Matthew England is Australia’s leading ocean modeller and the world’s foremost authority on the modelling of the Southern Ocean. And an ocean swimmer / surfer from way back! Matthew researches the future health of our oceans under pressures such as climate change and pollution. We also talked about the mysterious tar balls that washed up on Sydney beaches in 2024 and messages in a bottle thrown overboard finding the right people!

Songs in this episode - all licensed under a Creative Commons License:

• Ocean Angels - MBryan
• England - 양홍원
• Stealing England - Dr Dugger
• Sapphire - Tobu

Photo from UNSW

Justine Nolan, Director of the Australian Human Rights Institute at UNSW, has swum all 45 of Sydney's glorious ocean pools. Inspired by Places We Swim (have a listen back to our podcast ep with Caroline and Dillon), Justine journeyed across Sydney at the end of covid, enjoying our newfound freedoms, to explore one of Sydney's most unappreciated yet sublime features.

Songs in this episode - all licensed under a Creative Commons License:

• Upper Harbour Highway - Sci-Clone
• Blue Harbour - EuLiLa
• Pools - Grizzly Beatz
• Sapphire - Tobu

Photo by me! (Bilgola)

Michaela Werner is free diver, who in 2023, set a new world record, becoming the first woman to swim 101 underwater laps of a 25-metre pool in an hour. Born in Slovakia, she moved to Australia at age 19 where she fell in love with freediving. Michaela can swim 200m underwater, can hold her breath for six minutes and is a qualified free-diving instructor and coach.

Songs in this episode - all licensed under a Creative Commons License:

• Let Me Breathe (Wardub) - Rhekluse
• Breathe - INOSSI
• Breathe - LiQWYD
• hold your breath - ikkunn
• Free Dive - Cymatish
• Sapphire - Tobu

Photo from Michaela on instagram

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 quicker times, and why we still may see many more world records in the pool (and ocean). He has also conducted extremely interesting research on the benefits (or not) of stretching.

Songs in this episode - all licensed under a Creative Commons License:

• Biomechanics - Bit Funk & Jason Gaffner
• Biomechanics - I.D.L.E
• Biomechanics - Greyscale Music
• Sapphire - Tobu

Photo created by me using Bing AI Image Creator

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 and health. Her Moving Oceans website examines how participation in ocean sports shapes our behaviours towards taking care of the oceans. She has also published some fantastic reads in The Conversation - we talk about these two in the podcast:

• When we swim in the ocean, we enter another animal’s home. Here’s how to keep us all safe.
• Olympic swimming in the Seine highlights efforts to clean up city rivers worldwide.

Songs in this episode - all licensed under a Creative Commons License:

• off-set flippers x - bowdeeni fish x
• Crocodile Teeth Freestyle - Lajan Slim
• Olive - evildirk
• Olive - Słejzi Wysocki
• Olive Spring @ Imperss Music 2022
• Sapphire - Tobu

Image from Moving Oceans

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 diversity, and how the pool and the beach, despite the great Australian egalitarian myth, can be quite exclusionary places.

Songs in this episode - all licensed under a Creative Commons License:

• The Magic of Diversity - The Egotwisters
• Inclusion - Tenshou Kikiko
• Diversity - Africk
• Culture Vulture - Vincent Remember
• Sapphire - Tobu

Image from wikicommons

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 under a Creative Commons License:

• Bugs - GNAAR
• Bugs - Phillip Barker
• Bug's Land - Vadim Krakhmal
• Little bugs - i m p a u s e a b l e
• Sapphire - Tobu

Photo from wikimedia

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 licensed under a Creative Commons License:

• The brain cells strike back - Lofi Factory
• Stuck in my brain - Atch
• Planetary alignment - Dr Brain
• Sapphire - Tobu

Photo from StockSnap