Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
Welcome to Earth on the Rocks, a show where we get to know the person behind the science over drinks. Each episode will highlight a new scientist in the earth and atmospheric sciences to learn more about their journey, what interests them, and who they are outside of their science.
Host: Shelby Rader
Producer: Cari Metz
Artwork: Connor Leimgruber
Board Operator: Kate Crum, Betsy Leija
Funding for this podcast was provided by the National Science Foundation grant EAR-2422824.
Hi, folks, and welcome back to Earth on the Rocks, the show where we get to know the person behind the science. I'm your host, Shelby Rader, and joining me today is Emily Throop Emily, thanks for joining.
Emily:Thank you for having me.
Shelby:So Emily, we're gonna get to know you today over drinks. What would be your drink of choice or non choice if you have one as Kyle introduced last season?
Emily:I am a Midwestern girly. I like bourbon Yeah. Neat or on the rocks. And if it's we're hanging out outside and it's a summer day, I'll I also like a good IPA. But, usually, bourbon is my
Shelby:Even in the summer, even when it's warm.
Emily:Yeah. I might default to a beer in the summer, but, yeah, I do. I do.
Shelby:Yeah. I have similar preferences as you do. But I tend to go more bourbon heavy in the winter and maybe a little more beer heavy when it warms up. So, Emily, you're a grad student here. And if someone were to ask you, you know, what do you do or how you would sort of label yourself as a scientist, what would you say to that?
Emily:I have gotten the wonderful opportunity of wearing a lot of different hats since finishing my undergraduate degree. And I think at this point in my life, I would label myself as a geoscientist or an Earth scientist.
Shelby:Okay. And so that's sort of a broad category. And so what are some of these hats that you feel like you've gotten experience wearing?
Emily:Yeah. My undergraduate degree was actually in informatics, which I feel as if whenever I tell somebody that, they don't always know what it is.
Shelby:Yeah. Yeah. Can you tell us that encompasses?
Emily:We sort of joke that it's diet computer science. But it's You choose a specific type of technology or data that you want to focus on and that sort of becomes your degree. It is somewhat related to computer science in that you learn how to code, you learn how to use Python and those sorts of things. But you sort of get to dip your toes in a bunch of different things. You learn how to do some UX UI things and you learn about data ethics.
Emily:And so I chose to focus on geography. So I did a lot of GIS work.
Shelby:Can you tell a little bit about what GIS is and what that work entails?
Emily:Yeah. GIS stands for Geographic Information Systems or Sciences. And it has to do with managing spatial data is the short answer. So after I graduated, I went and worked as a GIS analyst an at environmental consulting firm, and I made maps for them.
Shelby:And I have several questions here. So one is sort of how long did you work for them? And the other is what sorts of things were you mapping? Because I think this is a really good opportunity to talk about how translatable some of these skills I mean, I recognize you you gathered these skills as an undergrad in a different department, but a lot of these same skills people in our program also use. And Yeah.
Shelby:So, yeah, how how did you use those on the job and what was that experience like being in the workforce?
Emily:I worked there for three years after I finished my undergraduate degree. And a lot of, for lack of a better word, copy and paste. But you're getting to put different types of data in these different templates to give to client. When a client looks at your report, then they're going to go and they're going to look at the pretty pictures. They're gonna look at the maps.
Emily:So it sort of has to efficiently and effectively convey to them what we investigated. So we always look at hydrology of the site, so floodplain, wetlands, any mapped streams. We also look at soil types. Then in terms of what type of investigation that we do for them, whether it's a wetland and water delineation or it's a phase one site investigation or phase two, we have sort of a larger exhibit that we'll give them and that will convey whatever specific things we investigated. For that client?
Emily:Correct.
Shelby:Yeah. And like when you say client, what sorts of clients do you have? Are these individuals? Are they companies? Are they like state organizations?
Shelby:What sorts of people were you working with?
