November 6, 2023
SHARE
CANADALAND
#934 The Aquanaut
It’s easy to imagine medical science and research being done from the safety of a lab with all the proper controls in place. But sometimes, it all starts with one person, going underwater, and exploring caves for unique and mysterious sea creatures.
Jesse Brown
Host & Publisher
Bruce Thorson
Senior Producer
Tristan Capacchione
Audio Editor & Technical Producer
Karyn Pugliese
Editor-in-Chief

Jill Heinerth is one of the most accomplished aquanauts in the world. With over 8500 dives, she is hired by some of the most notable names in film and television, from David Suzuki, to James Cameron. 

But her life isn’t all about shooting epic underwater scenes for the big screen, a lot of her life is doing research in underwater caves, looking at organisms that few have ever seen before. She does this as part of scientific research that leads to groundbreaking medical discoveries, with applications for AIDS, breast cancer, and even COVID. 

These dives are dangerous though, and each time she goes under, could be her last.

Host: Jesse Brown 

Credits: Tristan Capacchione (Audio Editor and Technical Producer), Bruce Thorson (Senior Producer), Annette Ejiofor (Managing Editor), Karyn Pugliese (Editor-in-Chief)

 

Further reading: 

Additional music by Tristan Capacchione and Audio Network

 

Sponsors: The Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Article, Athletic Greens

If you value this podcast, support us! You’ll get premium access to all our shows ad free, including early releases and bonus content. You’ll also get our exclusive newsletter, discounts on merch at our store, tickets to our live and virtual events, and more than anything, you’ll be a part of the solution to Canada’s journalism crisis, you’ll be keeping our work free and accessible to everybody.

You can listen ad-free on Amazon Music—included with Prime.

More from this series
Are tweens going to Make Podcasting Great again?
June 19, 2025
 Jesse Brown pulls a thread on his sweater and unravels a mystery.
June 16, 2025
What do you do when your recording goes south? Publish it anyway?
June 12, 2025
 Chaos can be strategy as well. -Brian Reed
June 9, 2025
  It made the media probably the next day, and then shit hit the fan. -“Laura”
June 2, 2025
 Dan Aykroyd blew in from Ottawa.  Andrea Martin came in from Maine and Joe Flaherty came in from Pittsburgh. Paul Schaffer came in from Thunder Bay. Marty Short and Eugene Levy and I came in from Hamilton. We congregated (in Toronto) because we had similar comic sensibilities.
May 26, 2025
“ It was hot girls having a blast. There's nothing wrong with that. I thought it was aspirational. I did not yet realize that we were in fact shooting porn and that that was actually happening in the back room of the bus that we were living on.” - Courtney Kocak, former Girls Gone Wild “Merch Girl”
May 19, 2025
“ My brother, first and foremost, was a good person. He was very bright, he was educated, and he was autistic. And I think had he not met the creeper hunter, I think he would still be alive today.” -Brother of “John Doe #1”
May 12, 2025
all podcasts arrow All Podcasts
CANADALAND