What's the relationship between teachers and college professors – other than the fact they both “teach.” For Former Hudsonville student, Jesse Reimink and college professor, and current teacher Christopher Bolhuis joined together to educate people on geoscience through their podcast PlanetGeo. Bolhuis remembers receiving a call from Reimink asking him if he would like to co host a podcast, with the idea coming from Reimink’s sister who had also started a podcast. Although neither had any prior experience, especially with the technical sides of production, they quickly learned and have been successfully publishing episodes for 3.5 years, with more to come. “Podcasts are personal” Bolhuis said. They keep each other in check when recording and never simply read off the script only using bullet points to make sure they cover their points.

Bolhuis remembers and openly stated multiple close calls and arguments between the pair as they have had many disagreements over the years. Bolhuis stated that the first main point of conflict came when the pair discussed the structure of the podcast – with Bolhuis wanting it to come off as an entry level geology course; while Reimink wanted to “bounce around from topic to topic.” Ultimately, Reimink’s idea had won out and as time passed they started releasing mini runs of continued topics aswell. Both hosts draft ideas and when a topic is agreed upon by both then they upload it. The topics have varied over the years from sinkholes to the magnetism of plate tectonics.

PlanetGeo was made with hopes to inform people of the danger the planet is in, “there’s no planet B,” said Bolhuis. “We need to take care of it while there’s still time left.” Even though the episodes might come off as lighthearted and a simple overview of geoscience topics, both hosts hope that people will feel a deeper connection to the planet, and in turn, push for change.