Can we feed a growing planet? Absolutely!

Can we do this while improving soil and water quality? Absolutely!

Regenerative agriculture is one way to accomplish this.

Our guest for this episode is Professor Stephanie Anderson. She is a teacher and writer at Florida Atlantic University, where she teaches creative nonfiction and writes extensively about food and agriculture systems, especially regenerative agriculture. She is originally from a ranch in South Dakota, and has deep agricultural ties.

Her latest book, From the Ground Up: The Women Revolutionizing Regenerative Agriculture, relays the stories of many women who are working to improve ag systems not just in the U.S.A., but around the world. This book provides many hopeful and encouraging stories about how regenerative agriculture is making a difference. More about Stephanie can be found at her author page.

Our music is Inspiring Cinematic Asia by Lexin Music, which is available at Pixabay.

“When tillage begins, other arts follow. The farmers, therefore, are the founders of human civilization.” This quote has been attributed to Daniel Webster, who was a lawyer and served as U.S. Secretary of State in the 1800s. This quote shows a keen understanding of history, and the important role that farmers have played in societies.

Our guest for this episode is Dr. Robert Dees, who is an historian of farmers, especially in medieval Germany. His recent book can be found at the Commons Press website:

Commons Press – The Power of Peasants – Economics & politics of farming in medieval Germany

(He has written other history books as well.)

It is important to understand that innovation has been part and parcel of agriculture since the agricultural revolution began thousands of years ago. This includes not just the equipment and machines that are use to grow, harvest, store, and process grains, but also societal structures. Robert’s book gives us a fantastic glimpse into the importance of farmers, and even though his focus has been on medieval times, the lessons continue to be important today.

For further thoughts, and some interesting images that Robert has graciously shared, check out my new Substack page!

Our music is Inspiring Cinematic Asia by Lexin Music, which is available at Pixabay.

Why is yeast the most popular microorganism?

Because it’s a fun guy!

In this episode we talk with Dr. Graeme Walker from Abertay University in Scotland. He is a professor of zymology – in other words, he studies yeasts and fermentation. His focus over the years has been fermentation for alcoholic beverages, distilled spirits, and biofuels – many of which (but not all) use cereal grain as a substrate. His recent work has been investigating non-cereal substrates for fermentation.

Graeme’s contact information can be found at his faculty webpage at Abertay University. If you would like to dig deeper into yeast and fermentation, check out his Google Scholar page and explore his publications. You can also take a deeper dive into yeast nutrition in a recent webinar with Graeme.

Especially relevant to our discussion about non-cereal fermentations is a recent study that estimates yield drags for corn, wheat, and barley due to climate change.

Indeed, changing cropping conditions may necessitate the development of non-cereal alternatives for fermentation of both beverage as well as biofuel alcohols.

Our music is Inspiring Cinematic Asia by Lexin Music, which is available at Pixabay.

Drowning in Dirt!

Do you know about the Dust Bowl in the USA? It occurred during the 1930s through much of the central US, and devastated the lives of many rural people and communities. Why did this happen? Wind erosion, coupled with agricultural practices.

This phenomenon was predicted by Joseph Hutton, who was the first soil scientist in South Dakota. He was an fierce advocate for changing the way crops were grown. More about his legacy can be found at the South Dakota Agricultural Heritage Museum, located on the campus of South Dakota State University.

Our music is Inspiring Cinematic Asia by Lexin Music, which is available at Pixabay.

Today’s guest is Kaylee Kleitsch. She is Programs and Engagement Manager at CAST (The Council for Agricultural Science and Technology), effective June 2025. Kaylee joined CAST in early 2024 as a part-time Communications Assistant while completing her master’s degree in Sustainable Agriculture at Iowa State University. Over the past year and a half, she has played a vital role in communications and student programming, and now she steps into a leadership position focused on engagement and outreach.

In her new role, Kaylee will lead student initiatives, coordinate CAST’s volunteer network, and manage membership services and retention strategies. She’ll also support event logistics and strategic planning in close collaboration with CAST’s communications team.

Kaylee grew up on a farm in Iowa and was heavily involved in 4H and FFA.

Thank you, Kaylee, for talking to us about agricultural communications, the work you are doing at CAST, and your thesis research!

Our music is Inspiring Cinematic Asia by Lexin Music, which is available at Pixabay.

Today’s guest is Dr. Paige Brown Jarreau. She is based in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA. She’s been pursuing science communication full-time since 2011, when she moved across the country to enroll in a mass communication Ph.D. program. She completed her Ph.D. at the LSU Manship School in 2015, focusing in science communication (SciComm). Her research focuses on the intersection of science communication and new media.

While pursuing a doctorate degree in biomedical engineering in 2011, she had an epiphany: she realized that she loved writing and
communicating about research just as much (or more) than working at the lab
bench. A few months later, she started a blog and took a brazen leap in the
world of science communication. She’s maintained From The Lab Bench,
a blog about all things science communication originally hosted on SciLogs.com,
since 2011.

She’s held various science and health communication positions. In the past few years, Paige has been Science Communication Specialist for the LSU College of Science, Director and then VP of Science Communication at LifeOmic, co-founder of Lifeology, and adjunct for the LSU Manship School. She’s also currently a science communicator for the NIH Center for Alzheimer’s and Related Dementias (CARD). And, she also still pursues passion projects like consulting, science communication training and teaching!

One of her latest projects is Silenced Science Stories – which uses art to tell the stories of scientists and researchers who have been impacted by the US Government’s funding cuts and firings throughout 2025.

Thank you, Paige, for a great conversation about science communication!

Our music is Inspiring Cinematic Asia by Lexin Music, which is available at Pixabay.

Ballet and barley?

Today’s guest is Tanya Trombly. She is a professional ballet dancer based in New York City. She dances freelance around the U.S., and is the founder of a fitness and nutrition company in NYC. For the past several years she has been a guest artist in the Iowa State Center’s performance of The Nutcracker, where she also dances in a STEM-focused performance. This version of The Nutcracker is intended to introduce young Iowa students to the confluence of dance, science, and engineering, and is sponsored by Iowa 4H.

Join us for a conversation about communication. Whatever your field, communication is critical. In science, we historically have very defined ideas about what this means – conference presentations and journal papers most commonly. Perhaps we should expand our understanding of what communication means. Throughout human history dance has been an important means of communicating ideas without the spoken word.

More information about her work can be found at her website, Bulletproof Ballerina.

Thank you, Tanya, for a great conversation about communication!

Our music is Inspiring Cinematic Asia by Lexin Music, which is available at Pixabay.

Today’s guest is Dr. Amrita Ray. She is a Milling Specialist at the Northern Crops Institute at North Dakota State University in Fargo, North Dakota, USA. Her work encompasses milling and fractionation of grains, with a special emphasis on stone milling. We had a fantastic discussion about grains and milling. If you are interested in her work, more information can be found at NCI’s website.

Her publications can be found at her Google Scholar profile.

And, here is a link to the story we discussed about new research that deletes genes for alpha-gliadins. If you are interested in the actual journal article, you can find it here.

Thank you, Amrita for a great conversation!

Our music is Inspiring Cinematic Asia by Lexin Music, which is available at Pixabay.