“There’s something really profound in being in such a vast landscape with nobody else around… You feel like such a diminutive thing in the landscape, really insignificant. Putting you in your place in the world.” - Louise K. Blight
In this episode of Explore, host David McGuffin sits down with Louise K. Blight for a live conversation recorded at the Ottawa International Writers Festival about her new book, Where the Earth Meets the Sky.
Drawing on her time studying Adélie penguins in Antarctica in the early 2000s, Blight reflects on life at the edge of the world, where she lived among hundreds of thousands of penguins and endured brutal storms and isolation in this remote corner of the planet.
Working alongside legendary penguin researcher David Ainley at Cape Royds on Ross Island, Blight spent months immersed in one of the harshest and most surreal environments on Earth. The conversation explores the rhythms of penguin colonies, the eccentric culture of Antarctic research stations, the psychological realities of isolation, and the growing impacts of climate change on polar ecosystems.
Blight also shares stories of hurricane-force winds, skua attacks (predatory seabirds), the unforgettable smell of penguin colonies, and the profound sense of perspective that comes from living in a vast frozen landscape with almost no other humans around.
In this episode:
- What it’s like living and working in Antarctica for months at a time
- Studying Adélie penguins at the world’s southernmost colony
- The remarkable resilience and behaviour of penguins in extreme environments
- Life at McMurdo Station and the unique culture of Antarctic research communities
- Isolation, endurance, and the psychological challenges of remote fieldwork
- How climate change is threatening emperor penguins and Antarctic ecosystems
- The strange beauty of Antarctica’s landscapes, wildlife, and silence
- Why Antarctica continues to inspire scientists, explorers, and conservationists
Louise K. Blight is a conservation scientist, seabird researcher, and professor in the Environmental Studies Department at the University of Victoria. Her work focuses on seabirds, marine ecosystems, and conservation biology. She also serves as co-chair of the Bird Specialist Subcommittee on the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada. Her new book, Where the Earth Meets the Sky, chronicles her experiences studying Adélie penguins in Antarctica and explores the intersection of science, solitude, and environmental change.
