PlanetGeo: The Geology Podcast

29:43

How to Identify a Mineral. Geology 101: Minerals Part 4

PlanetGeo: The Geology Podcast ·

2026/09/24

Chris's college mineralogy lab final was 20 specimens, and one of them was a quartz crystal his professor had dipped in graphite. The luster was off, the color was off, and Chris got it wrong even though every other property said quartz. That one exam question shows why mineral ID is hard and why you need a system. This episode lays out that system. We finish the minerals chapter of the Camp Geo audio textbook with polymorphs, which are minerals with the same chemical composition but differen...

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26:17

The Rock-Forming Minerals. Geology 101: Minerals Part 3

PlanetGeo: The Geology Podcast ·

2026/09/17

There are roughly 7,000 known minerals on Earth. You need to know about ten of them. In the third installment of the Camp Geo Intro to Minerals series, Chris and Jesse finish the minerals chapter by working through the rock-forming minerals — the short list that makes up the overwhelming majority of the rocks in Earth's crust — and by explaining where minerals actually come from in the first place. Before the top-ten list, they step outside the silicates. Just as the silica tetrahedron define...

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23:12

The Silicates. Geology 101: Minerals Part 2

PlanetGeo: The Geology Podcast ·

2026/09/10

Ask an intro geology class what the most abundant element in the crust is and, year after year, the answer comes back "carbon." It doesn't make the top eight. That gap between what feels right and what the planet is actually made of is where this lesson lives. Chapter 2 of the Camp Geo audio textbook starts with the layered Earth — crust, mantle, and core — and why Chris's peanut M&M (with a caramel injection for the liquid outer core) beats Jesse's apple. Then the chemistry of each layer...

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24:51

What is a Mineral? Geology 101: Minerals Part 1

PlanetGeo: The Geology Podcast ·

2026/09/03

Ask a room full of intro geology students whether a snowflake is a mineral and almost every hand says no. Ask why, and someone will tell you it's because no two snowflakes are alike. Chris Bolhuis has been asking that question for 25 years — he asked it of a young Jesse Reimink sitting in his high school classroom — and the answer is the whole point of this lesson. It's been a while since we've released an episode on the Planet Geo feed, and there's more coming (plus a few projects we can't w...

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88:59

Lithium 101 with Joe Lowry: Brines, Pegmatites, DLE,...

PlanetGeo: The Geology Podcast ·

2026/08/13

What happens when a finance guy who's never heard of lithium takes a job in a small North Carolina town because it's near where his favorite author lived?Joe Lowry is the founder of Global Lithium LLC, host of the Global Lithium Podcast (239 episodes and counting), and author of the new memoir Lithium Confidential: Confessions of a Corporate Misfit. He spent 35 years in the industry — including years in Japan and China — and for a stretch in the 1990s he personally controlled essentially a...

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53:44

How to Find Copper — Dr. Tim Ireland, First Quantum

PlanetGeo: The Geology Podcast ·

2026/07/30

There's a photo on Tim Ireland's Google Scholar profile of a toddler standing on the floor of an open pit gold mine in Australia's Northern Territory, wearing a hard hat and — because it was the early 1980s — flip flops. That toddler is now the Principal Geologist for Exploration at **First Quantum Minerals**, one of the world's major copper producers, and in this episode Jesse sits down with him to talk about how mineral exploration actually works. Tim grew up with two geologist fathers, b...

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56:51

The Rock 50 Light-Years Away

PlanetGeo: The Geology Podcast ·

2026/07/16

What if you could tell whether a rock exists on a planet 50 light-years away — without ever leaving Earth? This week Chris and Jesse welcome back friend-of-the-show Dr. Jackie Faherty (American Museum of Natural History) for her fourth appearance to talk about one of the wildest results in exoplanet science yet. The crew digs into a new Nature Astronomy paper on a rocky planet about 30% larger than Earth, orbiting a tiny star, whipping around fast with a scorching ~1,000 Kelvin surface and — ...

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54:31

The Room Problem (and how Geochronology solves it)

PlanetGeo: The Geology Podcast ·

2026/07/02

Granite is everywhere — it makes up much of the continental crust beneath our feet; yet, for over a century geologists were stuck on a deceptively simple question: where does all that magma find room? In this episode, Jesse and Dr. Mike Ackerson pick the granite series back up to tackle the "room problem" — the puzzle of how you wedge a magma body tens of kilometers wide into solid crust. Using California's Tuolumne Intrusive Suite (the fruit fly of igneous petrology) and the landmark Coleman...

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44:05

Rocks for the Future - with MIT Prof. Oli Jagoutz

PlanetGeo: The Geology Podcast ·

2026/06/11

What does cracking open green-shiny rocks in a German preschool have to do with feeding eight billion people without oil and gas? In this episode, we sit down with Prof. Oli Jagoutz, professor at MIT and director of the Earth Resources Laboratory (ERL), for a wide-ranging conversation that travels from the Himalayas to the wastewater treatment plant — and makes the case that geology might be one of the most societally relevant sciences of the coming decades. Oli traces his winding path into t...

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41:05

The Fundamentals of Geology (Exam)

PlanetGeo: The Geology Podcast ·

2026/05/28

This week we take on the FG test — the Fundamentals of Geology exam — the very first step on the road to becoming a professionally licensed geologist. Jesse just sat the exam this past fall (yes, a geology professor going back to take Geology 101), and we get into exactly what that was like: the nerves, the cram sessions, and the very real fear of an embarrassing fail. We break down what's actually on the ASBOG FG exam — 110 multiple-choice questions across eight content domains, from general...

