Yes, it's true. I was interviewed briefly on NPR's All Things Considered this past week. There was a feature about some new research that was just published, the subject of which overlaps my work. They needed a (so-called) expert opinion, and threw in a few soundbites by me at the end to offer a counterpoint of skepticism to the claims made by the article. So there I was, a voice being broadcast to who knows how many millions of people. Does my voice really sound like that?

What can I say about the interview?

• If you know the kind of research I do, it shouldn't be too hard to find the story in question on the ATC web page. There's a text article and a link to audio. I suppose you could always email me if you can't find it.
• The reporter found me via a google search. While that doesn't preclude the possibility of my being an expert in the area, it's not the means by which I would have preferred to be found.
• I didn't come off sounding like a complete buffoon, for which I can only be grateful. I'm a verbose guy to begin with, and I inundated the poor reporter with a meandering pile of verbiage. She chose a concise subset. I'm glad, becase I definitely hung up the phone feeling like I was putting my ass on the line.
• In interviews, I seem to make a semi-conscious effort to talk in soundbites, because I'm a pathetic loser. At least I didn't throw in terrible, terrible jokes, like my poor students this term are getting.

So that was a fun end to the week. And for any news media representatives reading this blog, I'm definitely available for your next segment of otherwise dead air. I'll talk about anything you want! Knowledge of the subject isn't a requirement; after all, I'm a professor.

I haven't updated in a while, and I see that my previous post was the one in which I asked how (indeed, if) one might responsibly conduct the travel associated with academia. I asked for suggestions related to my upcoming trip to Charlotte, which is now in less than a week.

In the end I decided to fly. I am led to believe, at least for now, that the pollution I'm personally causing by flying is roughly comparable to what I would cause by driving. The reason people say that you pollute as much in one flight as a year's driving is simply that you can travel as far by plane in a day as you might by car in a year. I'm not completely convinced that this is the source of the equivalence, but I'll believe it for now and try to find the complete answer later.

I was also convinced by the simple fact that it was already too late to make the responsible choice; if I wanted to avoid polluting, I should have elected to stay home. To some extent, that's a more difficult choice to make before tenure. I need to get out there and talk to people. If and when tenure happens (you'll be hearing more on that subject in the months ahead), I can make up my own policy for travel.

And yes, I was also swayed by the facts that (a) I found a ticket at a decent price, and (b) I found an itenerary that leaves from our small regional airport rather than Pearson. The flight leaves at 6:19am and I'm giving a talk that afternoon. But it'll be nice to avoid Pearson.