npr--2020-10-02--Cave Diver Risks All To Explore Places 'Where Nobody Has Ever Been'

Cave Diver Risks All To Explore Places 'Where Nobody Has Ever Been' '' The big picture of survival is sometimes so hard to see , '' says cave diver and photographer Jill Heinerth .
Her memoir is called Into the Planet .
Originally broadcast Aug. 19 .
2019 .
This is FRESH AIR .
I 'm Dave Davies , in for Terry Gross .
Our guest Jill Heinerth has one of the most fascinating and dangerous jobs on Earth .
She 's one of a rare breed of technical divers who explore underground waterways and submerged caves deep beneath the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ you 'll soon hear , inside an iceberg .
`` So many cave divers drown in these underwater catacombs , '' Heinerth writes , `` that they ca n't buy life insurance at any price . ''
She writes about her explorations , some harrowing escapes and the challenges she 's faced as a woman in the cave diving community in a new memoir , which is now out in paperback .
Jill Heinerth is also a writer , photographer and filmmaker who 's starred in TV series for PBS , National Geographic @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is called `` Into The Planet : My Life As A Cave Diver . ''
I spoke to her last year when it was released in hardback .
DAVIES : Jill Heinerth , welcome to FRESH AIR .
I 'd like to start with a reading from the very beginning of your book on a pretty gripping experience you had in Antarctica .
JILL HEINERTH : Sure .
This is from the prologue .
( Reading ) If I die , it will be in the most glorious place that nobody has ever @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the fingers in my left hand .
The glacial Antarctic water has seeped through a tiny puncture in my formerly waterproof glove .
If this water were 1/10 of a degree colder , the ocean would become solid .
Fighting the knife-edged freeze is depleting my strength , my blood vessels throbbing in a futile attempt to deliver warmth to my extremities .
The archway above our heads is furrowed like a surface of a golf ball , carved by the hand of the sea .
Iridescent blue , Wedgwood , azure , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ egg meld with chalk and silvery alabaster .
The ice is vibrant , bright and , at the same time , ghostly , shadowy .
The beauty contradicts the danger .
We are the first people to cave dive inside an iceberg , and we may not live to tell the story .
It 's February , in the middle of what passes for summer in Antarctica .
My job for National Geographic is to lead an advanced technical diving team in search of underwater caves deep within the largest moving object on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ had known that diving into tunnels inside this giant piece of ice would be difficult , but I had n't calculated that getting out would be nearly impossible .
The tidal currents accelerated so quickly that they 've caged us inside the ice .
We 're trapped in this frozen fortress , and I have to figure out how to escape .
DAVIES : And that is our guest Jill Heinerth , from her new book `` Into The Planet : My Life As A Cave Diver . ''
Now , in the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in Antarctica - the ( laughter ) largest moving object on Earth , the B-15 Iceberg - what was making the water move so fast that it trapped you and your fellow divers inside this cave in the ice ?
HEINERTH : Well , in the ocean , you have significant tidal exchanges , but there 's a lot of things that are happening around an iceberg .
As it 's melting , you get freshwater dropping into saltwater , and that actually also creates really weird up currents and down currents .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ factors at play , none of which we could have predicted because nobody had written a handbook for something that had n't been done before .
DAVIES : So , literally , nobody had dived into the pockets , the spaces in an iceberg before ?
HEINERTH : Yeah , nobody had ever attempted to cave dive inside an iceberg .
And this iceberg was not just the largest moving object on the planet , but it was the size of Jamaica .
So when this broke away from the Ross Ice Shelf @ @ @ @ @ @ @ journey north , it started breaking into pieces along fractures and crevasses that we were able to exploit and swim inside of to find tunnels within the ice and tunnels beneath the iceberg , where it had sort of tripped up on the seafloor .
DAVIES : Right .
And I have to say , I mean , this chapter of the book , even if you had never made it into the iceberg itself , just the voyage on this boat to get there was really scary .
I mean , you @ @ @ @ @ @ @ : You finally get there .
And there 's a big opening , a big crevasse in the iceberg , and you dive into it .
And on one of the earlier dives , before this one that you were describing where you become trapped , there was a big groaning noise above you , right ?
What was that ?
HEINERTH : Yeah .
We were , you know , diving beneath this iceberg , and we were sort of well into these passages when I was hearing , you know , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ sorts of sound from the ice .
And in the moment , I did n't realize what it was , but when we turned around to retrace our footsteps and come back out , we got to a point where we could swim towards the surface , towards daylight .
And I realized that the doorway , the very opening that we had gone into to get into the iceberg had closed .
There 'd been a calving , and a massive piece of ice had blocked the doorway out .
HEINERTH : @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of my stomach first ( laughter ) was just like , oh , no , what are we going to do ?
And we , you know , worked our way around and in between blocks of ice and found a new route back to the surface .
And I remember sitting there , you know , about 20 feet below the surface , just doing a hang for what we called decompression time at the end of the dive just to allow my body to reacclimate to the pressure .
And I @ @ @ @ @ @ @ my colleagues on a Zodiac boat waiting for us , and they were , like , high-fiving and dancing .
And , apparently , it was much more dramatic from their viewpoint than from mine .
When that piece of ice calved and blocked the doorway , it nearly threw them out of the boat , and they were sitting up there assuming that we were dead .
DAVIES : Right .
It had created , like , an 8-foot swell which nearly capsized the boat .
They assumed you were dead .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ where - that you begin the book with , where you and - was it one other diver or two , in this case ?
HEINERTH : Yeah .
On that dive , two .
Yeah .
DAVIES : OK , two .
The - right , the photographer was there from National Geographic .
DAVIES : You go underneath hundreds of tons of ice above you and then suddenly discover the current is sweeping you away from the opening , and you ca n't get back .
One of the things you @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the current abated , right ?
But there was time pressure .
Why could n't you just wait it out ?
HEINERTH : Well , we were already deep .
So we were 130 feet deep , and we 're accumulating inert gases in our bodies that will mean that the longer we stay , the longer it 's going to take for us to slowly stage our way back to the surface and do our decompression time .
Otherwise , we can get bent .
And ... DAVIES : That 's the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ : You want to just take a moment and explain what that is ?
HEINERTH : Sure .
Decompression sickness is - I guess the closest analogy is a soda pop bottle .
You know , when you 're down under the water , you 're under pressure , much like a soda pop bottle with the cap screwed on tight .
So there are gases that get sort of pressed into your tissues .
And when you slowly ascend back to the surface , you have to do that in stages in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Otherwise , you 're just like that soda pop bottle if somebody shook it up and took the cap off , and that can cause , you know , injuries .
It can cause paralysis .
It could even cause death .
So every minute that we spend on the bottom , trapped inside an iceberg , we have to account for that time and some to come slowly back to the surface .
And when you 're in water that 's 28 degrees Fahrenheit , you do n't have that much time @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 're struggling for our lives to get out of the iceberg .
We 're trying to get out quickly so we do n't amass too much decompression time .
And , you know , we 're worried about freezing to death .
DAVIES : So what goes through your head that allows you to focus at a moment like that ?
HEINERTH : You know , when something terrible happens , it 's really easy for your mind to just explode into these , like , chattering monkeys ( laughter ) , you @ @ @ @ @ @ @ want to take over .
You start to breathe fast .
Your heartbeat starts to race .