Emily:We were a pretty small consulting firm. So it's a lot of smaller private companies that would hire us. But, you know, we also get hired by city of Bloomington, and there are a few state jobs. But usually, it it is smaller private companies. Yeah.
Shelby:And when they're reaching out to you all and wanting, you know, maps of things related to flood plains or some of these other things you mentioned, is it for building purposes? Is it for infrastructure things or something else? Yeah, it's usually for building an infrastructure, which
Emily:it's almost a tear in my environmentalist heart of, you know, wanting to do the right thing, but I also don't wanna destroy the Earth. So, yeah, it's it's walking the fine line of making sure they do the right thing if they're going to, in fact,
Shelby:build. Right. And so you you had this sort of experience in industry for about three years. And if you feel comfortable, what were some things that you enjoyed about that time? And what were some things that maybe led you to think, maybe I want to go back to graduate school?
Emily:I really enjoyed a lot of things. I feel as if a lot of that enjoyment came from the people that I worked with. The CEO, principal engineer is a wonderful, wonderful woman who is kind and also driven and pushes us to sort of pursue things that we love within environmental consulting. And also all of the other women that I worked there, all the other scientists were really, really amazing too. I love a good system as well and organizing things, and she really just let me have at it with all their systems, which was amazing for me.
Emily:Yeah. It also was a nice place to fall into right after graduating. With my degree, I felt as if I had touched a bunch of different things, but I hadn't really gotten to hone those skills. So she really let me settle in and work on myself. In terms of reasons why I decided to come back to school, a, I think I got so caught up in undergrad thinking about that I need a job, you know.
Emily:And I think I probably would have studied geology if I wasn't so caught up in checking all the boxes. And B, I think that I had reached a threshold where I felt that I had grown a lot and that I needed to go receive more education in something that I really wanted to study in order to grow more.
Shelby:Yeah. I think that's a great way to approach anything in life, right? Like, you you get what you can out of an experience and then find new opportunities to grow and expand. And so you were here for your undergrad but not in Earth and Atmospheric Sciences. You did take some classes.
Shelby:I had you in class. Did. You were a great student. You were great to have. So when you decided, I think I want to go back to graduate school, what made you think to go towards EAS versus like an informatics program or a geography program?
Emily:It's hard for me to put my finger on it. I'd love to give you some philosophical reason, but also I asked if I could get a second undergraduate degree and they told me I already had a minor in it for my undergrad and I couldn't get another degree, another undergrad degree. And I thought, okay, I probably should get a higher level of education than that anyways. And also, always I think I've always just wanted to study Earth Science. It's been sort of an underlying thing for me.
Shelby:Yeah. Well, I feel like your undergraduate experience and your work experience, all of those things play really well into an Earth science program too. So you have this really well developed skill set coming in that a lot of folks maybe don't have when they come in. And so I feel like that has to be really beneficial.
Emily:Yeah. Yeah. Did feel as if I had to do some catching up before I came on to be a grad student, and I took classes while I was still working full time. So I came and took a geomorphology class, and I came and took sedimentation and tectonics, which is the prerequisite for field camp. And then I went to field camp to sort of throw myself to the wolves and make sure that I somewhat knew what I was doing before I came and explored more.
Shelby:So we've had some faculty on who have talked about field camp, but I don't think we've had a student who has gone through field camp. So can you talk a little bit about what that experience was like? Were you still working at the time or had you started the transition back into graduate school? Because that's a long time commitment to come out to the field station. And then what was it like being out there for six weeks?
Emily:It was sort of this perfect timing of I got accepted to be a grad student in May 2024. And I already knew that I was gonna go to field camp that summer. I had told my boss, I really need to go do this. And her dad is a LPG, and he went to field camp. And so they were thrilled by this and said, yes.
Emily:You can take time off. Go do that. So I ended up just saying, okay, I'm actually just gonna go to grad school after I come back from field camp. But field camp is I wish there were more words for me to describe how amazing it was for me. It is was so immersive and I don't think I could call myself a geologist if I had not gone.
