Season 1 Wrap up and Announcing Guests for Season 2

Season One Wrap-Up

We’ve reached the end of Season One of Book Science! In this closing reflection, I look back on the challenges, the guests who made the season possible, and the growth—both personal and creative—that came from finally putting this project into the world.

From my very first conversation with Duane Hamacher to laughing it up with Scott Huler in Episode 8, this season has been full of experiments, stumbles, and a whole lot of learning.

Along the way, we explored:

• Episode 1: Duane Hamacher – The First Astronomer
• Episode 2: The Power of the Sea by Bruce Parker (solo)
• Episode 3: Tessa Hill & Eric Simons – At Every Depth
• Episode 4: Firmament by Simon Clark (solo)
• Episode 5: Lynne Kelly – The Knowledge Gene &n others
• Episode 6: Helen Czerski – Blue Machine & Storm in a Teacup
• Episode 7: Waves and Beaches by Willard Bascom and Kim McCoy (deep dive)
• Episode 8: Scott Huler – Defining the Wind & Delicious Country

I’m deeply grateful to every guest who took a chance on this unknown show, and to everyone who has listened. Thank you for being part of this first season. With your support, this small but mighty club of science book aficionados will only keep growing. See you in Season Two.

Looking Ahead: Season Two launches this October! Guests include Carl Zimmer (Airborne), Dan Flores (Wild New World), Laura Poppick (Strata), Rebecca Lexa (Everyday Naturalist), Kevin Walsh (Planets of the Known Galaxy), Sönke Johnsen (Into the Great Wide Ocean), and Chelsea Wood (Power to the Parasites).

Links & Extras

• Website: TrippCollins.com
• Show notes & transcripts: https://www.trippcollins.com/episodes
• Check out the Book Science Book Shop
• Instagram: @booksciencepodcast

Author Websites

• Scott Huler
• Helen Czerski
• Tessa Hill
• Eric Simons
• Duane Hamacher 
• Lynne Kelly
• Simon Clark

Transcript

Tripp: This show was recorded in Narrm, Melbourne, Australia, where the traditional custodians include the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nation, and we pay our respects to elders past, present, and emerging. I'm Tripp Collins, and this is Book Science. The podcast explores how the best science books are written and why they matter. 

Hey everyone, Tripp here. We have reached the end of season one. Man, it's difficult for me to believe. So this project was kind of a big deal for me. I had thought about it for a very long time before doing anything about it. And this first season has definitely been difficult. Part of the difficulty was just taking that first step, being brave enough to put something out into the world. I've made a lot of mistakes. I've learned a lot. 

And I like to think that I've grown in some dimension that was previously unknown to me. And this all happened because I challenged myself to take on this podcast. So even though it's difficult, it's also very gratifying. 

And so I kind of want to turn it to you a little bit. If there's something you've thought about doing, something that feels right, but you haven't yet given it a go, I encourage you to take a leap and learn from your mistakes and embrace that growth. And I think growth is what success looks like for me at least at this stage. 

Actual growth in terms of listeners would be nice, but for now I'll settle for some personal growth. You may have noticed that at the end I don't roll any credits. And that's because this is more or less a one-person show. 

Well, almost one person. So I should express my gratitude to Erin, my partner, my wife. She's my first listener. She always gives me honest feedback. 

And if I'm improving at all as we go, it's because of her careful listens. When I reflect on the season and what made it possible, what made it work, I think about the guests. They really took a gamble doing an interview with an absolutely unknown entity. They trusted me to deliver a conversation. 

And I hope I did their work some justice. Unfortunately, they definitely were some issues, audio and otherwise. Obviously, I'm still learning on how best to handle the audio. And in this first season, there was a good deal of experimentation with mixed results. But overall, I hope the quality is improving. I hope it's going in the right direction. 

I just need to keep improving as we go. The last episode, episode 8, with Scott Huler in particular, suffered from a few audio issues. But just last week, I re-edited it and reposted that episode. And I think the audio quality is much better. If you gave up on that one because it was a little hard to listen to, please give it another shot. And if you haven't listened to it, you definitely should. 

Scott was an amazing guest. If anyone has tips, tricks, resources, please send them my way. I'm learning. I'm always trying to get better at this. Continuing on with thinking about my guests, I really can't thank them enough. They really made this project worth doing, worth putting out there. You know, engaging with these people made the effort worth it for me. Thank you, especially to my very first interviewee and guest episode. 

Number one, Dr. Duane Hamacher, where we discussed his book, The First Astronomers. When I first introduced this idea to Duane, he was very encouraging from the beginning. I'm not sure if he knew how nervous I was for that first conversation. He's a real master on the mic and he made that interview so easy on my end. Episode three was with Tessa Hill and Eric Simons, authors of At Every Depth. This was my first cold call and my first reach out for the podcast, which was awesome to actually get someone to respond. Tessa and Eric were very gracious guests. 

I learned a lot from talking with them. I think this is a special book. I want to take cues from on how to integrate different ways of knowing into a powerful book. 

It also has potential for the classroom. Let's see episode five was with Lynne Kelly. Lynne was recommended to me by Duane. We talked about her interest spanning across her many books. Just listening to her describe her memory techniques and making connections. 

That was so fun. She obviously has a very special mind and an interesting perspective on the world. It was such a privilege to talk with her. 