And you have to turn that all off .
So I take a really deep breath and try and slow my heart , slow my breathing , and then just focus on pragmatic , small steps .
Like , the big picture of survival is sometimes so hard to see , but we always know what we can do to make the next best step towards survival .
So it 's really all about controlling emotions @ @ @ @ @ @ @ OK , so you and your other two divers are trapped by a current that 's really too hard for you to swim against .
How do you make it out ?
HEINERTH : Well , I dove my hand into the doughy seafloor that was covered with this really , you know , beautiful marine life , filter-feeding organisms that were just like , you know , gobbling up all the nutrients that were being delivered to them into the current .
And every time I drove my hand in my - @ @ @ @ @ @ @ just to pull myself forward an inch at a time , an inch at a time .
And when I finally got to the point where I would be able to ascend , there was this terrible current that was just pouring down these cliffs of ice .
And I could n't move upwards .
And I noticed something that I had seen on previous dives , these tiny little fish about the size of my thumb .
And they were transparent .
Like , I could see their insides .
And every @ @ @ @ @ @ @ would hide in these little burrows inside the ice walls .
And when I saw that , I thought , ah , OK , it 's a handhold .
And I ended up jamming my fingers into these holes to try and pull myself up and get some traction .
And at this point , my hands were so cold , especially my left hand , it felt dead .
But I just slammed it into these holes and pulled myself up until I could get free of the current .
DAVIES : @ @ @ @ @ @ @ into a hole , a little fish darted out saying , hey ... DAVIES : ... What happened to my home ?
HEINERTH : ... Made the ultimate - yeah , the ultimate sacrifice for me , yeah .
DAVIES : You managed to climb and decompress on the way up , and the three of you got out .
HEINERTH : Yeah , yeah .
I remember swimming back to the boat .
And when I got to the swim ladder , you know , everybody was hanging over the side of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
We 'd turned a one-hour dive into a three-hour dive .
And our chief science officer bent over the rail and said , wow , what happened ?
And I remember looking up to him and just saying , the cave tried to keep us today .
DAVIES : That was your last dive on the trip , was n't it ?
HEINERTH : It was .
We had planned to get back in the water .
We felt like we needed a little bit more footage for the film that we @ @ @ @ @ @ @ '' And so we prepped our gear , and we sat down to have a meal .
And we set someone on deck to let us know when the current , when the tidal currents , finally slowed down and would give us a chance to do one more dive .
And as we sat there eating our meal , suddenly I heard a scream on deck .
And we went running up the companion way and onto the deck to see the very iceberg we had just been inside of cracking and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ice on the surface of the ocean as far as the eye could see .
So the cave we had just been inside was now gone .
DAVIES : Had you been there , what would have been your fate ?
HEINERTH : Oh , my gosh .
If we 'd been in there , we would have been killed .
There 's no doubt .
HEINERTH : Boy , well , some people call it one of the , you know , most dangerous occupations or even recreational activities .
I 've @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 100 friends and colleagues throughout my career in underwater caves and technical diving .
DAVIES : You know , when I heard the term cave diving , I pictured people going out into the ocean in a boat and then , you know , going over the side and finding caves near the shore or along the ocean floor .
But what you do often involves dives that are , you know , miles , sometimes hundreds of miles , from the ocean , to really serious depths inside the earth - a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ kinds of bodies of water are you exploring in these dives ?
HEINERTH : Well , underwater caves are really abstract .
It 's hard for people to grasp that the earth is like a giant sponge .
And so far inland , far away from the ocean , I can climb down into a sinkhole and go into a cave passage that 's filled with water that branches out like a tree fingering through the planet .
DAVIES : Right , and up and down hills and cliffs - right ?
- @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , sometimes inside mountains , where you 're climbing down in a cave , traveling through a waterfall and then reaching a body of water within the earth .
DAVIES : Right .
And when you 're down there , does this water have movements , currents ?
HEINERTH : Yeah , sometimes the currents are so hard that we ca n't even make headway against them .
It 's kind of like trying to walk against a hurricane-strength wind , and you 're pulling yourself along the rocks against the flow .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ the planet from higher elevations to lower .
You know , just like you have a waterfall on the surface , the same thing can happen underground , making the water move with great velocity .
DAVIES : Jill Heinerth 's book is `` Into The Planet : My Life As A Cave Diver . ''
We 'll talk some more after a short break .
This is FRESH AIR .
DAVIES : This is FRESH AIR .
And we 're speaking with Jill Heinerth .
She is a veteran cave diver exploring @ @ @ @ @ @ @ also a writer , photographer and filmmaker .
Her new memoir about cave diving is called `` Into The Planet . ''
One of the things that you write about is that mud and silt , when you 're diving in various underground bodies , can really create a hazard , right ?
You ca n't see .
HEINERTH : Oh , sure .
Yeah .
When you swim into a cave , especially when you 're the first person to go into a place that nobody 's ever explored , there 's @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on the walls and ceiling .
And your very passage through that space and the bubbles that you make from your scuba equipment can knock that silt off the walls , the floors , the ceiling and obscure your visibility so that you ca n't even see when you 're coming out .
DAVIES : You talk about diving in a Florida spring called Devil 's Eye , where you go down to a certain depth , and there is an underwater sign featuring an image of the Grim Reaper .
What was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ : Well , we put signs in springs , especially at popular locations like the ones in north Florida , to warn untrained scuba divers from going into these environments because when they get into these environments , the doorway can be very alluring .
The water may look clear , and the room may look spacious , but when they go in , if they have n't been trained properly , they may kick up the silt and be suddenly blind and unable to find their way out .
They could get @ @ @ @ @ @ @ there 's a lot of things that can go wrong .
They also do n't have a sense of how much of their gas supply they need to reserve to get out .
And so it 's very , very dangerous without proper training to go into a cave , and we hope that these signs will scare people off .
DAVIES : So this is difficult and dangerous .
What 's the appeal of it to you ?
HEINERTH : Wow .
You know , since I was the smallest child , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , to have an opportunity to go someplace where nobody has ever been before .
And as an artist , with my camera , it 's an incredible opportunity to document these places and bring back images to share with others .
DAVIES : Have you seen some pretty strange life forms down there ?
HEINERTH : Oh , caves are filled with remarkable life forms that we barely understand .
We 're barely even beginning to document these new species .
There were animals living inside the earth that do n't live @ @ @ @ @ @ @ animals have no eyes , no pigment , but they have remarkable sensory capabilities .
And all of these animals with these unique characteristics may be able to teach us an awful lot about evolution , about survival , maybe even about new chemical and drug compounds that are of use to humanity .
DAVIES : Can you expand on that a bit ?
Are there particular insights that we 've gotten from some of what 's been discovered in caves ?
HEINERTH : Sure .
Yeah .
The longevity of some of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is remarkable .
I mean , we can look at the blind albino crayfish that can live for 200 years inside a cave , when its closest relative in the river outside only lives two to three years .
Now , that crayfish is living in an incredibly food-scarce environment , where he has to conserve energy .
So that 's kind of an interesting strategy to look at .
You know , what 's he feeding on and how often and why does that make him live longer ?
And then these @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in evolution and have n't evolved in over 65 million years , you know , did they reach some sort of a perfection in the environment ?
Or does that represent something about the environment that has n't changed ?
We do n't even know yet .