Emily:You're just there's no other word for it besides immersive. The people that you're there with and being in the field every day and doing homework together every night. It's gaining relationships with those other students and with the faculty and also evolving yourself as a geologist. They're just this incredible amalgamation of things.
Shelby:Yeah. I think immersive is a really good way to describe it because it's literally picking you up and putting you into these environments that you have read about in textbooks and seen in lecture slides. And maybe you've done some fieldwork, but it's usually sort of local or regional. And when you go out there, everything is to me, the first time I went out west, you know, being from Kentucky, which geologically is very different from parts of Indiana, the scale of things is so much bigger and the variety of things is so much more diverse and yeah. And it's just something to experience it in person as opposed to from a lecture slide.
Emily:Yes. Yes. Absolutely. And that's another layer to it as well. At least for me, I mean, I'm a pretty avid hiker and I like being outside and the setting is insane.
Emily:It's just sort of otherworldly. You're just you just wake up in the morning and they're in the mountains. You're just in them and getting to see all these wonderful beautiful rocks and and different rocks each day and yeah it's it's a wonderful experience.
Shelby:Yeah I I go out just for a week and help teach a concentration section And the first few times I went out and did that, the concentration was the very last week of camp. And so, you know, people are sort of burned out and ready to go home, which I understand. And so I would come out fresh faced, and people would sort of be dragging their feet. When we were in the field, I'd be like, look at the beautiful place you get to be. And odds are you're never going to be back in this exact location unless you're really intentional about it.
Shelby:And so what a great classroom to be in. So embrace it while you can because it is a really unique experience.
Emily:Yes. Yes. I agree.
Shelby:And so you now come back to IU after field camp and formally enroll as a master's student. And so what sorts of things have you been working on while you've been here?
Emily:So I work in the Sedimentary Systems Lab. I work under two geomorphologists. And I look at small scale sediment movement on hill slopes. Specifically, we are looking at tree throw. So when a tree completely uproots and brings its root ball to the surface, that root ball often retains a lot of this loose sediment, but also bedrock fragments.
Emily:And our thought is over time, these bedrock fragments are going to diffuse downslope and impact how rocky the soil is. And sediment grains in the soil have implications for how the hill slope is going to evolve. They work as sort of this abrasive mechanism. So we're looking at what do different densities of tree throw look like in terms of soil rockiness and what does different densities of tree throw across different bedrock lithologies look like for soil rockiness?
Shelby:And so by density of tree throw, you mean, like, the number of trees that have pulled up this root ball in a given area?
Emily:Yes. Yes. Across hill slope. Yes. And I've been provided with this amazing tool.
Emily:The guy who started this project created this incredible model that when a tree throw occurs, it makes this very distinct fluctuation on the Earth's surface. It's called the pit mound couplet. And because this geometry is so distinct, he created a model that you feed elevation data, and it can pick out these instances of tree throw. So I can actually pinpoint all the locations of tree throw in an area that he has let his model chew up this elevation data.
Shelby:And I'm assuming this pit mound coupling, the pit is where the root ball excavated and left a divot. And the mound is where material has been deposited to create a mound next to it?
Emily:Correct. Correct. Yeah. The mound is the root ball itself. It's all that material that was retained.
Shelby:And so I would guess a lot of people who are listening have probably seen these things, but one, never knew it was called a tree throw because I didn't know that until I started working here probably. And two, probably have never thought about the implications of that process on this bigger landscape picture. Yeah. So what are some things that can cause tree throw? Are there different mechanisms that can result in tree throw?
Shelby:And is that something that you have to think about when you're trying to evaluate the impact on these sort of downstream processes? Or is it just the tree throw is all that matters?
Emily:My particular research right now is we're just looking at the tree throw and how it impacts this hill slope. But we believe that tree throw is it's also sometimes called wind throw. The trees are often uprooted due to atmospheric conditions, so wind. And we've also seen that there are a higher density of tree throats or more instances of tree uprooting on a eastern heel slope, particularly in this region because we have westerly winds. So the wind will come up the western slopes, and it's sort of hard to make a tree uproot, upslope.
