SWIMMING WITH THE POD

Anthony Blazevich is a Professor of Biomechanics in the School of Medical and Health Sciences at Edith Cowan University. He is also the head of the Centre for Exercise and Sports Science Research, so is a fabulous person to talk to about biomechanics, body types and how our physiology affects our ability to move through water. Listen in to hear how you could tweak your stroke for q

Rebecca Olive is an ocean swimmer whose academic research explores the role of sport and leisure in human and environmental health. In particular, her work explores the practices and cultures of ocean swimming and surfing to understand how human and environmental well-being interact, as well as our relationships to all things blue-space, such as sharks, animals, plastics, pollution

Michelle O’Shea is a Senior Lecturer at Western Sydney University whose research interests dive into the areas of sport, culture and society, particularly with regard to swimming. She has looked into issues such as why swimming lessons for kids are important, as well as the role of the swimming pool in society. Her research particularly examines issues relevant to gender and dive

Primrose Freestone, Associate Professor in Clinical Microbiology at the University of Leicester and science communicator, is an infectious diseases expert, and has dived into the debate of whether swimming in a pool or in the natural environment is the safer option. She also takes us through the cleanliness of hot-tubs (hint, they're gross.) Songs in this episode - all licensed und

Seena Mathew is Assistant Professor of Biology, University of Mary Hardin-Baylor. As a neurobiologist, she studies the effects of swimming on the brain, which are many! You can read her article in The Conversation (Swimming gives your brain a boost – but scientists don’t know yet why it’s better than other aerobic activities) or tune in here! Songs in this episode - all licen

Episode 50! Swimmer's ear (acute otitis externa) is an outer ear infection that many swimmers will have had at some point in their lives. However, it turns out that you don't have to go swimming to get swimmer's ear. Thomas Schrepfer is assistant professor of head and neck surgery in the University of Florida Department of Otolayrngology, and a keen diver and swimmer. Songs in this

Rolf Hut is a hydrological scientist from Delft University of Technology. Or perhaps he's better described as MacGyver scientist, attacking problems from different and interesting angles. One such problem was the infamous 1962 escape from Alcatraz, in which inmates Clarence Anglin, John Anglin, and Frank Morris escaped from Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary, by tucking papier-mâché v

Andy Donaldson is a world-recorder holding open-water swimmer. In 2023, he is attempting to swim the Oceans Seven in one year, and is making a pretty good fist of it, having already swum the English Channel (in a British record time), the North Channel (only 4 minutes off the record), the Cook Strait (in world record time) and the Molokai Channel in Hawaii. At the time of recording

Pedro Ordenes is an Alcatraz legend, having swum the famous route over 1000 times!! Pedro runs Water World Swim that organizes many swims in San Francisco Bay, California and across the world. I was lucky enough to swim Alcatraz with Water World Swim recently in April 2023. Pedro is an exceptionally accomplished open water swimmer, perhaps the highlight being swimming the Strait of

Peta Bradley is a member of the Australian ice swimming team that recently competed at the World Ice Swimming Championships in France. She competed in the 1000m, 500m, and 50m butterfly, bringing home a bronze medal in the 500m. Peta hails from Gilgandra, quite some distance from any coastline, and does a lot of her training in dams. She has also completed the coveted ice mile at T