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59:13

Granite Wars: The Debates That Built a Science

PlanetGeo: The Geology Podcast ·

2026/05/21

In this episode, we sit down with Dr. Mike Ackerson (Smithsonian) for the kick-off of a deep-dive series on granites and granitoids. This one goes into the weeds: the 250-year history of how arguing about granite shaped nearly every major idea in the geosciences. We trace the great controversies from the 1700s to today: 🌊 Neptunism vs. Plutonism — Did granite precipitate out of a global ocean, or crystallize from molten rock? How James Hutton's fingers of granite at Glen Tilt helped kill the

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63:30

The Geologist's License: How the FG and PG Exams Get...

PlanetGeo: The Geology Podcast ·

2026/04/30

In this episode, we sat down with Keith Rapp, senior hydrogeologist, longtime volunteer with ASBOG (the Association of State Boards of Geology), and immediate past president of the organization. We dug into the professional geologist licensure process — what the FG (Fundamentals of Geology) and PG (Practice of Geology) exams actually test, how questions get written and vetted by panels of subject matter experts, why some states require licensure and others don't, and why Keith argues that lic...

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50:18

What Makes Supervolcanoes? With Professor Shan de...

PlanetGeo: The Geology Podcast ·

2026/04/16

What distinguishes supervolcanoes from regular or non-super volcanoes? How many supervolcanoes are on Earth today? What are the precursors to supervolcano eruptions? In today's deep dive, Dr. Rachel Phillips, from GeoGirl, and I we got to talk to supervolcano researcher, Dr. Shan de Silva, to answer all your supervolcano questions (and more)! Download the CampGeo app now at this link. On the app you can get tons of free content, exclusive images, and access to our Geology of National Parks ...

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36:56

Eating Rocks For Breakfast

PlanetGeo: The Geology Podcast ·

2026/04/02

Download the CampGeo app now at this link. On the app you can get tons of free content, exclusive images, and access to our Geology of National Parks series. You can also learn the basics of geology at the college level in our FREE CampGeo content series - get learning now! Like, Subscribe, and leave us a Rating! —————————————————— Instagram: @planetgeocast Twitter: @planetgeocast Facebook: @planetgeocast Support us: https://planetgeocast.com/support-us Email: planetgeocast@gmail.com Web...

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31:19

What is a Professional Geologist? An Intro to Licensure

PlanetGeo: The Geology Podcast ·

2026/03/26

Jesse and Dr. Joshua Davis introduce a new series on professional geology licensure, prompted by listener questions, exam study use of their podcast, and continuing-education approvals. Jesse shares starting the U.S. process by taking the FG (Fundamentals of Geology) exam and explains the typical U.S. pathway in 31 states: FG exam, geologist-in-training status, years of work experience under a licensed geologist (with some state-dependent education carve-outs), then the PG exam and references...

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53:07

Visualizing the Deep Earth - CEO and Founder Christie...

PlanetGeo: The Geology Podcast ·

2026/03/19

Today Jesse talks with Christie Capper, founder and CEO of Deep Earth, which aims to visualize the subsurface by digitizing and unifying scattered underground data into accessible 3D maps. Christie describes her path from a toy-inventor upbringing to studying economics and mechanical engineering (robotics) at Claremont and Columbia, then working at SpaceX, interning at the UN and Boeing, moving into early-stage VC in Europe, and joining a fusion startup. Work in carbon removal and geothermal ...

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41:23

The Anatomy of Mountain Ranges

PlanetGeo: The Geology Podcast ·

2026/02/26

Chris is back!! Today we answer the simple question - Why do we see a predictable geologic and topographic progression as we drive from flat plains into mountains? We use examples from Michigan to Tennessee, the Canadian Rockies, Glacier, the Bighorns, Colorado, and the Appalachians to walk through a common sequence: we start on broad areas of mostly flat-lying sedimentary rocks (sandstones, shales, limestones) deposited in shallow seas, rivers, intertidal settings, and deserts; a...

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57:43

Geology Meets Deep Tech - Danielle Bennett

PlanetGeo: The Geology Podcast ·

2026/02/19

On this episode of Planet Geo, we welcome Danielle Bennett—a startup operator with a venture capital background (and not a geoscientist by training) who’s been talking with tons of geologists, hydrogeologists, and engineers while helping build a geoscience-adjacent mapping company at Deep Earth Tech. Danielle shares how growing up with entrepreneur parents (who ran a groundwater-focused engineering firm) shaped her path, why she started a social-impact company in college, and how she moved fr...

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73:54

Here Be Dragons - Exploring the Unknown with NASA...

PlanetGeo: The Geology Podcast ·

2026/02/12

In this riveting episode, we catch up with Dr. Jonathan Stock, Chief Scientist for Innovation at NASA's Intelligent Systems Division. We dive deep into the realms of geosciences and discuss how innovation can transform our understanding of the Earth and beyond. From quantum gravity gradiometers to AI-driven geophysical mapping, Dr. Stock reveals the tech that could redefine geospatial exploration. We also ponder why geosciences lag behind other fields in entrepreneurship and innovation and ho...

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54:06

Banded Iron Formations - A Deep Dive

PlanetGeo: The Geology Podcast ·

2026/02/05

In this episode, we bring you a riveting Q&A session with GeoGirl Dr. Rachel Phillips and Dr. Joshua Davies, both experts in geology who explore the mysterious world of banded iron formations (BIFs). We dive deep into what BIFs are, when they formed, and their significance. Josh unpacks the debated origins of these rocks, discussing how they may be the most hotly contested rocks in the geological world due to our limited understanding of their formation process, despite their voluminous p...

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