Emily:Yeah. And then as the wind comes back down over the Eastern hillslopes, it's easier to knock them down if the wind is strong enough.
Shelby:Interesting. Yeah. So I was at my sister's house in Kentucky a couple of years ago and there was this really strong storm that came through and she lives sort of on a ridgeline so there's trees all over her property and there was this really strong gust of wind, and we saw in real time a tree throw event happen, which I'd never observed before. And it's so wild to see because these trees are big, you know? And and for them to just be in one fell swoop uprooted and dumped is pretty impressive.
Shelby:And so the fact that you're then thinking about the implications of this is a lot of fun. Yeah. And so you sort of talked about this model. So can you walk us through, like, what are you doing to sort of count these tree throw populations in an area? Because I I I have a feeling it's probably a combination of things.
Shelby:But what does that look like?
Emily:The model provides me with just coordinates of where it believes, it predicts that these instances of tree throw are. Because it's getting elevation data from Oh, yes. We're providing it with LiDAR data.
Shelby:And
Emily:then the model picks out these instances of tree throw. And then I sort of take a step back and look at what patterns we see with these tree throw densities. And then in my research, have a bunch of controls to decide where we want to investigate. And once we determine an area that we want to investigate, I'll actually go through and outline an area and then look at the elevation data and compare the results from our model. And if you look at a hillshade, which is just a derivative of the the LiDAR product or the digital elevation model, you can teach yourself to know what these pit mount couplet geometries look like on the surface.
Emily:And I go through and actually count them and make sure that the model was totally right.
Shelby:Right. Yeah. And this LiDAR data that you're feeding the model, are you or someone in your group, are you all collecting that? Is that something you're sourcing somewhere? Where does that come into play?
Emily:Yeah. We our group does have this incredible lidar drone that they go out and fly over floodplains to gather data. But for my project, we're just using it's usually state provided lidar data, so it's not from a drone. And we take whatever lidar data that is available for each state, and Tyler runs it through the model and provides me with the tree throw detections.
Shelby:And so what's your sort of field area? What's the region that you're focused on for your tree throw analysis?
Emily:We have looked at soil rockiness values a lot around Bloomington just because it's very accessible. But we wanted to look at some different bedrock. We have looked at a lot of siltstone in Bloomington.
Shelby:So like actually going out into the field? Yes. And looking at the rock and sediment that has been uprooted by these trees? Yes.
Emily:So we choose a hill slope pair. So a hill slope that has a low density of tree throw and a hill slope that has a high density of tree throw at the same location, so they'll have the same bedrock lithology. We draw a transect orthogonal to the ridgeline, and then we will excavate pits along those transects. And we dig them all the
Shelby:way to bedrock. How deep is that?
Emily:Some of them are really shallow. Only, like, sometimes they're 30 centimeters, and sometimes they're a 130 centimeters.
Shelby:And you're you're digging these pits by hand?
Emily:Yes. Yes. So we carry out shovels and big backpacks. And yeah. And whatever the depth is of the pit, we'll take separate that into five increments.
Emily:And then we take a two liter sample, whatever composition that is from the wall of the pit. So all the rock and soil there. And then we bag it up, but we carry all those bags out.
Shelby:Which I'm assuming would be quite heavy.
Emily:It's quite heavy.
Shelby:So I hope that you have a lot of field assistants. I know you have some because there have been some undergrads that I know that have talked about going out in the field with you.
Emily:Yes. I actually have had a great, great group of a couple grad students and then some really, really amazing undergraduate students who are so game to come and just Dig pits. Help carry
Shelby:heavy bags.
Emily:Yes. And, yeah. Positivity is so critical there. Yeah. And so once we collect the samples, we'll come back to the lab.
