How did an explosion at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in 1986 change the future of the Paul H. O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs?
Listeners can find out during the debut episode of the O’Neill Speaks Podcast, the school’s official podcast, featuring special guest Dean Siân Mooney.
Presenting new episodes every two weeks, O’Neill Speaks will feature our world-renowned faculty and researchers who will provide their analysis of the most pressing challenges facing society. Through their insight and policy expertise, our guests will educate and change the way listeners think about their world.
“The O’Neill School has built its reputation over the past 50 years by bringing unique perspectives to the problems we all face,” Mooney said. “O’Neill Speaks is a great forum for our researchers to address the groundbreaking work being done at our school while also giving them the opportunity to break down current events as they happen.”
O’Neill Speaks will also provide a glimpse at the personalities who are part of the O’Neill School. Mooney, for instance, details her path from being a first-generation college student to becoming dean of the top-ranked school of public and environmental affairs in the country. An economist by training, she once dreamed of becoming a veterinarian before falling in love with research.
“I actually had quite a lot of animals when I was younger,” Mooney said. “Dogs, a couple of horses, that kind of thing, and I really thought that being a vet would be the way that I would go. … When I was an undergraduate student, and this was in the United Kingdom, Chernobyl blew. There was a plume of radioactivity that traveled across Europe, and I was in Wales at the time. It rains there quite a lot, and so this radioactive plume rained radioactive rain in Wales, and some of the food supply became contaminated.”
Mooney’s interest in the issue led to her becoming a research assistant, starting her on the path that would eventually lead to the O’Neill School.
O’Neill Speaks will focus on major policy issues, but it will also explore overlooked challenges that impact our everyday life. Breaking news events will also be covered by O’Neill faculty to bring their perspective to the discussion.
O’Neill Speaks can be found on Apple Podcasts , Spotify, or your favorite podcast service.
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