Welcome to The Outfall – a podcast that explores the backstories of our water world and its infrastructure through unique stories. Whether you’re a curious learner or simply looking for an engaging listen, this podcast is designed to cater to a diverse audience. We aim to deliver short and engaging episodes for our audience, have a blast creating them, and uncover the fascinating tales about our water world.
Episodes
Sunday Nov 01, 2020
Sunday Nov 01, 2020
In the spring, we published an episode where we talked to two researchers where they described how wastewater testing can act as a coronavirus early warning system. Since this show, this research has rocketed from a handful of labs at an unprecedented speed to many college campuses around the country as a frontline public health tool. Yes, wastewater was coming to the rescue.
However, there was a problem. There was no official guidebook for implementing, using, or even communicating wastewater epidemiology on this scale. We talk to Clemson University, the University of South Carolina, and Susquehanna University about this remarkable effort.
Learn more in the show notes.
Sunday Sep 27, 2020
Sunday Sep 27, 2020
The City of Charleston in South Carolina has a long relationship with water which is always being tested. They have experienced more than a foot of sea-level rise in the past 100 years, but half of this rise occurred in the last twenty years. We talk to Mark Wilbert, Chief Resilience Officer at the City of Charleston, about the problems and opportunities with flooding and sea-level rise in this five-minute water short.
Learn more about this and the City's efforts in our show notes here.
Thursday Aug 27, 2020
Thursday Aug 27, 2020
In this episode, we talk to three people who made discoveries while simply looking down. We talk to an engineer, an artist, and a local historian from around the world.
All of them shared a common trait. They discovered manhole covers not far from their homes. These discoveries impacted their lives. After you listen to this episode, you may look down and see the world a bit differently. I know we did.
- Learn more from our show notes here.
- Subscribe to our monthly newsletter here.
- Give us a comment here.
Friday Jul 17, 2020
Friday Jul 17, 2020
On this dispatch, we talk with Dr. Andrew Pyle who is an associate professor at Clemson University in the Communication Department. His interests include risk, crisis communication, and social media.
We learn an unexpected secret in crisis communication. We learn how organizations can become more resilient. We also dive into social media and discuss a life-changing book. We love this book too!
Learn more about this show here.
Sunday Jun 21, 2020
Sunday Jun 21, 2020
On this dispatch, we talk with Pam Kenel who is the Director of Water Resources at Loudoun Water. Loudoun Water is just west of Washington DC and provides drinking water and wastewater services to over 80,000 households in Loudoun County.
We talk about how one transatlantic data cable caused an explosion of data centers which dramatically influenced Loudon Water’s water supply. We also talk about how reusing quarries for water supply will be an important part of their future water supply and how this will be important for other water utilities on the East Coast.
Take a look at these quarries on our website. https://theoutfall.com/dispatches/water-resources-with-pam-kenel/
Sunday May 17, 2020
Sunday May 17, 2020
In this story episode of The Outfall, we talk to two researchers on the front lines of using wastewater to analyze the epidemiology of a community. Wastewater surveillance for the Coronavirus has huge potential. Data suggests that each person infected will excrete millions, if not billions of viral genomes into the wastewater per day. We learn more about why this research is so important, what is going on now, and what the future of this research looks like.
Thanks again to our guests:
- Dr. Sean Norman, Associate professor in the Department of Environmental Health Sciences at the University of South Carolina. Learn more here.
- Dr. Ian Pepper, Environmental Microbiologists at the University of Arizona. Learn more here.
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Sunday May 03, 2020
Sunday May 03, 2020
This week we get to travel the world with no passports or luggage. Our adventure begins in Brest, France and then we travel back in time to Hong Kong during the SARs epidemic. Our travel guide is the wonderful Vera Bin San who is a marine biologist and a friend of Amy's. P-Traps, Masks, and the French Police somehow make it into this conversation.
We have fun producing these weekly dispatches. It has made the world a bit smaller for all of us and that is a good thing. Send us a note if you want to join us for one episode.
Check out Vera on her own YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2YqZKndK7HxCnbe06ZCEuw/featured
Recorded April 9, 2020
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Sunday Apr 19, 2020
Sunday Apr 19, 2020
Freaking out? You may not be alone. We're all living in a moment of uncertainty and anxiety. One of the things we have done to help ourselves these past several weeks is to reach out to our friends in a continuing series of episodes we are calling Dispatches from our Bunkers.
This week Kara Klemm with Yoga Keowee joins us to help calm us down. As people become more anxious as they self-quarantine at home, we discuss mindful meditation, a practice that has been proven to alleviate stress, depression and insomnia, as a way to cope. People often feel discouraged when they first give meditation a try, but then again they have never tried to meditate to the sounds of an influent pump station. After our discussion, Kara leads us in three-minute meditation to the sounds of a working wastewater treatment plant. This may be a world's first.
Recorded April 2, 2020
A big thank you to Kara Klemm with Yoga Keowee. If you are nearby, please join her. You may even bump into David, Amy or I. Kara has led over 1500 hours of yoga teaching registered with the Yoga Alliance. She has instructed teacher trainings and given several specialized workshops to yoga teachers and students on the art of language, anatomy and physiology, Yoga 101, yoga nidra and meditation. She also holds a B.S. in Human Biology and Health from Cornell University has worked in medical sales, training and recruitment for the past 15 years.
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Sunday Apr 12, 2020
Sunday Apr 12, 2020
We are continuing to invite friends to join us in this series of episodes we are calling Dispatches from our Bunkers. This week David Baize Executive Director of the South Carolina Water Association joined us and discussed the behind scenes decision to cancel SCEC, South Carolina's largest water conferences in March.
Next, David Ladner quizzes us with a one-of-a-kind water quiz. Also David, or otherwise known as TSTORM2000, one of our favorite listeners joins us for a one-of-a-kind water quiz.
Recorded March 19, 2020
We appreciate all the positive feedback so far. Thank you!
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Monday Mar 30, 2020
Monday Mar 30, 2020
We were working on several of our normal monthly water stories, but then the pandemic hit. Instead of pausing, we decided it would be great to call each other, turn on our microphones and just hit record. We will continue to roll out our normal monthly stories and we will also supplement with this series we are calling Dispatches from our Bunkers. Today we share some personal stories and some of our favorite moments from Season 1.
This was recorded on March 19, 2020.