So those animals are really special and interesting .
And since we 're only beginning to identify them and record them as a new species , there 's a lot of work left to do .
HEINERTH : A remipede is a cool little animal .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ than 2 inches long , kind of a centipedelike , white , blind animal , again .
But it has venomous fangs and pincers , and it can attack something 40 times its size , immobilize it and then turn the insides of that prey into jello so that it can suck the life out of it over time .
And if this animal was the size of a cat , it would be the deadliest thing on the earth .
And it 's also been unchanged for over 65 million years , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ swimming dinosaur .
DAVIES : Jill Heinerth 's memoir , `` Into The Planet : My Life As A Cave Diver , '' is now out in paperback .
After a break , we 'll hear more about the dangers involved in cave exploration and about how her thinking about fear and risk were shaped by a terrifying experience aboveground .
Also , TV critic David Bianculli reviews `` The Comedy Store , '' the new documentary series on Showtime that chronicles the iconic LA comedy club .
I 'm Dave Davies , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ : This is FRESH AIR .
I 'm Dave Davies , in for Terry Gross .
We 're listening to my interview recorded last year with Jill Heinerth , who belongs to an elite group of divers who explore underground waterways and submerged caves deep beneath the earth 's surface .
It 's an undertaking that requires enormous technical skill and special equipment and comes with serious risks .
Her memoir , now out in paperback , is called `` Into The Planet : My Life As A Cave Diver . ''
DAVIES @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 're not just gawking or taking pictures , right ?
You 're surveying unexplored territory .
How do you do it ?
HEINERTH : We used to use very traditional techniques to survey underwater caves .
We would run a spool like a reel of nylon guideline through the system and then meticulously count the distances in between each turn and corner and measure the compass bearings and then draw a traditional map .
But today , we 're using some really exciting new technologies that allow us to make three-dimensional maps .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ , like sonar mappers , through cave systems , and they 're pinging the walls and allowing us to make 3D models that are more like something that you could drive through with a joystick or experience in a VR or augmented reality set of glasses .
Today , we 're were making these incredibly detailed maps down to subcentimeter accuracy in three dimensions .
And now we 're collaborating with scientists and engineers in making these maps .
And they 're finally , you know , of interest and use for urban @ @ @ @ @ @ @ surface of the earth and even understanding what we may find in places beyond our earth .
Some of these mapping devices are being tested in caves so that they can go to space .
DAVIES : You know , you describe a lot of pretty harrowing experiences in the book , and you write that some people must think cave divers have a death wish .
How do you regard personal danger ?
What has shaped your thinking about it ?
HEINERTH : You know , people usually laugh when I tell @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ( laughter ) .
I 'm not fearless .
I think that it 's important to be scared .
When you approach anything new - and for me , that 's often - I certainly get that fear in the pit of my stomach .
But the problem-solving to do something new that 's never been done before allows me to plan through all the potential risks .
And then when I get in the water , I 'm actually sort of free in my mind and totally focused on what 's ahead @ @ @ @ @ @ @ go diving with people that are fearless ; I want to go diving with people that are scared because , to me , that tells me that they care about the outcome and that they 're not going to be foolish if we encounter something underwater .
DAVIES : You grew up in Canada , a suburb of Toronto .
And when you were in college , you had a really scary experience with a burglar .
Tell us about that .
HEINERTH : Yeah .
When I was in college , I @ @ @ @ @ @ @ house , and I was alone on the very first night in the house .
And I heard something downstairs .
And I woke up in the middle of the night knowing that somebody else was in the house , and I was the only person with a key .
And my heart was racing , and my first reaction was just to pull the covers over my head and hide .
And then I realized that whoever was in the house was now , like , rifling through things downstairs .
And @ @ @ @ @ @ @ somebody was home .
And I got out of bed , and I started stamping around and thinking that , you know , if they heard me that they 'd leave .
And the person did n't leave .
They just kept rifling through the closets and moving things around downstairs .
And I did n't want to scream out because I did n't want them to know that I was a female .
And one thing led to another , and as time passed , I heard the steps coming up the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ realized that I was going to have to defend myself .
I did n't have a phone hooked up .
There was no way for me to jump out the window of the second story .
I would have landed into a busy street .
And so there I was , like , 2 o'clock in the morning just , like , pawing for X-ACTO knives from my drafting table in my bedroom and clenching them into my fists while somebody was coming up the stairs .
And after a wait , he @ @ @ @ @ @ @ bedroom door off the hinges and came into the room .
And I turned on a light and flashed it in his eyes and screamed at him , and he still came after me .
And in the end , I lunged and slashed across his chest with one of these art knives for my drafting table .
And only at that point did he finally step back and look at me .
And he laughed .
And he turned around , and he slowly walked down the stairs and out of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ sort of , you know , getting up and kicking the door open and going through the bathroom and making sure he was n't in the closet that I ran through the stairs and was down the stairs and was able to run out of the house and get help .
And it was terrifying .
I was unable to speak when finally the police arrived .
HEINERTH : It was .
It was totally traumatic .
I was awake for days .
DAVIES : Do you think that connects at all to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ what you do now ?
HEINERTH : Having to confront a burglar in my own home was formative in my life experiences because my first reaction was to hide under the covers .
And you ca n't do that if you 're , you know , in a cave trapped .
You 've got to act .
And I think that whole experience taught me not to hide , not to run , but to face danger and to know that I could succeed .
DAVIES : You were proving yourself in a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ like ?
HEINERTH : You know , sometimes it 's extremely challenging .
I 've often been the lone woman on an expedition , the lone woman on a boat , the lone woman , you know , trying to get an opportunity in what is normally a predominantly , you know , male environment .
And that has its challenges .
You know , as a young woman , I considered commercial diving .
And I went to a workshop to be a commercial diver and was told , I 'm sorry @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in commercial diving .
You know , if you want to go train dolphins , go do that , I was told .
So ... DAVIES : No room - why ?
- because someone would n't respect the authority or expertise of a woman .
Or what ?
I mean ... HEINERTH : Well , this man that told me this seemed convinced that , you know , women were n't strong enough and that , in commercial diving settings , there was n't an infrastructure that would allow for two genders @ @ @ @ @ @ @ or an oil platform or whatever else .
And he just did n't think it was a job for women .
I 've had to fight that along the way , even , you know , through different levels of becoming a cave diving instructor as well .
DAVIES : What about the men that you , you know , really went through the trenches with , literally - I mean , had a lot of , you know , really intense experiences with ?
How did the sexism arise among you and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ with and should have respected that ?
HEINERTH : Well , the men - yeah , the men that I 've been through the trenches with are my brothers ( laughter ) .
And , you know , none of us on a tightknit expedition , you know , even has time to think about someone as one gender or another ; they 're just a teammate , and we have to bond .
I mean , we 're there covering for each other in a life-support sport .
And all of us @ @ @ @ @ @ @ can take care of ourselves and that we 're able and willing to take care of a buddy and bring them out in the worst-case-possible scenario .
DAVIES : Jill Heinerth 's book is `` Into The Planet : My Life As A Cave Diver . ''
We 'll talk some more after a short break .
This is FRESH AIR .
DAVIES : This is FRESH AIR , and we 're speaking with Jill Heinerth .
She 's a veteran cave diver exploring underground bodies of water .
