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Can We Just Throw Our Plastic Garbage Into A Volcano? episode artwork

Dec 15, 2025 17 min

Can We Just Throw Our Plastic Garbage Into A Volcano?

from Science Friday Hosted by Kathleen Davis, Flora Lichtman

It’s winter, and the SciFri team is already dreaming of warmer weather. How about a mind vacation to one of the hottest places on earth, an erupting volcano? Tamsin Mather has trekked to volcanoes in Chile, Guatemala, Italy, and beyond to learn their secrets. She joins Host Flora Lichtman to field your burning volcano questions, like what’s the deal with glass shards that look like hairballs? Guest: Dr. Tamsin Mather is a professor of Earth sciences at the University of Oxford in the UK. Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com. Subscribe to this podcast. Follow us on socials @ scifri on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and Bluesky and sign up for our newsletters. Got a science question that’s keeping you up at night? Call us: 877-472-4374

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A volcanologist answers your questions about glass-shard hairballs, cooking breakfast over lava, Gollum's end on Mount Doom, and more.

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Can We Just Throw Our Plastic Garbage Into A Volcano?

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