Matthew D. LaPlante, PhD
@mdlaplante.bsky.social
Climate Scientist. Professor of Journalism. Author of Superlative. Co-writer of Lifespan, The AFib Cure, and lots of other books. Founder and host of UnDisciplined on Utah Public Radio. Former intel analyst. Snowboarder. Soccer fan. Bar owner at 1833Craft.
Pinned
2024
•48 eps of UnDisciplined
•7 journal articles
•3-part SLTrib series
•Co-wrote book on recovery
•Working on solo book on climate prediction
•Taught podcasting, sports, features
•Launched 0-proof cocktail bar
•Began electrifying a '69 Mustang
•Completed 2 sitcom pilot seasons
•Ran 400 miles
•PhD'd
•48 eps of UnDisciplined
•7 journal articles
•3-part SLTrib series
•Co-wrote book on recovery
•Working on solo book on climate prediction
•Taught podcasting, sports, features
•Launched 0-proof cocktail bar
•Began electrifying a '69 Mustang
•Completed 2 sitcom pilot seasons
•Ran 400 miles
•PhD'd
Never underestimate the possibility that a single act of kindness might make someone's day.
November 8, 2025 at 7:03 PM
Never underestimate the possibility that a single act of kindness might make someone's day.
Reposted by Matthew D. LaPlante, PhD
Where can you get a nonalcoholic cocktail in Salt Lake City? Look to this Sugar House speakeasy.
This century-old Sugar House home is SLC’s newest nonalcoholic speakeasy. Here’s where to find it.
Where can you get a nonalcoholic cocktail in Salt Lake City? Look to this Sugar House speakeasy.
www.sltrib.com
November 1, 2025 at 8:31 PM
Where can you get a nonalcoholic cocktail in Salt Lake City? Look to this Sugar House speakeasy.
Truly proud to be among this group of journalists, researchers, and science communicators. Thank you, @nationalacademies.org and @schmidtsciences.bsky.social.
Congratulations to the 2025 winners of the National Academies Eric and Wendy Schmidt Awards for Excellence in Science Communications given by @nationalacademies.org in partnership with @schmidtsciences.bsky.social !
Learn more about the winners: www.nationalacademies.org/news/2025/10... #scicomm
Learn more about the winners: www.nationalacademies.org/news/2025/10... #scicomm
October 26, 2025 at 5:25 AM
Truly proud to be among this group of journalists, researchers, and science communicators. Thank you, @nationalacademies.org and @schmidtsciences.bsky.social.
The other 23 people on this list are absolutely amazing researchers, journalists, and science communicators from whom I am already learning so much.
And then there's me.
In the immortal words of Thom Yorke: "What the hell am I doin' here? I don't belong here."
And then there's me.
In the immortal words of Thom Yorke: "What the hell am I doin' here? I don't belong here."
#ICYMI - yesterday our program welcomed 24 new award winners! 🏆🥳🎉
The #scicomm awards given by @nationalacademies.org in partnership with Schmidt Sciences recognize excellent science journalists, research scientists, and science communicators.
Learn more: www.nationalacademies.org/news/2025/10...
The #scicomm awards given by @nationalacademies.org in partnership with Schmidt Sciences recognize excellent science journalists, research scientists, and science communicators.
Learn more: www.nationalacademies.org/news/2025/10...
October 24, 2025 at 9:36 PM
The other 23 people on this list are absolutely amazing researchers, journalists, and science communicators from whom I am already learning so much.
And then there's me.
In the immortal words of Thom Yorke: "What the hell am I doin' here? I don't belong here."
And then there's me.
In the immortal words of Thom Yorke: "What the hell am I doin' here? I don't belong here."
I am driving my parents’ white Subaru Outback in Utah today. This means that I have spent at least 47% of my day looking for this godforsaken car in parking lots filled with other white Subaru Outbacks.
October 17, 2025 at 5:09 PM
I am driving my parents’ white Subaru Outback in Utah today. This means that I have spent at least 47% of my day looking for this godforsaken car in parking lots filled with other white Subaru Outbacks.
I’m completely enchanted with David Maitland and the way he sees beauty and purpose in this world. You’ll be enchanted, too. Here’s Part 1 of my interview with the zoologist and Nature Photographer of the Year award-winner.
www.upr.org/show/undisci...
www.upr.org/show/undisci...