She 's also a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ new memoir about cave diving is called `` Into The Planet . ''
You say that you 've known a hundred people who have died in cave diving incidents .
HEINERTH : You know , a few years ago , I actually thought , wow , how many people do I know have died ?
I mean , it was when my husband said to me , wow , I 've known more deaths since I 've been with you than I knew from my service in the military , that I sat @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of macabre list of names of my friends and colleagues that have died from cave and technical diving .
And it 's well over a hundred people , some of whom were my very closest friends .
DAVIES : And the way it often happens is - you 're a community , and you know that somebody did n't come back from a dive .
So you go to the point where you think they might have embarked , and if their vehicle is still there , you know what happened .
But @ @ @ @ @ @ @ done , right ?
HEINERTH : Yeah , absolutely .
I mean , there 's been a number of times in my life when I either got the call from the police or from a loved one - you know , so-and-so did n't come home last night .
And I know right away when so-and-so did n't come home last night and they 're a cave diver and they were diving last night that it 's going to be a body recovery .
But still , you know , we go and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ car is sitting there alone with , you know , shoes neatly placed at the back of the pickup truck and everything put away nicely and this quiet body of water in the middle of a serene woods , we still know that we 've got to gather together the tribe of friends and launch a body recovery .
DAVIES : Right .
And this is because this is not something that EMTs or really anybody can handle , except for people with the technical diving experience that you have .
So you @ @ @ @ @ @ @ back .
HEINERTH : Absolutely .
Oftentimes , when there 's a cave diver that 's missing , you know , the local police will be called in or even a local , you know , law enforcement dive team might come in , but it 's extremely rare that law-enforcement divers are trained and experienced in cave diving to the degree that community experts are .
So we created our own team of people .
It 's like a phone tree .
So if somebody is missing and we realize there 's @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a phone tree starts , and one person calls another until the group can be gathered together to go deal with this task .
DAVIES : How many times have you been in a situation on a dive where you felt there was a good chance you were n't going to make it back ?
HEINERTH : Well , there 's been a few times ( laughter ) where I was n't sure I was going to make it home .
There was one dive where I was even dead for , you @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ( laughter ) because my diving partner made it out of the cave and sort of sounded the alarm and literally started that phone tree to bring in the recovery divers .
And , you know , she said she 'd been stuck , and she 'd broken the guideline .
And I was still inside the cave , and so people were filling tanks and loading their cars with gear and rushing to the scene to try and help .
And meanwhile , I 'm still in the cave searching for my @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to leave the cave if she was still there .
So I had retreated all the way into the maximum penetration in this cave and was slowly working my way out on a methodical search to make sure I was n't leaving her behind .
And I remember the thoughts that were going through my head .
You know , oh , my God , two women ca n't die in a cave ; that 'll be , like , world news , you know ?
And I even remember thinking crazy things @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of here ; my husband does n't know how to do the taxes ( laughter ) .
DAVIES : Yeah .
This was with the marine biologist Ruth ( ph ) , right ?
This is - you describe it .
DAVIES : You know , what struck me about that episode which you describe in the book , that happened in 2011 , I mean , long after Antarctica , long after other occasions in which you had skated to the edge of death .
And I bring that up because you @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and experience , you are ever more careful , ever more thoughtful about checking your equipment and making sure that there is a plan and that the communication is clear .
And yet , you know , as recently as then , you almost did n't make it .
Do you ever think it 's time to let this go ?
HEINERTH : Well , I do n't think it 's time to let it go .
And , you know , I have cave diving friends that cave dived into their 80s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ believe it .
But you know , from that particular incident , I survived that incident because of wise choices I made before I got in the water .
I had a lot of gas .
So by the time I got out of that cave , I still had half of my gas supply left , and that had given me time to make an extra 73 minutes of search within that cave .
So , yeah , the worst happened , but we both got out alive because we used our @ @ @ @ @ @ @ right equipment , and we went in with lots of gas .
So it 's really scary , but we solved our problems .
I mean , my husband would love it if I just packed it in .
He 's said to me more than once , you know , how much more do you have to do in this career before we can just retire ?
You know , what I do scares him .
But it is what makes me who I am .
And so I 'll continue to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and currency and try to make the best choices each time I get in the water .
DAVIES : Is there an amazing , awe-inspiring moment from a dive that you would want to share with us - something that 's been remarkable ?
HEINERTH : Well , you know , I think these caves are like museums of natural history .
They 're beautiful .
Like , in Abaco in the Bahamas are some of my favorite caves because they 're so beautifully decorated .
They were formed during times of lower @ @ @ @ @ @ @ water in the cave .
So the rain used to soak down through the ground and then drip from the ceiling to the floor .
And with each drip , a tiny bit of calcite was deposited .
And so you end up with these crystal chandeliers hanging from the ceiling and then stalagmites rising up from the floor - you know , much like , you know , a pile of dripped candle wax would look like .
But these things are crystalline , beautiful galleries that we get to swim through @ @ @ @ @ @ @ being in that environment that we sometimes call frozen rain .
DAVIES : Do you - you go through very extensive safety checks before every dive .
Are there any particular rituals that you have , any superstitions that you do before you go in ?
HEINERTH : After all of my safety checks and checklists are done , I sit down and I close my eyes and I actually think about what could kill me today .
So quite specifically , I work through a list in my head of all the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ I envision myself solving each one of those .
And sometimes I 'm actually , like , moving my hands and reaching for a valve or a button or whatever to solve each of those issues so that when I get in the water , my mind is really free .
And then if something horrible happens , I 've rehearsed it just a few minutes ago .
And I kind of need to do that eyes-closed ritual before every dive .
DAVIES : Jill Heinerth , it 's been fascinating .
Take @ @ @ @ @ @ @ speaking with us .
HEINERTH : Well , thank you so much .
DAVIES : Jill Heinerth 's memoir , `` Into The Planet : My Life As A Cave Diver , '' is now out in paperback .
Coming up , TV critic David Bianculli reviews `` The Comedy Store , '' the new documentary series on Showtime which chronicles the influential LA comedy club .
This is FRESH AIR .

Cave Diver Risks All To Explore Places 'Where Nobody Has Ever Been'
"The big picture of survival is sometimes so hard to see," says cave diver and photographer Jill Heinerth. Her memoir is called Into the Planet. Originally broadcast Aug. 19. 2019.
DAVE DAVIES, HOST:
This is FRESH AIR. I'm Dave Davies, in for Terry Gross. Our guest Jill Heinerth has one of the most fascinating and dangerous jobs on Earth. She's one of a rare breed of technical divers who explore underground waterways and submerged caves deep beneath the Earth's surface or sometimes, as you'll soon hear, inside an iceberg.
"So many cave divers drown in these underwater catacombs," Heinerth writes, "that they can't buy life insurance at any price." She writes about her explorations, some harrowing escapes and the challenges she's faced as a woman in the cave diving community in a new memoir, which is now out in paperback. Jill Heinerth is also a writer, photographer and filmmaker who's starred in TV series for PBS, National Geographic Channel and the BBC. Her book is called "Into The Planet: My Life As A Cave Diver." I spoke to her last year when it was released in hardback.
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DAVIES: Jill Heinerth, welcome to FRESH AIR. I'd like to start with a reading from the very beginning of your book on a pretty gripping experience you had in Antarctica.
JILL HEINERTH: Sure. This is from the prologue.