Emily:And this is where we really determine what the bulk weight percent of rock is in the soil. So we go through a series of drying and weighing and washing away the finer sediments until we're left with all of the grains that are two millimeters and larger. And from that, we're able to see, we'll define this soil rockiness value.
Shelby:Yeah. And the idea there is you're looking at an area that has a lot of tree throw and a presumably similar area with very little tree throw. And so you're trying to evaluate what's controlling what causes one to have more than the other. Is it something like this rockiness value?
Emily:Yes. We're looking at how tree throw and lithology control the soil rockiness value.
Shelby:Right. And I know that you're still a graduate student, but you're close to the end. So can you give us a little preview of what some of your findings maybe have been or what you're seeing in terms of why do we have areas with more tree throw?
Emily:Yeah. We have seen that hill slopes that have a lower density of tree throw have lower soil rockiness values.
Shelby:And so that means there is less rockiness or less Less
Emily:less rock in the soil.
Shelby:Okay. Correct. Okay.
Emily:And compared to their paired hill slope that has more tree throws. So the hill slopes with more tree throws, rockier soils. Right. For the most part. We've, particularly for the limestone and siltstone sites.
Emily:And we've seen that the relationship between these two hill slopes is very similar between all the siltstone sites, which is what we've sampled the most. We just have one limestone site, so it'd be really great if we got some more data. But, yeah, the relationship between the two hillslopes of the limestone site is just different enough than that at the siltstone to to be able to say that lithology has some influence there too.
Shelby:Right. And so you're starting to see these trends between areas that have a lot of tree throw and ones that don't. And so how is that applied? What does that information then tell you, either about how landscapes evolve or what's happening downstream from these areas that have more or less tree throw?
Emily:Yeah. So I know that I mentioned before that the amount of sediment grains you have in the soil, because they act as an abrasive mechanism, it influences how the hillslope will evolve. And yes, once they reach the foot of the hillslope, they're going be put into a different effluvial environment. And those have a completely different set of implications of what different grain sizes and the amount of sediment grains in a effluvial system, how that evolves that.
Shelby:And can you talk a little bit about what you mean by a effluvial system?
Emily:Yeah. So any river channel system that's going to exist in these valleys between hill slopes and continuing down to a basin. Right.
Shelby:And so I think your project is interesting for a whole number of reasons. And one of the aspects of it that I find sort of unique is you're doing this combination of field work, some lab work, and some computer based modeling work. Is that a correct term to Yeah, yeah. And so, are there aspects of any of those that you have found you really prefer over others? Or do you kind of like this mixture?
Shelby:Because a lot of times research projects are strongly in maybe one, maybe two of those regions. And you really have this sort of multidisciplinary approach to this project, I could imagine would be exciting but maybe frustrating at times.
Emily:I actually think it's really wonderful to I don't know, maybe this is my life being able to step into all these different kinds of work, but it was nice to start off the project solely with just GIS work and looking at that, something that I sort of was familiar with.
Shelby:Right. And this is the part of it where you're evaluating what are some areas that that maybe have extensive tree throw that we wanna go out and then sample.
Emily:Yes. Yes. Just looking at the data and seeing what patterns might exist there. I love fieldwork. I love going out to dig, and being out there with some of these other students and and working with them is really, really wonderful.
Emily:I think that's probably one of my favorite parts. The lab the lab work is fun too. Sort of almost like one of those kids dino digs where you're uncovering the bones and you're seeing how many rocks are in the soil. Yeah. So it's sort of a fun little mystery to unpack.
Emily:Yeah. I would say that the lab work and the field work are really, really exciting for me.
Shelby:Yeah. Yeah. And I think in my opinion, it's kinda nice. I do a lot of lab work. I do much less field work.
Shelby:But I'm trying to find ways to do more of that. And it's good to have a break from one sometimes to be able to go to the other and vice versa. And it feels like your project is sort of a really great central point for all three of those things.
Emily:Yeah. I get to have some balance.
