Rodney Yantis and Courtney Poirier Chicola from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette return to talk about a disheartening lack of raptors, the origin of the GEOSERVICE workshop series, rising water and its effects in south Louisiana, NASA Aerokats, the various geospatial technologies activities for middle and high school students at the GEOSERVICE workshops, Earth Observation Day, generational learning, the role of undergraduate student mentors in the workshops, 26 years of Disaster Response workshops, Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, the 2025 Disaster Response activities and topics, the role of Geospatial First Responders, the International Charter Space and Major Disasters, how to register for the upcoming 2026 workshops, and much more. Show notes and photos are available at: https://americaview.substack.com/.

Barb Ryan, formerly of the USGS and the World Geospatial Industry Council, joins us to talk about Barb’s 0,0 point at a hill and a creek in Dalton, New York, a trip to Las Cruces that stopped in Denver, joining the USGS at the water division, mass measurement of ground water wells, traveling to Antarctica, how Barb had a mountain in Antarctica named after her, Barb’s work as the Director of the Space Programme of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), coordinating satellite observations of weather information, the intergovernmental Group on Earth Observations (GEO), the World Geospatial Industry Council (WGIC), a system of systems, how the Landsat archive became free and open data, the economic return and benefits of the satellite industry, the interconnectedness of the Earth system, and much more. Show notes and photos are available at: https://americaview.substack.com

Chris McGinty from Utah State University joins us a guest instead of a host for this special one-year anniversary episode to talk about building 3D models of terrain from tinfoil, winning a Geography bee, a choice of a business degree in college, Chris’ time as a coal miner, the day the dean recommended a GIS class, Utah Geographic Information Council (UGIC), the birth of UtahView, Chris’ time as AmericaView’s Program Manager and his path to becoming the Executive Director of AmericaView, communicating science and education on Capitol Hill, the importance of Earth Observation data, the future of AmericaView, and much more. Show notes and photos are available at: https://americaview.substack.com