  https://sites.google.com/ecabiosystems.com/eastcoastalgaebio/home?authuser=0 The Microlage Project website https://sites.google.com/ecabiosystems.com/eastcoastalgaebio/the-microalgae-project?authuser=0 Steph's photography site https://sites.google.com/ecabiosystems.com/srm/images?authuser=0 Citizen science initiatives OzGreen' MacroMuster https://www.ozgreen.org/macromuster If you enjoy this podcast, please like and subscribe to our show wherever you get your podcasts. Leave us a review and share this show with your friends. It really helps us to reach more citizen scientists, like you. Contact the Show We are always looking for more guests to tell us about interesting citizen science projects, research and events. You can email us at: [email protected] Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

At just 22, Oscar Mower built a machine learning model that can listen to raw ocean audio and pick out the call of a minke whale in real time, one of the most elusive and under-studied baleen whales in the world. In this episode, Oscar explains how he turned whale song into images a computer could learn to recognise, why minke whales have been so hard to track using traditional methods, and how the same technology could one day help prevent ship strikes, one of the leading causes of whale mortality worldwide. We also talk about the ongoing tension between abundant ocean audio data and the much scarcer resource of labelled data, why NOAA's open data repository made this project possible, and what a University of Sydney undergraduate research paper turned into: a tool with the potential to help map minke whale migration routes for the first time. More Information https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/national/science-data/sounds-ocean-environmental-and-anthropogenic https://www.sydney.edu.au/news-opinion/news/2025/06/05/whale-song-crunched-for-minke-conservation1.html If you enjoy this podcast, please like and subscribe to our show wherever you get your podcasts. Leave us a review and share this show with your friends. It really helps us to reach more citizen scientists, like you. Contact the Show We are always looking for more guests to tell us about interesting citizen science projects, research and events. You can email us at: [email protected] Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Microplastics are everywhere, in our waterways, our food, and now, our bloodstreams, yet almost entirely invisible to the naked eye. In this episode, Sarah talks with toxicologist Dr Scott Wilson, research director of AUSMAP (the Australian Microplastic Assessment Project), about what plastic actually is, why "degradable" packaging is a greenwashing trap, and how bioaccumulation and biomagnification carry plastic particles up the food chain and into our bodies. Scott shares AUSMAP's citizen science model, which has trained over 1,300 volunteers to track microplastic pollution at hundreds of sites nationally, including some confronting news about Bondi Beach, and explains how that data is already shaping national policy and international treaty negotiations. It's a sobering picture, but one with a clear, hopeful message: everyday choices and community science really can drive change. More Information https://www.ausmap.org/ https://www.implasticfree.com/ https://www.beatthemicrobead.org/ https://www.unep.org/inc-plastic-pollution If you enjoy this podcast, please like and subscribe to our show wherever you get your podcasts. Leave us a review and share this show with your friends. It really helps us to reach more citizen scientists, like you. Contact the Show We are always looking for more guests to tell us about interesting citizen science projects, research and events. You can email us at: [email protected] Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.