Shelby:Yeah. So you know you maybe have a slightly different trajectory than some graduate students where you were in a job beforehand. Can you talk a little bit about what that transition, like from working what I'm presuming is something approximating a nine to five to then going into graduate program? What's that like? What are some things that are similar?
Shelby:What are some things that maybe are that if somebody's thinking about graduate school they might not have considered before?
Emily:Yeah. I did come from a very structured work life. I was there eight to four and you know, had certain tasks that you do and and check all the boxes. And coming into grad school, that both benefit me and also made it a little hard for me to be more flexible and ask questions, ask scientific questions. I I think we get to do a lot of investigative work, but sometimes it becomes almost cookie cutter.
Emily:And and and being in grad school has really been able to teach me to think outside that box and look beyond that. So hard, but also a good development for me. Yeah.
Shelby:And in terms of sort of, like, going from a really structured environment to maybe a less structured environment, have you
Emily:found that you have enjoyed that or has that been challenging at times? It was really hard in the beginning. The transition was really hard for me. I really enjoy it now, though. I like that I can, you know, I can wake up and work from 6AM until 10AM and then work again from 10PM to 2AM.
Emily:That's really nice for me. And it gives me some more flexibility in my life. And during grad school, I also got a dog. The flexibility helps? Yes.
Emily:Yes. Yes. That's been great for that. So so I think, in all, it's been a good transition.
Shelby:Yeah. Yeah. Have there been any aspects of it that have been surprising, either good or bad? I
Emily:think the only surprising part was that I was so set in my ways about being structured and that coming into grad school, felt as if I wasn't being curious enough and asking all the right questions and sort of having to retrain my brain was the only surprising part.
Shelby:Yeah. Yeah. And I think that's a big aspect of what comes from the training for a graduate degree is providing the skills and the encouragement for you and others to start to ask those questions and to develop your own theories and to get excited about new avenues that can take things. And I think that just takes time whether somebody comes straight from undergrad or or a working environment. But, yeah, I mean, it sounds like you have just flourished with with that and done a really nice job with it.
Shelby:One of the other things that you were just talking about before you actually started recording was you also have gotten the opportunity to teach a little bit as a grad student here. And so what has that been like? What have have been some of the things about that aspect that you enjoy?
Emily:That has been one of the other highlights for me, actually. I've gotten to TA this semester for the sedimentation and tectonics course, which is the prerequisite for field camp.
Shelby:That that you took a few years ago as a student. So so you have now been on both sides of of that coin.
Emily:Yes. Yes. Which is which is also a nice perspective to have. Yeah. It's it's been really lovely.
Emily:I mean, I said to you earlier that this group is really this group of students is really great. I don't know if every person who teaches says that about their students. But, yeah, they're just a really great group. And learning how to introduce topics and describe things effectively is is a whole other skill set that has been challenging but wonderful to work on. To get to do that and also watch the woman that I'm TA ing for, watch her perform so effectively.
Emily:And learning from her and getting to work with her has been really great too.
Shelby:It's interesting that you say that about, because I agree, about learning how to communicate and introduce topics is a skill set that a lot of times is really hard to learn. And then you also had this experience both as an undergrad and then in your work environment before you went to grad school of learning a different type of communication. And I know from having you in class that your sort of visual communication of things is really high quality. It's always impressed me, the things that you've been able to put together and, you know, in a diagram or a video or a picture explain a lot. And so to then hear you talk about how, oh yeah, now when you have to like verbally talk about these things, that's a that is a different way of thinking about explaining topics and it's two very different skill sets.
Shelby:And I think when somebody can find ways to at least be semi effective at both of those, they're just doing an incredible job. And so I'm sure that you are doing an incredible job on both of those parts of that. For folks that are thinking about either maybe going to grad school or start to be interested in some of the things that you've talked about, do you have advice for people that are thinking of those sorts of things?
