The Story

Rafe Sagarin first moved to the California coast as a college student at Stanford. He bought all the John Steinbeck novels he could find and began exploring his new home through the salty characters of "Cannery Row" and "Tortilla Flat." One of Steinbeck's most memorable characters is Doc. It did not take long for Rafe to realize Doc was the fictional version of Ed Ricketts, a biologist and one of John Steinbeck's closest friends. When Rafe learned Steinbeck and Ricketts had once gone on an expedition in the Mexican Sea of Cortez, his imagination lit up with the idea of recreating that journey. Also in this episode, walking while working a desk job.

No sunsets or sun rises. Twenty below zero is the average summer temp. No leaving in the winter, unless it’s an emergency. That’s all in a day’s work for the employees in Antarctica. Jerry Macala did a stint at the South Pole from 2001 to 2002. He says his time there was life changing. Now, he’s trying to save a piece of South Pole history: he’s trying to salvage a giant dome that’s being decommissioned. Dick talks with Jerry about what it’s like to work in Antarctica.

As the final Space Shuttle retires, engineer Vance Gloster remembers the first shuttle landing in 1981. Next to the astronauts, he may have had the best view - from the "radar hill" at Edwards Air Force Base. Vance was there monitoring the tracking system he designed and built. Vance talks with guest host Sean Cole about his part in the first space shuttle landing.

Guest host Sean Cole speaks to photographer Joshua Lutz about portraits he took of his mother while she was suffering from a mental illness.