{"podcast":{"title":"New Books in Geography","slug":"new-books-in-geography-1058637","podcast_index_feed_id":1058637,"rss_url":"https://feeds.simplecast.com/ohF7dUq3","website_url":"https://newbooksnetwork.com/category/politics-society/geography/","image_url":"https://image.simplecastcdn.com/images/04d31562-8508-4b88-ae38-4f4ca8fa3a91/3728a966-daf7-46ee-9655-7a98eaba676d/3000x3000/3d5e577cea5bac9130b94a4d9ab3323a.png?aid=rss_feed","author":"New Books Network","episode_count":600,"summary":"This podcast is a channel on the New Books Network. The New Books Network is an academic audio library dedicated to public education. In each episode you will hear scholars discuss their recently published research with another expert in their field. Discover our 150+ channels and browse our 28,000+ episodes on our website: ⁠newbooksnetwork.com⁠ Subscribe to our free weekly Substack newsletter to get informative, engaging content straight to your inbox: ⁠https://newbooksnetwork.substack.com/⁠ Follow us on Instagram and Bluesky to learn about more our latest interviews: @newbooksnetwork Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/geography","last_synced_at":"2026-09-19T12:22:21.420261+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/new-books-in-geography-1058637"},"episode":{"title":"Gretchen Heefner, \"Sand, Snow, and Stardust: How US Military Engineers Conquered Extreme Environments\" (U Chicago Press, 2025)","slug":"gretchen-heefner-sand-snow-and-stardust-how-us-military-engineers-conquered-extreme-environments-u-chicago-press-2025","published_at":"2026-07-18T08:00:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/new-books-in-geography-1058637/gretchen-heefner-sand-snow-and-stardust-how-us-military-engineers-conquered-extreme-environments-u-chicago-press-2025","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/new-books-in-geography-1058637","url":"https://newbooksnetwork.com/category/politics-society/geography/","audio_url":"https://injector.simplecastaudio.com/04d31562-8508-4b88-ae38-4f4ca8fa3a91/episodes/b8c232e9-e37b-4c6c-abe9-692e73d5e973/audio/128/default.mp3?aid=rss_feed&awCollectionId=04d31562-8508-4b88-ae38-4f4ca8fa3a91&awEpisodeId=b8c232e9-e37b-4c6c-abe9-692e73d5e973&feed=ohF7dUq3","summary":"Deserts, the Arctic, outer space—these extreme environments are often seen as inhospitable places at the edges of our maps. But from the 1940s through the 1960s, spurred by the diverse and unfamiliar regions the US military had navigated during World War II, the United States defense establishment took a keen interest in these places, dispatching troops to the Aleutian Islands, North Africa, the South Pacific, and beyond. To preserve the country’s status as a superpower after the war, to pave runways and build bridges, engineers had to understand and then conquer dunes, permafrost, and even the surface of the moon. Sand, Snow, and Stardust: How US Military Engineers Conquered Extreme Environments (University of Chicago Press, 2025) by Dr. Gretchen Heefner explores how the US military generated a new understanding of these environments and attempted to master them, intending to cement America’s planetary power. Operating in these regions depended as much on scientific and cultural knowledge as on military expertise and technology. From General George S. Patton learning the hard way that the desert is not always hot, to the challenges of constructing a scientific research base under the Arctic ice, to the sheer implausibility of modeling Martian environments on Earth, Dr. Heefner takes us on a wry expedition into the extremes and introduces us to the people who have shaped our insight into these extraordinary environments. Even decades after the first manned space flight, plans for human space exploration and extraplanetary colonization are still based on what we know about stark habitats on Earth. An entertaining survey of the relationship between environmental history and military might, Sand, Snow, and Stardust also serves as a warning about the further transforma…","meta_description":"Deserts, the Arctic, outer space—these extreme environments are often seen as inhospitable places at the edges of our maps. But from the 1940s through the…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":2905,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/new-books-in-geography-1058637/episodes/gretchen-heefner-sand-snow-and-stardust-how-us-military-engineers-conquered-extreme-environments-u-chicago-press-2025/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/new-books-in-geography-1058637/gretchen-heefner-sand-snow-and-stardust-how-us-military-engineers-conquered-extreme-environments-u-chicago-press-2025.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}