(Reading) If I die, it will be in the most glorious place that nobody has ever seen. I can no longer feel the fingers in my left hand. The glacial Antarctic water has seeped through a tiny puncture in my formerly waterproof glove. If this water were 1/10 of a degree colder, the ocean would become solid. Fighting the knife-edged freeze is depleting my strength, my blood vessels throbbing in a futile attempt to deliver warmth to my extremities. The archway above our heads is furrowed like a surface of a golf ball, carved by the hand of the sea.
Iridescent blue, Wedgwood, azure, cerulean, cobalt and pastel robin's egg meld with chalk and silvery alabaster. The ice is vibrant, bright and, at the same time, ghostly, shadowy. The beauty contradicts the danger. We are the first people to cave dive inside an iceberg, and we may not live to tell the story.
It's February, in the middle of what passes for summer in Antarctica. My job for National Geographic is to lead an advanced technical diving team in search of underwater caves deep within the largest moving object on Earth, the B-15 Iceberg. I had known that diving into tunnels inside this giant piece of ice would be difficult, but I hadn't calculated that getting out would be nearly impossible. The tidal currents accelerated so quickly that they've caged us inside the ice. We're trapped in this frozen fortress, and I have to figure out how to escape.
DAVIES: And that is our guest Jill Heinerth, from her new book "Into The Planet: My Life As A Cave Diver." Now, in the case of this dive into this iceberg in Antarctica - the (laughter) largest moving object on Earth, the B-15 Iceberg - what was making the water move so fast that it trapped you and your fellow divers inside this cave in the ice?
HEINERTH: Well, in the ocean, you have significant tidal exchanges, but there's a lot of things that are happening around an iceberg. As it's melting, you get freshwater dropping into saltwater, and that actually also creates really weird up currents and down currents. So there's a lot of environmental factors at play, none of which we could have predicted because nobody had written a handbook for something that hadn't been done before.
DAVIES: So, literally, nobody had dived into the pockets, the spaces in an iceberg before?
HEINERTH: Yeah, nobody had ever attempted to cave dive inside an iceberg. And this iceberg was not just the largest moving object on the planet, but it was the size of Jamaica. So when this broke away from the Ross Ice Shelf in Antarctica and started to make its journey north, it started breaking into pieces along fractures and crevasses that we were able to exploit and swim inside of to find tunnels within the ice and tunnels beneath the iceberg, where it had sort of tripped up on the seafloor.
DAVIES: Right. And I have to say, I mean, this chapter of the book, even if you had never made it into the iceberg itself, just the voyage on this boat to get there was really scary. I mean, you had some huge rogue waves.
HEINERTH: (Laughter) Yeah.
DAVIES: You finally get there. And there's a big opening, a big crevasse in the iceberg, and you dive into it. And on one of the earlier dives, before this one that you were describing where you become trapped, there was a big groaning noise above you, right? What was that?
HEINERTH: Yeah. We were, you know, diving beneath this iceberg, and we were sort of well into these passages when I was hearing, you know, cracks and pops and groans and all sorts of sound from the ice. And in the moment, I didn't realize what it was, but when we turned around to retrace our footsteps and come back out, we got to a point where we could swim towards the surface, towards daylight. And I realized that the doorway, the very opening that we had gone into to get into the iceberg had closed. There'd been a calving, and a massive piece of ice had blocked the doorway out.
DAVIES: So what happened?
HEINERTH: Well, you know, the pit of my stomach first (laughter) was just like, oh, no, what are we going to do? And we, you know, worked our way around and in between blocks of ice and found a new route back to the surface.
And I remember sitting there, you know, about 20 feet below the surface, just doing a hang for what we called decompression time at the end of the dive just to allow my body to reacclimate to the pressure. And I looked up, and I could see my colleagues on a Zodiac boat waiting for us, and they were, like, high-fiving and dancing. And, apparently, it was much more dramatic from their viewpoint than from mine. When that piece of ice calved and blocked the doorway, it nearly threw them out of the boat, and they were sitting up there assuming that we were dead.
DAVIES: Right. It had created, like, an 8-foot swell which nearly capsized the boat. They assumed you were dead.
HEINERTH: Yeah, yeah.
DAVIES: So returning to this dive where - that you begin the book with, where you and - was it one other diver or two, in this case?
HEINERTH: Yeah. On that dive, two. Yeah.
DAVIES: OK, two. The - right, the photographer was there from National Geographic.
HEINERTH: Yeah.
DAVIES: You go underneath hundreds of tons of ice above you and then suddenly discover the current is sweeping you away from the opening, and you can't get back. One of the things you could try and do was wait until the current abated, right? But there was time pressure. Why couldn't you just wait it out?
HEINERTH: Well, we were already deep. So we were 130 feet deep, and we're accumulating inert gases in our bodies that will mean that the longer we stay, the longer it's going to take for us to slowly stage our way back to the surface and do our decompression time. Otherwise, we can get bent. And...
DAVIES: That's the bends that divers know about.
HEINERTH: Yeah, the bends.
DAVIES: You want to just take a moment and explain what that is?
HEINERTH: Sure. Decompression sickness is - I guess the closest analogy is a soda pop bottle. You know, when you're down under the water, you're under pressure, much like a soda pop bottle with the cap screwed on tight. So there are gases that get sort of pressed into your tissues. And when you slowly ascend back to the surface, you have to do that in stages in order to slowly relieve that pressure. Otherwise, you're just like that soda pop bottle if somebody shook it up and took the cap off, and that can cause, you know, injuries. It can cause paralysis. It could even cause death.
So every minute that we spend on the bottom, trapped inside an iceberg, we have to account for that time and some to come slowly back to the surface. And when you're in water that's 28 degrees Fahrenheit, you don't have that much time before hypothermia kicks in. So we're struggling for our lives to get out of the iceberg. We're trying to get out quickly so we don't amass too much decompression time. And, you know, we're worried about freezing to death.
DAVIES: Just that? wow.
HEINERTH: Yeah.
DAVIES: So what goes through your head that allows you to focus at a moment like that?
HEINERTH: You know, when something terrible happens, it's really easy for your mind to just explode into these, like, chattering monkeys (laughter), you know? It's like your emotions want to take over. You start to breathe fast. Your heartbeat starts to race. And you have to turn that all off. So I take a really deep breath and try and slow my heart, slow my breathing, and then just focus on pragmatic, small steps.
Like, the big picture of survival is sometimes so hard to see, but we always know what we can do to make the next best step towards survival. So it's really all about controlling emotions and controlling your breathing.
DAVIES: OK, so you and your other two divers are trapped by a current that's really too hard for you to swim against. How do you make it out?
HEINERTH: Well, I dove my hand into the doughy seafloor that was covered with this really, you know, beautiful marine life, filter-feeding organisms that were just like, you know, gobbling up all the nutrients that were being delivered to them into the current. And every time I drove my hand in my - you know, my muscles were shaking just to pull myself forward an inch at a time, an inch at a time.
And when I finally got to the point where I would be able to ascend, there was this terrible current that was just pouring down these cliffs of ice. And I couldn't move upwards. And I noticed something that I had seen on previous dives, these tiny little fish about the size of my thumb. And they were transparent. Like, I could see their insides. And every time the current got strong, they would hide in these little burrows inside the ice walls.