Emily:I would say, at least in my case, I didn't know that you know that grad school is an option, but it wasn't really pushed for my undergraduate degree. And I would say to to go do it, to just to just go do it. I spent a lot of time while I was working questioning if that was a right decision or not, and and I finally decided that why wait? Just go and you have all this time to learn and you're while you're young and yeah.
Shelby:And so you're sort of towards the tail end of your master's degree, and you know this maybe is the dreaded question for
Emily:a lot of people but
Shelby:but what's next? What are you what do you think you want to pursue after this? Do you think you want to go back into the workforce? Do you want do something different? What do you feel like might be your trajectory?
Emily:I think that answer changes every couple weeks. I was really set on going back to environmental consulting for probably the first three fourths of the time I've spent in grad school. And then actually working with Doctor. Gonderos and TA ing has been totally eye opening to this other side of grad school and being in academia and, you know, who knows? Maybe I'll I'll go and work for a little while and then go do a PhD and maybe learn how to do some teaching is this thing that I've had on the back burner for the last week or so.
Emily:So, yeah.
Shelby:Yeah, lots of options. Yes. Which is, know, I think has been a theme of what we've talked about is it's nice when you have those to find ways to take advantage of them. And so just to sort of go back briefly to this idea of environmental consulting. So you sort of had undergrad, you had sort of gone into that field, master's, you were considering for a while, maybe going back and now maybe not so much.
Shelby:What is it about that field in particular that appealed to you then and maybe appealed to you a little more recently? Because I think that's a field that a lot of folks that are in our line of work might have interest in but maybe is one that like that term is sort of vague and so so what is that and what about it did you find appealing?
Emily:I think that the most appealing part for me was that I was helping people and I could see the results of how we were helping people. Whether that was I mean, the firm that I worked for, we did everything from mold and lead paint testing and radon mitigation to larger scale things like doing tank yanks is the term that we call when we pull out underground storage tanks that have been leaking. It's a whole smattering of things. But within all of those, we are helping people be healthier and safer and also helping the environment. And that is the most appealing part to me.
Shelby:That's interesting, the range of things you just described, because that would be really rewarding because the things you mentioned at the beginning, know, things like radon testing and lead testing, those would have really immediate and direct impacts to the individuals that are in that building or in that home or in that environment. And then things like the tank yank, you know, that's something that a lot of people probably wouldn't even you're not thinking about tanks that are below the surface, but those are this environmental contaminant that sort of indirectly could be impacting a lot of people too. And so I would imagine that would be really rewarding to feel that almost immediate impact of some of those sorts of things.
Emily:Yeah, yeah. It's nice to even Just because our company was so small, I would be the one that would talk to the woman on the phone that says that she has such and such happening in her house. And then, you know, maybe I get to go do the site visit and I get to actually see it and then I can come back and write the report and produce all the deliverables for her. It's you get to see all of the inner workings of the whole process, which is really nice too. And you get to be helping someone.
Shelby:So Yeah. Did that sort of work sort of stop at the interaction after you all hand off the report? Or did you ever have instances where, like maybe some of those same clients you got to interface with after they had the data from you all and they were sort of figuring out what to do next?
Emily:I would say yes and no. Sort of dependent on the situation with, I mean, is the hope that the situation is solved once we've at least we've come and mitigated if that was the situation.
Shelby:Right. You all were responsible for some of the mitigation, too? Yes. Yes. So we would
Emily:do testing and mitigation for some certain things. You need a license for everything under the sun. Yeah. But yes, often, when we did testing, we would get clients that would communicate with us again and say, can you come either test again or test my friend's house or come mitigate or do you know somebody that can come mitigate? So you really get to also develop a relationship with those people, both individual homeowners and other companies.
Emily:It is the hope that you will have this ongoing relationship where you can provide each other with work. Right. Yeah.