UnDisciplined: The Patterns of Life, Part 1
Again and again, similar patterns show up in nature in different creatures at different times in their evolutionary histories. And when they show up, we often perceive them as beautiful. Why?
www.upr.org
September 23, 2025 at 1:48 PM
I’m completely enchanted with David Maitland and the way he sees beauty and purpose in this world. You’ll be enchanted, too. Here’s Part 1 of my interview with the zoologist and Nature Photographer of the Year award-winner.
www.upr.org/show/undisci...
www.upr.org/show/undisci...
These guys were a blast. Give a listen.
@sonkejo.bsky.social and I were interviewed by @mdlaplante.bsky.social for his UnDisciplined podcast
www.upr.org/podcasts/103...
I don’t like hearing myself speak so I haven’t listened back, but my mom “LOVED IT”, so that counts for something. 😉
Support public radio, Utah PR, and @npr.org
🦑🧪🌊
www.upr.org/podcasts/103...
I don’t like hearing myself speak so I haven’t listened back, but my mom “LOVED IT”, so that counts for something. 😉
Support public radio, Utah PR, and @npr.org
🦑🧪🌊
September 17, 2025 at 3:44 AM
These guys were a blast. Give a listen.
Tickets for TEDxSaltLakeCity are now available. I'll be speaking about how climate prediction can be a force multiplier in a rapidly warming world. www.tedxsaltlakecity.com/2025-events/...
TEDxSaltLakeCity - 2025 Lineup
TEDxSaltLakeCity aims to be the heart of independent, creative, and local thought in Salt Lake City, Utah.
www.tedxsaltlakecity.com
August 16, 2025 at 11:17 PM
Tickets for TEDxSaltLakeCity are now available. I'll be speaking about how climate prediction can be a force multiplier in a rapidly warming world. www.tedxsaltlakecity.com/2025-events/...
Pleased to have been invited by
@lareviewofbooks.bsky.social to review Boris Fishman's latest, The Unwanted — an allegory about complicity that feels particularly relevant right now.
lareviewofbooks.org/article/comp...
@lareviewofbooks.bsky.social to review Boris Fishman's latest, The Unwanted — an allegory about complicity that feels particularly relevant right now.
lareviewofbooks.org/article/comp...
Complicity Becomes Us | Los Angeles Review of Books
Matthew D. LaPlante considers the perils of complicity in Boris Fishman’s novel “The Unwanted.”
lareviewofbooks.org
June 17, 2025 at 3:02 AM
Pleased to have been invited by
@lareviewofbooks.bsky.social to review Boris Fishman's latest, The Unwanted — an allegory about complicity that feels particularly relevant right now.
lareviewofbooks.org/article/comp...
@lareviewofbooks.bsky.social to review Boris Fishman's latest, The Unwanted — an allegory about complicity that feels particularly relevant right now.
lareviewofbooks.org/article/comp...
I didn't want to pathologize, and I certainly didn't want to traumatize, but there was something deep in Dan McClellan's past that seemed so speak to his motivations to put data over dogma. In part two of my conversation with @maklelan.bsky.social, we dive into it.
www.upr.org/show/undisci...
www.upr.org/show/undisci...
UnDisciplined: Did a tragedy at a fundamentalist commune drive this Biblical scholar’s desire to put data over dogma?
Dan McClellan loves the Bible. He doesn’t always love what it says. But he works hard not to try to mold it into something that he wants it to be — to meet it, he says, on its own terms. Doing anythin...
www.upr.org
May 22, 2025 at 8:54 PM
I didn't want to pathologize, and I certainly didn't want to traumatize, but there was something deep in Dan McClellan's past that seemed so speak to his motivations to put data over dogma. In part two of my conversation with @maklelan.bsky.social, we dive into it.
www.upr.org/show/undisci...
www.upr.org/show/undisci...
Kilby has got Salt Lake City looking like a Riverside County thrift store fire sale rack in late April.
May 16, 2025 at 8:17 PM
Kilby has got Salt Lake City looking like a Riverside County thrift store fire sale rack in late April.