Episode six was a big deal for me. It was joined by fellow oceanographer and BBC and Cosmic Chamberlain's presenter, extraordinaire Dr. Helen Czerski. We talked about her books, Blue Machine and Storm in a Tea Cup. 

I got to say this is definitely like a fanboy moment for me. I really love her books. She was kind enough to link up with me not once but twice. This is extremely embarrassing but I have to tell this story at this point. I asked a mutual colleague to introduce me to Helen. 

I think she agreed to chat with me just out of respect to this colleague. We have a big time difference. She's in England. 

I'm in Australia. She has extremely busy schedule and it was so tough to line up. even a small window, but it was months out in advance. And coming closer to the day, something unavoidable came up for me, and I had to travel the day of the interview. So then I had a choice, you know, like try to do a last minute reschedule, and maybe never give them a chance at it, or give it a go in an unknown environment. Before I made a decision, I called the hotel, I made sure they had high speed internet, you know, I asked for a quiet room, no construction. 

In the end, I was able to sort of convince myself I was controlling enough of the variables in this unknown environment to keep the risk low. And the first thing I did when I arrived was, you know, check the connection and set up my recording space. As soon as I connected, you know, it was a little spotty, so I talked to the staff and they called in IT. 

They said they took a look and they did some work. Everyone was just guaranteed that I was good to go for the next morning. Right and early I get up, everything's set up, I got my coffee. But of course, I was not good to go. You know, the problem started as soon as Helen joined the call. The connection was terrible. I kept dropping out, having to rejoin. 

Then finally, when I was on for more than a minute, the recording wouldn't work because it's a different issue. It was an embarrassing, epic meltdown, just a disaster. And it felt catastrophic. You know, it felt like that was my big interview for the season one, and I absolutely blew it. 

You know, Helen was very gracious. She said, you know, like she could tell I was struggling, and she was like, you know what, let's just scrap it, we'll try again. And when we got off the call, I thought, you know, that's it. 

You blew it. You'll never hear from her again. But in fact, she was very understanding and we eventually rescheduled and the second go around went totally fine. 

But just an absolutely humbling moment. So I owe Helen double thanks. So Helen Czerski, I appreciate you. 

Thank you so much. Last but certainly not least, a conversation where I have laughed the most. Episode eight with the one and only Scott Huler talked about defining the win. We talked about Delicious Country. You know, Scott is an absolute class act, and I'm just so grateful to him for the fun and wide-ranging conversation because I had to go back and like fix some of the audio issues in that episode. I got to go back and listen to our conversation maybe three or four times. And I genuinely enjoyed just listening back and I learned something new each time I listened. The man is chock full of wisdom. 

So those were my guests. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I have deep gratitude to you all who took a chance on me. 

Without you, this would not have worked at all. So those are my interviews and in addition to those, I put out three solo episodes. I enjoy the solo episodes as well, but they are a lot of work to write out the script and to be honest, although I have a strong connection to each one of the books I covered, I simply just don't get as much out of that style of episode as I do from actually talking to people to recount the solo episodes. The first one was episode two, which was on Power of the Sea, and the second one was on episode four on Firmament. So I would have actually preferred both of these as the author interviews. In fact, I tried and failed to get in touch with both these authors. So instead, I pivoted and I adapted my ring notes into the monologues that you heard. In fact, I had a few monologues written out for other books this season in the event that I was not able to get any interviews, but thankfully, you know, that wasn't the case. And then there was sort of a special episode, episode seven. This was Waves and Beaches. This is sort of a whole different beast, and given the kind of critical nature of the episode, that was never going to be an interview. 

You can imagine how awkward that would be. So of the three episodes, I actually liked the more extended format of Waves and Beaches the best. And moving forward, I think I'm going to abandon the kind of shorter solo episodes and lean into these more, to the longer, more thoroughly researched format, a deep dive on one iconic book per season. This would include lots of research, lots of context, maybe some interviews, basically like a mini documentary about one book. 

And because it's so labor-intensive, I'll only be doing one deep dive per season, or at least right now, that's all I can think to commit to. So the rest of the season will be regular author interview format, and for season two, again, we'll aim for around eight episodes. So speaking of season two, yes, there will be a season two. Right now, season one's wrapped. We're going to go on hiatus for a few months, and we'll be back with season two and regularly scheduled biweekly episodes starting sometime in October. I can also tell you that I am extremely stoked about the lineup for season two. And drumroll please, you're going to hear from Carl Zimmer about his latest book, Airborne, Dan Flores about Wow New World, Laura Poppick about her very recently published Strata. Pick that one up. Rebecca Lexa about Everyday Naturalists, also recently published. Kevin Walsh about Planets of the Known Galaxy, Sonke Johnson about Into the Great Wide Ocean, and Chelsea Wood about her book Power to the Parasites. Loved all these books, very excited to share these conversations, and at some point, probably around the drop of next season, I'll announce the title of the deep dive, so stay tuned for that. 

And finally, if you've listened to, if you're listening to this right now, or if you've listened to any of the first season, just know that I appreciate you. You're part of a small, very small, but growing club of science book aficionados, and we will not be denied. It's never been more important. It's never been more necessary to support the work of science and scientists, and authors of science books, and our society. My goal with this podcast is to highlight the work of these people, bring something of value into the world, and as long as you listen, I'll keep doing that. So, thanks for your time and attention, and I'll see you in season two. 

Take care.