And when I saw that, I thought, ah, OK, it's a handhold. And I ended up jamming my fingers into these holes to try and pull myself up and get some traction. And at this point, my hands were so cold, especially my left hand, it felt dead. But I just slammed it into these holes and pulled myself up until I could get free of the current.
DAVIES: Wow. And every time you went into a hole, a little fish darted out saying, hey...
HEINERTH: Yeah, he...
DAVIES: ...What happened to my home?
(LAUGHTER)
HEINERTH: ...Made the ultimate - yeah, the ultimate sacrifice for me, yeah.
DAVIES: You managed to climb and decompress on the way up, and the three of you got out.
HEINERTH: Yeah, yeah. I remember swimming back to the boat. And when I got to the swim ladder, you know, everybody was hanging over the side of the boat because we were so late. We'd turned a one-hour dive into a three-hour dive. And our chief science officer bent over the rail and said, wow, what happened? And I remember looking up to him and just saying, the cave tried to keep us today.
DAVIES: That was your last dive on the trip, wasn't it?
HEINERTH: It was. We had planned to get back in the water. We felt like we needed a little bit more footage for the film that we were making called "Ice Island." And so we prepped our gear, and we sat down to have a meal. And we set someone on deck to let us know when the current, when the tidal currents, finally slowed down and would give us a chance to do one more dive.
And as we sat there eating our meal, suddenly I heard a scream on deck. And we went running up the companion way and onto the deck to see the very iceberg we had just been inside of cracking and dissolving and breaking up into just slush ice on the surface of the ocean as far as the eye could see. So the cave we had just been inside was now gone.
DAVIES: Had you been there, what would have been your fate?
HEINERTH: Oh, my gosh. If we'd been in there, we would have been killed. There's no doubt.
DAVIES: How dangerous is cave diving?
HEINERTH: Boy, well, some people call it one of the, you know, most dangerous occupations or even recreational activities. I've lost, you know, more than 100 friends and colleagues throughout my career in underwater caves and technical diving.
DAVIES: You know, when I heard the term cave diving, I pictured people going out into the ocean in a boat and then, you know, going over the side and finding caves near the shore or along the ocean floor. But what you do often involves dives that are, you know, miles, sometimes hundreds of miles, from the ocean, to really serious depths inside the earth - a couple hundred feet or more. What kinds of bodies of water are you exploring in these dives?
HEINERTH: Well, underwater caves are really abstract. It's hard for people to grasp that the earth is like a giant sponge. And so far inland, far away from the ocean, I can climb down into a sinkhole and go into a cave passage that's filled with water that branches out like a tree fingering through the planet.
DAVIES: Right, and up and down hills and cliffs - right? - through great elevations.
HEINERTH: Absolutely.
DAVIES: Yeah.
HEINERTH: Yeah, sometimes inside mountains, where you're climbing down in a cave, traveling through a waterfall and then reaching a body of water within the earth.
DAVIES: Right. And when you're down there, does this water have movements, currents?
HEINERTH: Yeah, sometimes the currents are so hard that we can't even make headway against them. It's kind of like trying to walk against a hurricane-strength wind, and you're pulling yourself along the rocks against the flow.
DAVIES: And what's propelling the water?
HEINERTH: Well, water moves through the planet from higher elevations to lower. You know, just like you have a waterfall on the surface, the same thing can happen underground, making the water move with great velocity.
DAVIES: Jill Heinerth's book is "Into The Planet: My Life As A Cave Diver." We'll talk some more after a short break. This is FRESH AIR.
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DAVIES: This is FRESH AIR. And we're speaking with Jill Heinerth. She is a veteran cave diver exploring underground bodies of water. She's also a writer, photographer and filmmaker. Her new memoir about cave diving is called "Into The Planet."
One of the things that you write about is that mud and silt, when you're diving in various underground bodies, can really create a hazard, right? You can't see.
HEINERTH: Oh, sure. Yeah. When you swim into a cave, especially when you're the first person to go into a place that nobody's ever explored, there's silt on not just the floor but on the walls and ceiling. And your very passage through that space and the bubbles that you make from your scuba equipment can knock that silt off the walls, the floors, the ceiling and obscure your visibility so that you can't even see when you're coming out.
DAVIES: You talk about diving in a Florida spring called Devil's Eye, where you go down to a certain depth, and there is an underwater sign featuring an image of the Grim Reaper. What was this doing under the water?
HEINERTH: Well, we put signs in springs, especially at popular locations like the ones in north Florida, to warn untrained scuba divers from going into these environments because when they get into these environments, the doorway can be very alluring. The water may look clear, and the room may look spacious, but when they go in, if they haven't been trained properly, they may kick up the silt and be suddenly blind and unable to find their way out. They could get lost in the mazelike passages.
So there's a lot of things that can go wrong. They also don't have a sense of how much of their gas supply they need to reserve to get out. And so it's very, very dangerous without proper training to go into a cave, and we hope that these signs will scare people off.
DAVIES: So this is difficult and dangerous. What's the appeal of it to you?
HEINERTH: Wow. You know, since I was the smallest child, I always wanted to be an explorer, to have an opportunity to go someplace where nobody has ever been before. And as an artist, with my camera, it's an incredible opportunity to document these places and bring back images to share with others.
DAVIES: Have you seen some pretty strange life forms down there?
HEINERTH: Oh, caves are filled with remarkable life forms that we barely understand. We're barely even beginning to document these new species. There were animals living inside the earth that don't live by photosynthesis. And many of these animals have no eyes, no pigment, but they have remarkable sensory capabilities. And all of these animals with these unique characteristics may be able to teach us an awful lot about evolution, about survival, maybe even about new chemical and drug compounds that are of use to humanity.
DAVIES: Can you expand on that a bit? Are there particular insights that we've gotten from some of what's been discovered in caves?
HEINERTH: Sure. Yeah. The longevity of some of these animals within the cave diving environment is remarkable. I mean, we can look at the blind albino crayfish that can live for 200 years inside a cave, when its closest relative in the river outside only lives two to three years. Now, that crayfish is living in an incredibly food-scarce environment, where he has to conserve energy. So that's kind of an interesting strategy to look at. You know, what's he feeding on and how often and why does that make him live longer?
And then these animals that have been sort of stuck in evolution and haven't evolved in over 65 million years, you know, did they reach some sort of a perfection in the environment? Or does that represent something about the environment that hasn't changed? We don't even know yet. So those animals are really special and interesting. And since we're only beginning to identify them and record them as a new species, there's a lot of work left to do.
DAVIES: What's a remipede?
HEINERTH: A remipede is a cool little animal. It's, you know, less than 2 inches long, kind of a centipedelike, white, blind animal, again. But it has venomous fangs and pincers, and it can attack something 40 times its size, immobilize it and then turn the insides of that prey into jello so that it can suck the life out of it over time. And if this animal was the size of a cat, it would be the deadliest thing on the earth. And it's also been unchanged for over 65 million years, so it's like a living, swimming dinosaur.
DAVIES: Jill Heinerth's memoir, "Into The Planet: My Life As A Cave Diver," is now out in paperback. After a break, we'll hear more about the dangers involved in cave exploration and about how her thinking about fear and risk were shaped by a terrifying experience aboveground. Also, TV critic David Bianculli reviews "The Comedy Store," the new documentary series on Showtime that chronicles the iconic LA comedy club. I'm Dave Davies, and this is FRESH AIR.
