Episode 6

Featuring Amber Sparks, Co Founder of Blue Latitudes

Today we are getting curious about our oceans and how we can protect and enhance ecological biodiversity. If you have seen an off shore oil and gas rigs in the ocean, you will know that they are pretty unsightly but what lies beneath them can be an abundant, colorful artificial reef. To talk more about this and many other ocean projects on this episode, is Amber Sparks the co founder of Blue Latitudes.

Amber Sparks

Amber Sparks is a marine conservation biologist and entrepreneur, Forbes 30 under 30 awardee and even has her likeness displayed at the Smithsonian to inspire girls in the sciences. Born and raised in Laguna Beach, Amber has made waves as co-founder of Blue Latitudes through her work repurposing offshore oil platforms into artificial reefs. A graduate of UC Berkeley and Scripps Institution of Oceanography, Amber began her career supporting the launch of underwater street view at Google before co-founding Blue Latitudes LLC in 2015. At Blue Latitudes, Amber has spearheaded efforts to convert over a dozen offshore oil and gas platforms into permanent artificial reef habitats, conserving over 72 acres of habitat in oceans worldwide.

Amber is also the co-founder of Blue Latitudes Foundation, a 501(c)3 organization dedicated to addressing conservation challenges at the intersection of industry and the environment. Through her foundation, Amber works to educate stakeholders on the value of a healthy ocean, encouraging them to think differently about the future of ocean conservation, and has led scientific research expeditions from Malaysia to the Kingdom of Tonga and produced multiple award-winning documentary films.

Amber resides in Laguna and draws inspiration from the coastal beauty of the Pacific, as well as her close-knit family, including her husband and two children, parents, grandmother, and siblings.

HELPFUL LINKS:

www.instagram.com/becurious_podcast

www.instagram.com/bluelatitudesfoundation

www.bluelatitudesfoundation.org

CREDITS:

The BE CURIOUS PODCAST is brought to you by ECODA MEDIA

Host: Louise Houghton

Production by: Deviants Media

Producer: Louise Houghton

Assistant Producer: Marta Wagner

Assistant Producer: Ralph Cortez

Motion Graphics: Josh Dage

Episode 5

Featuring Prof. Dr. Tobias Erb, Microbiologist and winner of the Future Insight Prize 2023

In this episode we get curious about Co2 and unravel how we can take a plant’s natural process of photosynthesis and enhance the pathways to create a more efficient and effective carbon capture model. Discovering how that can then be made into fuel will be announced at the Curious Future Insight Conference in 2024. Joining me for this conversation virtually from Europe is Prof. Dr. Tobias J Erb, Director of the department of Biochemistry and Synthetic Metabolism at the Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology in Marberg, Germany

OUR GUEST BIO:

Tobias J. Erb is synthetic biologist and Director at the Max Planck Institute for terrestrial Microbiology in Marburg, Germany. His team interfaces biology and chemistry and centers on the discovery, function and engineering of CO2-converting enzymes and pathways. Research in Erb’s lab crosses multiple scales: from the molecular mechanisms of carboxylases to their ecological relevance, and from understanding the evolution of natural CO2-fixation to developing new-to-nature solutions, such as synthetic CO2-fixation pathways and artificial chloroplasts.

Erb studied Chemistry and Biology and did his PhD in 2009 at the University of Freiburg (D) and the Ohio State University (US). After a postdoctoral stay at the University of Illinois (US), he headed a junior research group at ETH Zürich (CH) from 2011 to 2014, before he relocated to the Max Planck Institute in Marburg, where he was promoted to Director in 2017.

Erb received numerous awards, among them the Research Awards of the Swiss and the German Societies for Microbiology (SGM and VAAM), the Otto Bayer Award (2018) the Prix Forcheur (2021), and the Future Insight Award 2023. He was named one of 12 up- and coming scientists by American Chemical Society’s C&EN in 2015 and elected to the European Academy of Microbiology in 2019 and EMBO in 2021. He is elected member of the National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina in 2023 and received the Leibniz-Prize of the German Research Foundation (DFG) in 2024.

HELPFUL LINKS:

www.instagram.com/becurious_podcast

Max Planck Institute

https://www.mpi-marburg.mpg.de/erb

Department Erb: https://www.mpi-marburg.mpg.de/biochemistry-and-synthetic-metabolism

Erb lab:

https://www.mpi-marburg.mpg.de/erb

Curious Future Insight Conference

www.curiousfutureinsight.org

Science Declaration

www.make-science-not-war.org

CREDITS:

The BE CURIOUS PODCAST is brought to you by ECODA MEDIA

Host: Louise Houghton

Production by: Deviants Media

Producer: Louise Houghton

Assistant Producer: Marta Wagner

Assistant Producer: Ralph Cortez

Motion Graphics: Josh Dage

Episode 4

Featuring Greg Berry, CEP and Founder of Municibid and Surplus

Today on the podcast we are getting curious about used equipment and surplus goods. Have you ever wondered what happened to your old car tires or old school buses? Do they end up on a landfill? Sometimes - but could they have a new life being upcycled somehow? We talk to Greg Berry, founder and CEO of Municibid and Surplus that offers an alternative solution to governments and businesses.

OUR GUEST BIO:

Greg Berry is the Founder and CEO of Municibid and Surplus.com. He launched Municibid in 2006 to help governments and schools in the U.S. and Canada auction off surplus items. Municibid has become a trusted name in online auctions, recognized nationally and featured on the Inc. 5000 list for four years. This year, Greg founded Surplus.com, a B2B marketplace for premium listings of used equipment and surplus goods. With over 20 years in the industry, Greg is known for his strategic vision and commitment to sustainability and resource optimization.

Social media handles:

Greg:

https://www.instagram.com/gregmberry/

https://twitter.com/gregmberry

https://www.linkedin.com/in/municibid/

Municibid:

https://www.instagram.com/municibid

https://www.facebook.com/municibid

https://twitter.com/municibid

https://www.linkedin.com/company/municibid.com

Surplus.com

https://www.facebook.com/joinsurplus

https://www.instagram.com/joinsurplus

https://twitter.com/joinsurplus

Other links mentioned

https://www.healingbus.org/

CREDITS:

The BE CURIOUS PODCAST is brought to you by ECODA MEDIA

Host: Louise Houghton

Production by: Deviants Media

Producer: Louise Houghton

Assistant Producer: Marta Wagner

Assistant Producer: Ralph Cortez

Motion Graphics: Josh Dage