In this episode of Math! Science! History!, Gabrielle Birchak speaks with Professor Gillen D’Arcy Wood, author of The Wake of the HMS Challenger: How a Legendary Victorian Voyage Tells the Story of Our Ocean’s Decline. Together, they uncover how a nineteenth-century Royal Navy warship transformed into a floating laboratory and gave humanity its first global snapshot of the oceans. From discovering thousands of new species to inspiring NASA’s Challenger shuttle, the expedition shaped modern oceanography and continues to inform today’s conservation science.

Wood’s biocentric storytelling reminds us that to save our planet, we must first fall in love with it again, to be, as he says, re-enchanted by the living ocean that sustains us all.

Three Things Listeners Will Learn

How the HMS Challenger (1872–1876) became the first global oceanographic expedition, collecting temperature, depth, and biological data still used today.
Why Gillen D’Arcy Wood’s “biocentric” approach reframes history through the perspective of marine life rather than human explorers.
What the voyage teaches us about modern ocean crises: from overfishing and warming seas to microplastics—and how species like the green turtle show that recovery is possible.

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The Wake of the HMS Challenger by Gillen D’Arcy Wood - HarperCollins Publishers

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Music: All music is public domain and has no Copyright and no rights reserved. Selections from The Little Prince by Lloyd Rodgers Smooth Piano by Universefield Musinova - Travelling And Discovering (Marimba World Percussion) Documentary-Nikita Kondrashev

Audio Editor: Podcast mixed by David Aviles

Until next time, carpe diem!

Interview with Gillen D’Arcy Wood - The Wake of HMS Challenger