Great Lakes champion John Hartig looks back on decades of conservation, including his efforts to restore the Detroit River. Hartig is a Visiting Scholar at the Great Lakes Institute for Environmental Research at University of Windsor.

When Natasha Akiwenzie's family could no longer pull in the whitefish they used to, they pivoted to land-based learning. She tells us about making hard decisions and adapting to change.

Theme by Adam Wendler.

We've seen plastic swirling around the ocean, but how much is in the Great Lakes? Meet Eddie Olshansky, a kayaker on the Cuyahoga River who is reeling in trash. We're also joined by Patricia Corcoran, an earth scientist at Western University.  

Follow Eddie on Instagram.  

The podcast now has a website!

It started as a hangover cure, but Dan O’Conor ended up jumping in Lake Michigan every day for a year straight. 365 days, 365 jumps.

Visit Dan's website. 

Find Dan on Twitter. 

Follow Unsalted. 

Oahu surfer Timmy Matthews traded the Pacific Ocean for Lake Ontario.

Find us on Instagram. 

Jamie Racklyeft from the Great Lakes Water Safety Consortium is back with more water safety tips.

Learn more about the Great Lakes Water Safety Consortium.

Follow Unsalted.  

A near-drowning in Lake Michigan turned Jamie Racklyeft into a water safety advocate.  He shares the experience of coming close to death (a Bruce Springsteen song popped into his head), how it changed his life and his best tips for staying safe.  Learn more about the Great Lakes Water Safety Consortium.  Follow Unsalted.  Our theme is by Adam Wendler. 

A couple from Canada discusses their first winter on Lake Ontario, from winter storms to spectacular sunrises. 

Find Unsalted on Instagram here.

Follow Talia and Michel's adventure.

Our theme is by Adam Wendler. 

Algal blooms, invasive species and....lake fires? Find out why with Lake Erie gets a bad rap with Mike McKay, Executive Director of the Great Lakes Institute for Environmental Research.

Learn more about GLIER. 

Follow Mike Mckay on Twitter. 

Find Unsalted on Instagram. 

Our theme music is by Adam Wendler. 

Five writers share their passion for the Great Lakes: 

Tamara Latinovic on Detroit River

Jessica Payne on Lake Ontario

Waubgeshig Rice on Georgian Bay

Allison Devereaux on Lake Huron

Anne-Marie Oomen on Lake Michigan

Three writers share love letters to the Great Lakes: 

Anne-Marie Oomen from Lake Michigan

Dave McGinn from Lake Ontario 

Canisia Lubrin from Lake Ontario. 

Our theme song is by Adam Wendler.

Millions of TikTok followers watch Geo Rutherford's videos to see what she finds on Great Lakes shorelines. Along the way, she's teaching people about the GL's. We talk about beachcombing and why she's just as surprised that so many people tune in. 

Follow us on Instagram.

Find Geo on TikTok and Instagram. 

Our show theme is by Adam Wendler.

Learn to love seagulls (or at least co-exist). Our guest is Paul Graham, a professor of animal behaviour at University of Sussex.

Lake Huron is home to the largest underwater salt mine in the world. Goderich tour guide (and town legend) Colleen Maguire talks about how salt was discovered, what the mine looks like underwater (the height of the CN Tower!) and why it hasn't collapsed. 

Find us on Instagram.

Our theme is by Adam Wendler of Goderich! 

Hear how Great Lakes fish communicate underwater with Dennis Higgs, a University of Windsor professor focusing on fish sensory systems. 

Check out his fish lab. 

Find Unsalted Great Lakes on Instagram.

Our show theme is by Adam Wendler. 

A wooden boat washed up on Lake Superior with a message on the bottom: throw it back in the water and contact a school in Duluth. How far did it travel? Who tossed it in the lake? We'll unravel the mystery.  

See photos of the boat. 

Our theme music is by Adam Wendler. 

Are the rising water levels climate change or natural fluctuations? We’ll get a science lesson with Drew Gronewold, an associate professor at University of Michigan.

Find University of Michigan School for Environment and Sustainability on Twitter and Instagram.

Follow Unsalted.

Our theme is by Adam Wendler 

Why We Swim by Bonnie Tsui explores our relationship to swimming and water, from survival to wellness. We talk about swimming from Alcatraz Island to San Francisco, the power of blue spaces and why “rolling ocean waves” is such a popular track on Spotify. 

Follow Bonnie Tsui.  

Find us on Instagram.

The show's theme is by Adam Wendler. 

Lake Michigan's Genesee Theatre is believed to be home to several "permanent guests." Hear spooky tales with Wes Oleszewski,  author of "Great Lakes Ghost Stories: Haunted Tales Past & Present." 

Thank you to these sound creators:  

daveincamas for Follies  

Mattias "MATRIXXX" Lahoud for big dark atmosphere 

blimp66 for helicopter fly over 

tom woysky for crowd before jazz 

Do goldfish live in the Great Lakes? 

Christine Boston is an aquatic research biologist with Fisheries and Oceans Canada. She joins us to talk about how big they get, how they wind up in the lakes and whether they stay gold.  

Follow Christine Boston on Instagram and Twitter.

Find us on Instagram.

Our theme song is by Adam Wendler.

Tristyn von Berg cycled around Lake Michigan in 11 days. He did it on the cheap, with a bike from the 90s and a shoebox attached to it. We talk about why you don’t need expensive gear to take on big adventure. what it's like to cycle Lake Michigan and why he chose the clockwise route.  

Follow Unsalted on Instagram.

Find Tristyn on Instagram. 

Our theme music is by Adam Wendler. 

