The Big Blue Rock Pod

Ep. 58: From the Archive – Remembering Dr. Bill Haneberg, Kentucky State Geologist and KGS Director

It is with heavy hearts that we share the sad news of the sudden passing of Dr. William (Bill) Haneberg, former Kentucky state geologist and director of the 13th Kentucky

Ep. 57: Museum of Natural History and Artificial Curiosities

Matt, Sarah, and Doug talk with UK Art Museum Curator Rachel Hooper and KGS Public Resources Coordinator Cheyenne Hohman. They discuss a brand-new exhibit at the UK Art M

Ep. 56: Digging the Lake Core Life

Matt, Sarah, and Doug talk with KGS geologist Bailee Hodlka. They discuss Quaternary limnology, lakes in the Sierra Nevada, aquatic ecology, ostrocodes, environmental geo

Ep. 55: Water, water everywhere, And every problem unique

Matt, Sarah, and Doug talk with KGS geologist Chuck Tayor. They discuss karst hydrogeology, karst vs. other aquifer types, tools for groundwater monitoring, the KGS groun

Ep. 54: The Enviropod Pod: Teaching Earth Science in a Changing World

Matt, Sarah, and Doug talk with Earth and Environmental Sciences Department Senior Lecturer Summer Brown. They discuss earth science education, teaching, how scientists c

Ep. 53: From Seam to Ash: A Career in Coal

Matt, Sarah, and Doug talk with world-renowned applied energy researcher Jim Hower. They discuss the University of Kentucky Center for Applied Energy Research, coal petro

Ep. 52: New Harmonizing with Dr. Cobb

Matt, Sarah, and Doug speak with former KGS Director and State Geologist Jim Cobb. They talk about James Hutton, New Harmony, Indiana, the job of a State Geologist, the 1

Ep. 51: Friction and Fjords: Curling Stones and The Wave

Jam packed show! Fresh of the Winter Olympics, Matt, Sarah, and Doug discuss the geology of curling stones. Next, back by popular demand (not really), they break down ano

Ep. 50: Lakes, Diatoms, and DNA: Will You Be My Valentine?

50th Episode! Matt, Doug, and Sarah talk to UK Earth & Environmental Sciences Professor Trisha Spanbauer. The discuss lakes, paleolimnology, lake sediment as proxies for

Ep. 49: Seeing what you can't see with geophysics

Matt, Doug, and Sarah talk with UK Earth & Environmental Sciences Professor Ed Woolery. The discuss near surface geophysics, shear wave propagation, imaging technique lim

Ep. 48: Dig Doug: KGS Digital Mapping and a Unique Career Arc

Matt and Sarah talk with KGS geologist and BBRP co-host Doug Curl. They talk about Doug’s unique and fascinating career arc as a geologist, geoinformatics, GIS, geologic

Ep. 47: News and Boos

Matt, Sarah, and Doug recap their participation in conferences but most importantly lean into Halloween! They discuss haunted pump jacks, suffering cows, the dark history

Ep. 46: The Coal Whisperer

Matt, Sarah, and Doug talk with KGS geologist Cortland Eble. They discuss all things coal geology with a world-renowned palynologist, one of few people in the world who g

Ep. 45: Building resilience from the ground up with the Kentucky State Geologist

Matt, Doug, and Sarah talk with KGS Director and Ky State Geologist Mike McGlue. They discuss what geologists do, trends in earth science, converging disciplines, excitin

Ep. 44: Out of Office Messages

Matt, Doug, and Sarah talk about conferences they attended this summer, along with a little travel in between. They discuss the National Speleological Society Convention,

Ep. 43: Same Geologic Time, New Listen

Geologic time is a fundamental concept at the core of all geology and earth sciences. Since it's the foundation for everything else, we thought it was worth listening to

Ep. 42: Shale, yeah!

Matt, Doug, and Sarah talk with KGS Geologist Alex Washburn to discuss shales, rare-earth element, critical minerals, calcite, geochronology, petroleum geology, and envir

Ep. 41: Someone to Organize Our Schist

Sarah, Matt, and Doug talk with KGS Public Resources Curator Cheyenne Hohman about KGS archiving, data dissemination over time, weird publications, maps, science and poli

Ep. 40: Geology in the Gallery (view description for images!)

Matt, Sarah, and Doug talk to UK Art Museum Curator, Rachel Hooper. In this special episode, they go on-site to the museum and discuss with Rachel the materials and subje

Ep. 39: Mystery Science Geology 2025: Netflix's La Palma

Matt, Sarah, and Doug breakdown the 2024 television mini-series La Palma! They discuss the plot of the show, geologic character stereotypes, geologic details right and wr