Part one of my two-episode interview with Dan McClellan (@maklelan.bsky.social) was broadcast this morning. In it we discuss a thorny question: Does the Bible ever say it's the word of God? And if it doesn't, by what authority do Christians believe it is?
www.upr.org/show/undisci...
www.upr.org/show/undisci...
UnDisciplined: Does the Bible really say it is the Word of God?
Just about 60% of Americans say they identify as Christian. And just about 20% of Americans say they have read the entire Bible.
www.upr.org
May 16, 2025 at 5:50 PM
Part one of my two-episode interview with Dan McClellan (@maklelan.bsky.social) was broadcast this morning. In it we discuss a thorny question: Does the Bible ever say it's the word of God? And if it doesn't, by what authority do Christians believe it is?
www.upr.org/show/undisci...
www.upr.org/show/undisci...
Our little ag science project is going well.
Aspen Syrup Production Experimentation Network: Collecting the Sap
YouTube video by Matthew LaPlante
www.youtube.com
May 15, 2025 at 4:39 AM
Our little ag science project is going well.
I know that you're all excited about trying a Chicago pope for the first time, but I've always preferred my pontiffs with yellow mustard, sweet pickle relish, chopped onions, tomatoes, pepperoncinis, a pickle spear and celery salt on a poppy seed bun.
May 9, 2025 at 10:47 PM
I know that you're all excited about trying a Chicago pope for the first time, but I've always preferred my pontiffs with yellow mustard, sweet pickle relish, chopped onions, tomatoes, pepperoncinis, a pickle spear and celery salt on a poppy seed bun.
It was a big day for the ASPEN project: After a lot of hard work, we finally reached sap flow today, collected 10 sample vials from our experimentation grove, and did a little taste test.
ASPEN: ASPEN SYRUP PRODUCTION EXPERIMENTATION NETWORK: SAP FLOW
YouTube video by Matthew LaPlante
www.youtube.com
April 29, 2025 at 7:10 AM
It was a big day for the ASPEN project: After a lot of hard work, we finally reached sap flow today, collected 10 sample vials from our experimentation grove, and did a little taste test.
My autistic child played four years of varsity high school sports, wrote four plays, performed in many others, starred as Octavius Caesar in a local production of Antony & Cleopatra, and will graduate next week with a bachelor's degree—at the age of 17. Autism doesn’t destroy children. Ableism does.
April 19, 2025 at 6:42 AM
My autistic child played four years of varsity high school sports, wrote four plays, performed in many others, starred as Octavius Caesar in a local production of Antony & Cleopatra, and will graduate next week with a bachelor's degree—at the age of 17. Autism doesn’t destroy children. Ableism does.
What's the one thing that would do more than anything else to change our woeful global warming trajectory? More renewables? Cap and trade? Accountability for carbon polluters? Nope, @mikebernerslee.bsky.social says it's the establishment of "a climate of truth."
www.upr.org/show/undisci...
www.upr.org/show/undisci...
UnDisciplined: Can holding leaders accountable to truth unlock a climate revolution?
In his new book, climate analyst Mike Berners-Lee says there's one shift that would go far toward solving every climate bind we’re in: holding corporate and political leaders accountable to truth.
www.upr.org
April 12, 2025 at 8:43 PM
What's the one thing that would do more than anything else to change our woeful global warming trajectory? More renewables? Cap and trade? Accountability for carbon polluters? Nope, @mikebernerslee.bsky.social says it's the establishment of "a climate of truth."
www.upr.org/show/undisci...
www.upr.org/show/undisci...
I was there for the first MLS game on April 6, 1996. Like today, it was D.C. at San Jose, and there was a guy named Harkes on the field and a coach named Bruce Arena on the sidelines. Unlike today, it was unclear then if the league would make it. But soccer survived. And now it thrives in the USA.
April 7, 2025 at 3:32 AM
I was there for the first MLS game on April 6, 1996. Like today, it was D.C. at San Jose, and there was a guy named Harkes on the field and a coach named Bruce Arena on the sidelines. Unlike today, it was unclear then if the league would make it. But soccer survived. And now it thrives in the USA.
