Episode 12

Jean Craighead George, award-winning author of more than 100 children's science books, including Newbury Medal winner, Julie of the Wolves.

About the Author

Jean Craighead George was born into a family of naturalists. Her father, mother, brothers, aunts and uncles were students of nature. On weekends they camped in the woods near their Washington, D.C., home, climbed trees to study owls, gathered edible plants and made fish hooks from twigs. Her first pet was a turkey vulture. In third grade she began writing and hasn't stopped yet. She has written more than 100 books.

Her book, Julie of the Wolves, won the prestigious Newbery Medal, the American Library Association's award for the most distinguished contribution to literature for children, in 1973. My Side of the Mountain, the story of a boy and a falcon surviving on a mountain together, was a 1960 Newbery Honor Book. She has also received 20 other awards.

Jean attended Penn State University, graduating with a degree in Science and Literature. In the 1940s she was a reporter for The Washington Post and a member of the White House Press Corps. After her children were born she returned to her love of nature and brought owls, robins, mink, sea gulls, tarantulas--173 wild animals--into their home and backyard. These became characters in her books and, although always free to go, they would stay with the family until the sun changed their behavior and they migrated or went off to seek partners of their own kind.

When her children, Twig, Craig and Luke, were old enough to carry their own backpacks, they all went to the animals. They climbed mountains, canoed rivers, hiked deserts. Her children learned about nature and Jean came home to write books. Craig and Luke are now environmental scientists and Twig writes children's books.

One summer Jean learned that the wolves were friendly, lived in a well-run society and communicated with each other in wolf talk -- sound, sight, posture, scent and coloration. Excited to learn more, she took Luke and went to the Naval Arctic Research Laboratory in Barrow, Alaska, where scientists were studying this remarkable animal. She even talked to the wolves in their own language. With that, Julie of the Wolves was born. A little girl walking on the vast, lonesome tundra outside Barrow, and a magnificent alpha male wolf, leader of a pack in Denali National Park were the inspiration for the characters in the book. Years later, after many requests from her readers, she wrote the sequels, Julie and Julie's Wolf Pack.

Jean is still traveling and coming home to write. In the last decade she has added two beautiful new dimensions to her words--beautiful full-color picture book art by Wendell Minor and others, and music. Jean is collaborating with award-winning composer, Chris Kubie, to bring the sounds of nature to her words.

Episode 9

Dr. Sam Wang, author of Welcome to Your Brain: Why You Lose Your Car Keys But Never Forget How to Drive and Other Puzzles of Everyday Life

Listen to this episode

About the Author

Sam Wang is an associate professor at Princeton University in the Department of Molecular Biology and the Princeton Neuroscience Institute. He graduated with honor in physics from the California Institute of Technology and holds a doctorate in neuroscience from Stanford University School of Medicine. His career includes research at Duke University Medical Center and at Bell Labs Lucent Technologies. He has also done science and education policy work for the Senate Committee on Labor and Human Resources. He has published fifty scientific articles on brain  function. He is the recipient of a National Science Foundation Young Investigator Award and is an Alfred P. Sloan Fellow and a W.M. Keck Foundation Distinguished Young Scholar. In addition to his research, in 2004 he developed a new method for understanding presidential election polls using statistical meta-analysis that has been featured in the Wall Street Journal and other national media. He is co-author of Welcome To Your Brain, which has been published in the US and UK, and 17 planned translations. He and his family live in Princeton, New Jersey.

Episode 10

Lynne Cherry and Gary Braasch, authors of How We Know What We Know about Our Changing Climate: Scientists and Kids Explore Global Warming

About the Authors 

Lynne Cherry is the author and/or illustrator of over thirty award-winning books for children that teach respect for the earth and inspire conservation. Three of her books—The Great Kapok Tree, How Groundhog’s Garden Grew and The Shaman’s Apprentice were selected as the Best Classic Garden Books of the Century by the American Horticultural Society and Junior Master Gardeners.

Lynne Cherry earned a Masters in History at Yale in order to research A River Ran Wild which has inspired kids to study and clean up their local watersheds. Lynne has been artist-in-residence at the Smithsonian, Princeton University, the Marine Biological Lab, the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, and the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.

Her books have been inspired by her love of the natural world and they are used widely by educators involved with No Child Left Inside who are using nature to integrate curriculum and make children’s learning relevant. For more info visit www.lynnecherry.com 

Gary Braasch is an American environmental photojournalist and writer who has documented natural history and environmental issues since 1975. He has produced photographic assignments for major magazines, including National Geographic, Life, Time, Smithsonian, Scientific American and United Nations publications.  Mr. Braasch has won the Ansel Adams Award for conservation photography from the Sierra Club, has been named Outstanding Nature Photographer by the North American Nature Photography Assn., is honored by the Nikon Corporation as a "Legend Behind the Lens," and is a founding Fellow of the International League of Conservation Photographers. He is a leading documentarian and educator on climate change, having a popular website www.WorldViewOfGlobalWarming.org and book, Earth Under Fire: How Global Warming is Changing the World (2007).

Episode 11

Kim McKay, author of True Green Kids: 100 Things You Can Do to Save the Planet.

About the Author

Kim McKay’s international career in media, social marketing and communications spans over 25 years and every continent.  A highly skilled communicator and entrepreneurial marketer, Kim has created and managed many large scale and visionary international projects.

In June 2008 she was recognized by the Australian government for distinguished service to the environment and the community and was awarded an Order of Australia (AO), one of that country’s highest civilian honours. She is currently a partner in Momentum², a Sydney based social & sustainability marketing consultancy working on local and global projects for National Geographic Society & Qantas among other clients.

Kim has worked consistently in support of the local and global environment for two decades starting when she co-founded Clean Up Australia and then later Clean Up the World with solo ‘round the world yachtsman, and 1994 Australian of the Year, Ian Kiernan, AO.  Along with a group of friends, they were on a mission to raise awareness and take positive action in support of their local environment – the message that everyone can make a difference has been the driving theme behind her actions.

She holds a BA (Communications) from the University of Technology, Sydney and has won numerous Australian and international awards for her work in the environment and communications including a United Nations citation and IPRA’s Golden World Award for Excellence in Environmental Communication.

She has lived in the USA, UK, Morocco and Argentina for extended periods and now lives in her hometown, Sydney, Australia.