The Nurse Keeping Explorers Alive

Overheard at National Geographic

National Geographic

Science, Society & Culture

4.5 • 10.1K Ratings

🗓️ 27 December 2022

⏱️ 24 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

For 17 years, nurse Karen Barry’s office at National Geographic headquarters has served as an important stop for journalists, photographers, and explorers in need of vaccines and medical advice before they set out on expeditions all over the globe. We’ll head down to the medical office to listen to her stories of helping explorers out in the field—and we’ll hear from one of her most frequent “customers,” Dangerous Encounters host Brady Barr, who over the years has dealt with multiple animal bites, parasites, and even a lost finger. For more information on this episode, visit natgeo.com/overheard. Want more? Here are some more tips from Nurse Karen Bary for staying safe while traveling, The snake that bit Brady Barr is an amazing creature. The reticulated python is the longest snake species in the world. They are commonly measured at 20 feet long, longer than a giraffe is tall. When isolated, female reticulated pythons are able to give virgin birth, a phenomenon biologists call parthenogenesis. Also explore: Pythons aren’t venomous, but the venom of other snakes, as well as ants, treefrogs, cone snails, and many other creatures might just hold the key to the next medical breakthrough. If you like what you hear and want to support more content like this, please consider a National Geographic subscription. Go to natgeo.com/exploremore to subscribe today. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is a National Geographic map of the world.
0:09.9	We're in a basement office at National Geographic headquarters, and Karen Berry is standing in
0:15.1	front of a huge map that stretches from Florida ceiling.
0:18.7	Like a military general, she points out explorers deployed all over the planet, and the unique
0:23.2	hazards each might face in that part of the world.
0:26.2	I have travelers in the Congo right here on the border, and I'm very concerned about
0:32.2	this, and I want to know exactly where they were because over here, just across the border,
0:36.6	we've got an Ebola outbreak.
0:39.1	Karen is the nurse here at National Geographic, and her full-time job is making sure our
0:43.5	explorers, photographers, writers, and all kinds of travelers are safe.
0:47.9	So I might have, you know, 20 to 50 travelers in the field at any given time.
0:55.1	Right.
0:56.1	That's a lot.
0:57.1	That's a lot of people to keep track of.
0:58.4	It is a lot to keep track of.
1:00.0	I remember a story.
1:01.0	Someone was out in the Pacific and a volcano blew up and I emailed and I said, how are
1:07.8	you doing out there?
1:08.8	He said, I didn't know anybody knew where I was.
1:10.6	I'm good.
1:13.1	When something goes wrong, she's on speed dial for every explorer.
1:18.0	Probably her most famous customer is Brady Barr, a biologist who hosted a show on National
	...

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