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DAVIES: This is FRESH AIR. I'm Dave Davies, in for Terry Gross. We're listening to my interview recorded last year with Jill Heinerth, who belongs to an elite group of divers who explore underground waterways and submerged caves deep beneath the earth's surface. It's an undertaking that requires enormous technical skill and special equipment and comes with serious risks. Her memoir, now out in paperback, is called "Into The Planet: My Life As A Cave Diver."
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DAVIES: When you're diving, you're not just gawking or taking pictures, right? You're surveying unexplored territory. How do you do it?
HEINERTH: We used to use very traditional techniques to survey underwater caves. We would run a spool like a reel of nylon guideline through the system and then meticulously count the distances in between each turn and corner and measure the compass bearings and then draw a traditional map.
But today, we're using some really exciting new technologies that allow us to make three-dimensional maps. So now we're driving scanning systems, like sonar mappers, through cave systems, and they're pinging the walls and allowing us to make 3D models that are more like something that you could drive through with a joystick or experience in a VR or augmented reality set of glasses.
Today, we're were making these incredibly detailed maps down to subcentimeter accuracy in three dimensions. And now we're collaborating with scientists and engineers in making these maps. And they're finally, you know, of interest and use for urban planning and understanding what's beneath the surface of the earth and even understanding what we may find in places beyond our earth. Some of these mapping devices are being tested in caves so that they can go to space.
DAVIES: You know, you describe a lot of pretty harrowing experiences in the book, and you write that some people must think cave divers have a death wish. How do you regard personal danger? What has shaped your thinking about it?
HEINERTH: You know, people usually laugh when I tell them that I'm actually risk averse (laughter). I'm not fearless. I think that it's important to be scared. When you approach anything new - and for me, that's often - I certainly get that fear in the pit of my stomach. But the problem-solving to do something new that's never been done before allows me to plan through all the potential risks. And then when I get in the water, I'm actually sort of free in my mind and totally focused on what's ahead.
But I don't want to go diving with people that are fearless; I want to go diving with people that are scared because, to me, that tells me that they care about the outcome and that they're not going to be foolish if we encounter something underwater.
DAVIES: You grew up in Canada, a suburb of Toronto. And when you were in college, you had a really scary experience with a burglar. Tell us about that.
HEINERTH: Yeah. When I was in college, I had just moved off campus into a house, and I was alone on the very first night in the house. And I heard something downstairs. And I woke up in the middle of the night knowing that somebody else was in the house, and I was the only person with a key. And my heart was racing, and my first reaction was just to pull the covers over my head and hide.
And then I realized that whoever was in the house was now, like, rifling through things downstairs. And I had to let them know that somebody was home. And I got out of bed, and I started stamping around and thinking that, you know, if they heard me that they'd leave. And the person didn't leave. They just kept rifling through the closets and moving things around downstairs. And I didn't want to scream out because I didn't want them to know that I was a female.
And one thing led to another, and as time passed, I heard the steps coming up the stairs towards my bedroom. And I realized that I was going to have to defend myself. I didn't have a phone hooked up. There was no way for me to jump out the window of the second story. I would have landed into a busy street. And so there I was, like, 2 o'clock in the morning just, like, pawing for X-ACTO knives from my drafting table in my bedroom and clenching them into my fists while somebody was coming up the stairs.
And after a wait, he finally, basically - practically ripped the bedroom door off the hinges and came into the room. And I turned on a light and flashed it in his eyes and screamed at him, and he still came after me. And in the end, I lunged and slashed across his chest with one of these art knives for my drafting table. And only at that point did he finally step back and look at me. And he laughed. And he turned around, and he slowly walked down the stairs and out of the house.
And it was only after sort of, you know, getting up and kicking the door open and going through the bathroom and making sure he wasn't in the closet that I ran through the stairs and was down the stairs and was able to run out of the house and get help. And it was terrifying. I was unable to speak when finally the police arrived.
DAVIES: That's a really traumatic experience.
HEINERTH: It was. It was totally traumatic. I was awake for days.
DAVIES: Do you think that connects at all to the way you handle the danger of what you do now?
HEINERTH: Having to confront a burglar in my own home was formative in my life experiences because my first reaction was to hide under the covers. And you can't do that if you're, you know, in a cave trapped. You've got to act. And I think that whole experience taught me not to hide, not to run, but to face danger and to know that I could succeed.
DAVIES: You were proving yourself in a very male-dominated world. What was that like?
HEINERTH: You know, sometimes it's extremely challenging. I've often been the lone woman on an expedition, the lone woman on a boat, the lone woman, you know, trying to get an opportunity in what is normally a predominantly, you know, male environment. And that has its challenges. You know, as a young woman, I considered commercial diving. And I went to a workshop to be a commercial diver and was told, I'm sorry, there's no room for women in commercial diving. You know, if you want to go train dolphins, go do that, I was told. So...
DAVIES: No room - why? - because someone wouldn't respect the authority or expertise of a woman. Or what? I mean...
HEINERTH: Well, this man that told me this seemed convinced that, you know, women weren't strong enough and that, in commercial diving settings, there wasn't an infrastructure that would allow for two genders to share the space on a ship or an oil platform or whatever else. And he just didn't think it was a job for women. I've had to fight that along the way, even, you know, through different levels of becoming a cave diving instructor as well.
DAVIES: What about the men that you, you know, really went through the trenches with, literally - I mean, had a lot of, you know, really intense experiences with? How did the sexism arise among you and these people who you'd really bonded with and should have respected that?
HEINERTH: Well, the men - yeah, the men that I've been through the trenches with are my brothers (laughter). And, you know, none of us on a tightknit expedition, you know, even has time to think about someone as one gender or another; they're just a teammate, and we have to bond. I mean, we're there covering for each other in a life-support sport. And all of us has to enter the water knowing we can take care of ourselves and that we're able and willing to take care of a buddy and bring them out in the worst-case-possible scenario.
DAVIES: Jill Heinerth's book is "Into The Planet: My Life As A Cave Diver." We'll talk some more after a short break. This is FRESH AIR.
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DAVIES: This is FRESH AIR, and we're speaking with Jill Heinerth. She's a veteran cave diver exploring underground bodies of water. She's also a writer, photographer and filmmaker. Her new memoir about cave diving is called "Into The Planet."
You say that you've known a hundred people who have died in cave diving incidents.
HEINERTH: You know, a few years ago, I actually thought, wow, how many people do I know have died? I mean, it was when my husband said to me, wow, I've known more deaths since I've been with you than I knew from my service in the military, that I sat down and I actually made this sort of macabre list of names of my friends and colleagues that have died from cave and technical diving. And it's well over a hundred people, some of whom were my very closest friends.
DAVIES: And the way it often happens is - you're a community, and you know that somebody didn't come back from a dive. So you go to the point where you think they might have embarked, and if their vehicle is still there, you know what happened. But there's still a task to be done, right?
HEINERTH: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, there's been a number of times in my life when I either got the call from the police or from a loved one - you know, so-and-so didn't come home last night. And I know right away when so-and-so didn't come home last night and they're a cave diver and they were diving last night that it's going to be a body recovery.
But still, you know, we go and find the site, and when the car is sitting there alone with, you know, shoes neatly placed at the back of the pickup truck and everything put away nicely and this quiet body of water in the middle of a serene woods, we still know that we've got to gather together the tribe of friends and launch a body recovery.