I've been looking forward to this chat with @agroclim.bsky.social for many months, and Weston Anderson absolutely exceeded my expectations. What a privilege it is to chat with such brilliant people.
www.upr.org/show/undisci...
www.upr.org/show/undisci...
UnDisciplined: Why aren't we using climate phases to predict crop yields?
For decades, we’ve known that climate cycles like El Niño affect regional crop yields. But even though our food system is increasingly global, we haven’t done a great job of thinking at a planetary sc...
www.upr.org
April 5, 2025 at 5:10 AM
I've been looking forward to this chat with @agroclim.bsky.social for many months, and Weston Anderson absolutely exceeded my expectations. What a privilege it is to chat with such brilliant people.
www.upr.org/show/undisci...
www.upr.org/show/undisci...
I had such a great chat with @karenlloyd.bsky.social today. Can't wait to share our episode on her new book, Intraterrestrials: Discovering the Strangest Life on Earth.
April 4, 2025 at 7:23 PM
I had such a great chat with @karenlloyd.bsky.social today. Can't wait to share our episode on her new book, Intraterrestrials: Discovering the Strangest Life on Earth.
I love it when Raegan Edelman hosts UnDisciplined — not because it's a break for me (which I do also like) but because she comes to the microphone with such enthusiasm and awe for our world. Her chat with Bevin Cohen on herbs and seasons is a salve for the soul.
www.upr.org/show/undisci...
www.upr.org/show/undisci...
March 31, 2025 at 2:19 PM
I love it when Raegan Edelman hosts UnDisciplined — not because it's a break for me (which I do also like) but because she comes to the microphone with such enthusiasm and awe for our world. Her chat with Bevin Cohen on herbs and seasons is a salve for the soul.
www.upr.org/show/undisci...
www.upr.org/show/undisci...
There is little more frightening than the prospect of losing cognitive capacity before losing physical capacity. This book, by @drdalebredesen.bsky.social, could not be more important.
The Ageless Brain: How to Sharpen and Protect Your Mind for a Lifetime
The Ageless Brain: How to Sharpen and Protect Your Mind for a Lifetime [Bredesen MD, Dale E.] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. The Ageless Brain: How to Sharpen and Protect Your Mind for a Lifetime
www.amazon.com
March 29, 2025 at 11:18 PM
There is little more frightening than the prospect of losing cognitive capacity before losing physical capacity. This book, by @drdalebredesen.bsky.social, could not be more important.
Inspired by the lyricism of this floor statement, I've invited MLA Shepherd onto the program to talk about the science of speech. What would you ask him about?
Danielle Smith claims flying to Florida to pose with Ben Shapiro is “going into the lion’s den”.
The truth is, it’s a trip to a Republican safe space, a far-right fundraiser & more about pumping the Premier’s ego than promoting Alberta.
Albertans shouldn’t be on the hook to pay for it. #ableg
The truth is, it’s a trip to a Republican safe space, a far-right fundraiser & more about pumping the Premier’s ego than promoting Alberta.
Albertans shouldn’t be on the hook to pay for it. #ableg
March 27, 2025 at 4:59 PM
Inspired by the lyricism of this floor statement, I've invited MLA Shepherd onto the program to talk about the science of speech. What would you ask him about?
A Navy lieutenant I worked with once misplaced a classified mission briefing folder. He looked more scared at that moment than he ever appeared before getting into the cockpit of an F/A-18 to fly sorties over Iraq.
March 25, 2025 at 4:15 AM
A Navy lieutenant I worked with once misplaced a classified mission briefing folder. He looked more scared at that moment than he ever appeared before getting into the cockpit of an F/A-18 to fly sorties over Iraq.
Three hundred episodes. More than four hundred scientists. We've talked about everything from the physics of fried rice to why people love to paint dogs.
www.usu.edu/today/story/...
www.usu.edu/today/story/...
UPR Show About Science, 'UnDisciplined,' Celebrates 300th Episode
This week, Utah Public Radio's UnDisciplined will broadcast its 300th episode of making science accessible without dumbing it down.
www.usu.edu
March 13, 2025 at 3:11 AM
Three hundred episodes. More than four hundred scientists. We've talked about everything from the physics of fried rice to why people love to paint dogs.
www.usu.edu/today/story/...
www.usu.edu/today/story/...