July 31, 2024: Free the rocks, free the outdoors, free ourselves

We accidentally get extra collegiate on the show today. Hampshire College's Salman Hameed talks about the possible answer to Bowie's decades old question: "Is there life on Mars?" Rocks have been collected that show possible signs of life, and Mr. Universe helps us to explore more deeply the methods and answers that we are still seeking to all of those questions. Clark University's Ousmane Power-Greene joins us to talk about the 19th century celebrations in Northampton of Britain's Emancipation Day. There's good abolitionist reasons for this, it turns out. And in addition to getting a glimpse of what some lucky fall semester students might learn from the professor in the coming semester, we discover that not all of the town's population was as eager to celebrate our former motherland's reckoning with the slave trade. And it was super dreary outside today, which makes those moments we get to go outside and enjoy the beauty there all the more important. There's a local organization that's made it their mission to make sure everyone of every ability can also enjoy the outdoors, through adaptive trails, techniques, and technology. We visit with friend of the show and ADA expert Christos Palames, and Karen Foster, executive director of All Out Adventures, to find out more of the ways they are helping the great outdoors be a place for everyone.