Robin Pacquing is co-founder of Lake Surfistas, a community of women who surf and paddle. We talk about lake conditions versus the ocean, which season is best to surf the Great Lakes and how to cope with the cold.  

Follow us on Instagram.

Find Lake Surfistas on Instagram.

Our theme music is by Adam Wendler. 

How does a captain stay cool under pressure? Mike Hartsuff is Relief Captain for three of the biggest and best-known freighters on the Great Lakes.  We talk about keeping calm, what the food is like and the best way to dock a 1000-ft vessel.

Find Mike on Instagram

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Our theme music is by Adam Wendler




Tips for capturing the sunset with photographers Jason O'Young & Amal Dev.

Rochelle Byrne stand-up paddled more than 400 km on Lake Ontario in a single month to pick up litter. What did she collect? What wildlife did she see? Join us for the journey.

Find Rochelle's non-profit on Instagram

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Our theme song is by Adam Wendler

What do the Great Lakes look like down below? Shipwreck diver Dusty Klifman brings us into Lake Michigan's secret underwater world. We discuss sunken ships, stashes of gold and secrets from the diving community. 

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Find Dusty on Instagram










Love the Great Lakes? Join Allison Devereaux as she explores the largest freshwater system on earth. Unsalted: a podcast for people who live, work and play on the Great Lakes.

Find Unsalted on Instagram. 

Helium balloons. Bottle caps. Socks. Lynn Tremain is a retired teacher who picks up garbage at Pinery Provincial Park in Ontario. 

Follow Unsalted on Instagram: @unsaltedpod

Find Lynn on Instagram: @grancleansthebeach

Our theme is by Adam Wendler @adamwendler

For 150 years, a company on the Detroit River has been delivering “mail by the pail” to freighters.

Follow Unsalted on Instagram: @unsaltedpod

Our theme is by Adam Wendler.

A podcast for people who work, live and play on the Great Lakes. Hosted and produced by Allison Devereaux. 

Who was Captain Santa? Ellen Kennedy from the National Museum of the Great Lakes tells us about the sinking of the Rouse Simmons in Lake Michigan, with a crew and 5500 Christmas trees on board.  Follow the Great Lakes museum.  Find Unsalted Great Lakes 

Conservationists are trying to bring back the lake trout to Lake Erie. After decades of stocking, they made a new discovery: fry. Pop the champagne, because these baby trout show the adult population is breeding. Jim Markham, Senior Aquatic Biologist at New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, tells us the story of lake trout recovery. 

In his 24 years on Grand Bend's Beach Patrol, lifeguard Scott Ruddle has seen a lot. He talks about life in the tower at one of the lake's busiest beaches. 

Geo is back! The Great Lakes Tiktoker, artist and educator has a new book. Geo Rutherford speaks to host Allison Devereaux about Spooky Lakes: 25 Strange and Mysterious Lakes that Dot Our Planet.

Great Lakes science, fast fashion & sewing your own clothes. Explore it all with Kerrice Bailey, a biology Master’s student at York University.

Why did a Spotted Gar turn up in Toronto waters? The ancient fish, known for playing dead, is endangered in Ontario. Find out what this discovery means about the health of our lakes with Rick Portiss, Senior Manager of Aquatic Monitoring & Management at Toronto and Region Conservation Authority (TRCA).




Our theme is by Adam Wendler.

Each spring, Chantry Island is home to thousands of (noisy) birds. Why do human visitors have to carry sticks above their heads? We'll visit the Lake Huron bird sanctuary to learn more.

****This segment includes profanity (referring to bird poop). Skip 2:30 - 3:30 to avoid it.****

Then, retired University of Minnesota professor Francie Cuthbert shares:

- Why cormorant poop is so problematic

- What population management looks like

- The future of cormorants in the Great Lakes region

Our theme is by Adam Wendler.

Chemist Sherri A. Mason (Sam) is passionate about plastics pollution. She discusses ways to limit your connection to plastic and reduce your ingestion of it.




Our theme is by Adam Wendler.

Tour a City of Detroit fire boat with Captain Scott Reynolds.

Director Lindsey Haskin is back with another documentary, this one called “Fish Thief: A Great Lakes Mystery.” 

We discuss the sea lamprey, how the doc was made and famous people from the Great Lakes.

Our theme is by Adam Wendler

Why is the water so clear? Quagga mussels, known as filter feeders, are largely to blame. In their documentary, All Too Clear, Yvonne Drebert and Zach Melnick use underwater drones and groundbreaking footage to tell the story.

Learn about spearfishing and treaty rights in this interview with Kathleen Smith, an enrolled tribal member of the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community, located in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. She’s joined by her 15-year-old son, Jacob.

Want to surf a Great? Meet Tarah Coates, owner of a surf shop in Goderich, Ont. We talk about her sweet routine, surfing on the Great Lakes and its mental health benefits.

What are whitefish up against? With the population in decline, we’ll hear about the challenges and possibilities. Our guest is Jason Smith, fisheries biologist with Bay Mills Indian Community in Michigan's Upper Peninsula.

Declining ice levels can impact everything from water quality to the economy. Hilary Dugan is one of sixteen researchers who published a study in the journal Science examining seasonal ice cover on lakes. The limnologist joins us from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Read the study: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adl3211

Ice forecasting tool: https://www.glerl.noaa.gov/data/ice/#forecast

Is President Trump angling to take over the Great Lakes? Can the water be diverted to other states? Our guest is Daniel Macfarlane, an expert in environmental water history and US-Canada relations. He's an associate professor at Western Michigan University.

The U.S administration is putting cross-border science at risk. Together, US-Canada scientists keep the lakes healthy, detect harmful algal blooms and control invasive species.

Find out what's at stake with Jerome Marty, Executive Director of International Association for Great Lakes Research.