Shelby:Yeah, I think there have been several instances of different forms of communication that you have gotten experience with, either from your degree programs or from your job experience or from teaching. And the way that you have sort of embraced that, I think, is a really great perspective on it and something that I hope if people listen to this, you know, they sort of strive to do, and especially students recognize the value in how you communicate things that are important to you or that could be important to other people and how meaningful that can be. Emily, this has been great. I'm so glad to have you on. We end each episode with our Yes, Please segment, where we each get a minute to talk passionately about something we're excited about in the moment.
Shelby:And so would you like to go first? Sure.
Emily:I can go first.
Shelby:Okay. And this will be Emily Throop's Yes, Please segment. Take it away.
Emily:My Yes, Please is any book by John Krakauer. Within the last year, I have completely fallen down the rabbit hole of all of his literature. He's an American writer and mountaineer, and he has written bestsellers Into the Wild, Into Thin Air, and a few others. But he he is just such an incredible writer, and I feel as if often with non fiction, it can be a little dry and he just does such a wonderful job of, telling a story and and just any any of his books make my heart race with how how riveting both the stories that he chooses to tell and how he chooses to tell them without interjecting too much of his own bias or opinion. Amazing.
Shelby:How often do you read?
Emily:I read a lot. I
Shelby:personally find that it's hard for me to read for pleasure during the semester because I'm doing so much reading for work. And I have a personality where I feel like I usually have a lot of self control with things, but when it comes to reading, if it's something I'm really interested in, I can't put it down. Like, I will be up until three or four in the morning reading, which is really not great when you have stuff to do. And so yeah, do you have a good balance, you feel like, of being able to read for pleasure while you're also doing your teaching and research?
Emily:I wish I could tell you that I have self control, but I also have this affliction where I can't put it down. So I will take any few minutes during the day to read. Sometimes I cheat and I get the audiobook and the book and I read when I have the opportunity to read and then I switch the audiobook to where I am in the book and continue while I'm walking or working. Yeah. So yeah, I will find any time to do it.
Shelby:That's not cheating. That's being efficient. Correct. That's problem solving. That's how I would put that.
Shelby:Yeah, that's a good way to go about it. If you had to estimate, how many books do you feel like you can read in a semester or a year?
Emily:This last year, I read a little over 100. In a year? Wow!
Shelby:That's incredible. That is very impressive. Thanks. Yeah. Alright.
Shelby:Then I will do my Yes, Please segment to wrap us up. Yes, please. Let's please embrace, and I hope that Indiana allows this, for us to have a prolonged spring. I feel like spring is one of my favorite seasons. I play intramural softball, so softball season is just starting up.
Shelby:The weather is so beautiful during the day and, like, not uncomfortable and maybe a little chilly at night where you kinda wanna be outside. The bugs aren't terrible just yet, although the mosquitoes are starting to get bad. But some years that I've lived here, spring comes and goes, it feels like in a few days. And so far, I've been pleasantly surprised with sort of the pace that spring has come on. And so I hope it stays that way.
Shelby:I don't want us to all of a sudden get into, you know, 85 degree weather that's consistent or humid. And so I'm really putting this out into the universe. Yes, please. Let's have a really nice long pleasant spring before things get really brutal midsummer.
Emily:I totally agree. I feel like the pace this year has been great. Every time we go out for walks, you can see different plants that are blooming in. Yeah.
Shelby:Yeah. I'm a huge I love plants. I love landscaping. And walking around campus this time of year is so beautiful. And I don't know if they've changed some of their landscaping, but there have been new things that have popped up that I haven't noticed in previous years.
Shelby:And so, yeah, now that I've put it out in the universe, it's probably going to be miserable next week. And it will all be my fault. That's not true. But for now, I'm hoping for an offspring. Emily, thanks again for coming on.
Shelby:This has been great.
Emily:Thank you so much for having me.
Shelby:And for folks that are listening, join us next week when we will have the season two finale. We'll see you then. Earth on the Rocks is produced by Cari Metz with artwork provided by Connor Leimgruber with technical recording managed by Kate Crum and Betsy Leija. Funding for this podcast was provided by the National Science Foundation grant EAR Dash2422824.