15 Minute Maps
This podcast is dedicated to those people making positive change in the world using GIS, mapping and cartography. Each guest is given 15 minutes to describe their dream map, and how it could impact the work they do.
Hello and welcome to 15 Minute maps, where I ask my guests to let their minds roam free and come up with a new idea for their dream map. The first known map of the world was created three thousand years ago, (of a flat disc-like world surrounded by water,) and today we are making maps of the furthest reaches of the known universe. In between lie a myriad of mapping possibilities. What if we could do away with resource limitations… think beyond the conventions of time, space and political boundaries? What new kinds of map could we dream up?
15 Minute Maps
Episode 16 – John Huth: The Map Hidden in the Waves
Ever Wondered How You’d Navigate the Ocean With No Compass, No GPS, and No Land in Sight? Well this episode once again proves the importance of maintaining indigenous knowledge.
That question led Bonner Professor John Huth, Harvard physicist and renowned member of the team that discovered the Higgs boson, into an entirely different field of research — mapping the ocean waves that Indigenous Marshallese navigators use to navigate their many atolls.
In this episode we discuss:
How Marshallese navigators sail between islands by feeling subtle changes in the direction of swells.
The challenge of turning experiential, embodied knowledge into something that can be mapped without reducing its cultural meaning.
Why he teaches a course on navigation that blends science, history, and Indigenous techniques — and why it resonates today.
How sensor data, drift measurements, and hand-drawn charts can help visualize a navigation system most of us have never encountered.
If we can map the wave structures that navigators feel, we can help preserve a knowledge system that’s at risk of disappearing — and better understand how humans read their environment.
This episode is for anyone interested in mapping, ocean science, traditional knowledge systems, or how we make sense of place.