DAVIES: Right. And this is because this is not something that EMTs or really anybody can handle, except for people with the technical diving experience that you have. So you've got to go bring your friend back.
HEINERTH: Absolutely. Oftentimes, when there's a cave diver that's missing, you know, the local police will be called in or even a local, you know, law enforcement dive team might come in, but it's extremely rare that law-enforcement divers are trained and experienced in cave diving to the degree that community experts are. So we created our own team of people. It's like a phone tree. So if somebody is missing and we realize there's a body recovery to be done, a phone tree starts, and one person calls another until the group can be gathered together to go deal with this task.
DAVIES: How many times have you been in a situation on a dive where you felt there was a good chance you weren't going to make it back?
HEINERTH: Well, there's been a few times (laughter) where I wasn't sure I was going to make it home. There was one dive where I was even dead for, you know, 73 minutes to my friends (laughter) because my diving partner made it out of the cave and sort of sounded the alarm and literally started that phone tree to bring in the recovery divers. And, you know, she said she'd been stuck, and she'd broken the guideline. And I was still inside the cave, and so people were filling tanks and loading their cars with gear and rushing to the scene to try and help.
And meanwhile, I'm still in the cave searching for my diving partner because I didn't want to leave the cave if she was still there. So I had retreated all the way into the maximum penetration in this cave and was slowly working my way out on a methodical search to make sure I wasn't leaving her behind. And I remember the thoughts that were going through my head. You know, oh, my God, two women can't die in a cave; that'll be, like, world news, you know? And I even remember thinking crazy things like, I got to get out of here; my husband doesn't know how to do the taxes (laughter).
DAVIES: Yeah. This was with the marine biologist Ruth (ph), right? This is - you describe it.
HEINERTH: Yeah, yeah.
DAVIES: You know, what struck me about that episode which you describe in the book, that happened in 2011, I mean, long after Antarctica, long after other occasions in which you had skated to the edge of death. And I bring that up because you - I would imagine that with time and experience, you are ever more careful, ever more thoughtful about checking your equipment and making sure that there is a plan and that the communication is clear. And yet, you know, as recently as then, you almost didn't make it. Do you ever think it's time to let this go?
HEINERTH: Well, I don't think it's time to let it go. And, you know, I have cave diving friends that cave dived into their 80s (laughter), if you can believe it.
But you know, from that particular incident, I survived that incident because of wise choices I made before I got in the water. I had a lot of gas. So by the time I got out of that cave, I still had half of my gas supply left, and that had given me time to make an extra 73 minutes of search within that cave. So, yeah, the worst happened, but we both got out alive because we used our training. We went in with the right equipment, and we went in with lots of gas. So it's really scary, but we solved our problems.
I mean, my husband would love it if I just packed it in. He's said to me more than once, you know, how much more do you have to do in this career before we can just retire? You know, what I do scares him. But it is what makes me who I am. And so I'll continue to be vigilant with my training and equipment and currency and try to make the best choices each time I get in the water.
DAVIES: Is there an amazing, awe-inspiring moment from a dive that you would want to share with us - something that's been remarkable?
HEINERTH: Well, you know, I think these caves are like museums of natural history. They're beautiful. Like, in Abaco in the Bahamas are some of my favorite caves because they're so beautifully decorated. They were formed during times of lower sea levels, when there was no water in the cave. So the rain used to soak down through the ground and then drip from the ceiling to the floor. And with each drip, a tiny bit of calcite was deposited.
And so you end up with these crystal chandeliers hanging from the ceiling and then stalagmites rising up from the floor - you know, much like, you know, a pile of dripped candle wax would look like. But these things are crystalline, beautiful galleries that we get to swim through. And I am never tired of being in that environment that we sometimes call frozen rain.
DAVIES: Do you - you go through very extensive safety checks before every dive. Are there any particular rituals that you have, any superstitions that you do before you go in?
HEINERTH: After all of my safety checks and checklists are done, I sit down and I close my eyes and I actually think about what could kill me today. So quite specifically, I work through a list in my head of all the horrible things that could happen, but I envision myself solving each one of those. And sometimes I'm actually, like, moving my hands and reaching for a valve or a button or whatever to solve each of those issues so that when I get in the water, my mind is really free. And then if something horrible happens, I've rehearsed it just a few minutes ago. And I kind of need to do that eyes-closed ritual before every dive.
DAVIES: Jill Heinerth, it's been fascinating. Take care of yourself. And thanks for speaking with us.
HEINERTH: Well, thank you so much.
DAVIES: Jill Heinerth's memoir, "Into The Planet: My Life As A Cave Diver," is now out in paperback. Coming up, TV critic David Bianculli reviews "The Comedy Store," the new documentary series on Showtime which chronicles the influential LA comedy club. This is FRESH AIR.
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npr--2020-10-02--Enough Already: Multiple Demands Causing Women To Abandon Workforce

Enough Already : Multiple Demands Causing Women To Abandon Workforce Here 's a stunning stat : Women are leaving the workforce at four times the rate as men .
The burden of parenting and running a household while also working a job during the pandemic has created a pressure cooker environment in many households , and women are bearing the brunt of it .
It has come to a head as a new school year starts with many children staying home instead of returning to their classrooms in person because of the pandemic .
And its forcing many women to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the workforce altogether .
Just in September , 865,000 women over 20 dropped out of the American workforce compared with 216,000 men in the same age group , the Labor Department reported Friday .
`` It was a really startling difference , '' said University of Michigan economist Betsey Stevenson .
`` The child care crisis is wreaking havoc on women 's employment . ''
Youli Lee is one of those women who hit the breaking point of working from home while caring for her children .
She took a leave of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it impossible to do her normal work from home while her three children — ages 8 , 11 , and 13 — were also at home doing virtual school .
When news came that the kids ' schools in Fairfax County , Va. , would only partially reopen at best , she decided : `` I ca n't keep this up .
This is too much . ''
Stevenson says the burden of home schooling , cooking and cleaning `` is taking its toll on a lot of families .
Even when men @ @ @ @ @ @ @ done in any other generation , it 's still not half . ''
Indeed , the Labor Department finds that married mothers do almost double the amount of household chores and parenting as married fathers .
At the end of 2019 , women held just over half of all payroll jobs , for only the second time in history .
Now , women now account for 49.7 % of the workforce .
`` Women got hit hardest , earliest , '' by layoffs in restaurants , retail , and health care — industries @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and which employ a lot of women , Stevenson notes .

Multiple Demands Causing Women To Abandon Workforce
Enlarge this image toggle caption Tom Werner/DigitalVision/Getty Images Tom Werner/DigitalVision/Getty Images
Here's a stunning stat: Women are leaving the workforce at four times the rate as men.
The burden of parenting and running a household while also working a job during the pandemic has created a pressure cooker environment in many households, and women are bearing the brunt of it.
It has come to a head as a new school year starts with many children staying home instead of returning to their classrooms in person because of the pandemic. And its forcing many women to make a difficult choice and drop out of the workforce altogether.
Just in September, 865,000 women over 20 dropped out of the American workforce compared with 216,000 men in the same age group, the Labor Department reported Friday.
"It was a really startling difference," said University of Michigan economist Betsey Stevenson. "The child care crisis is wreaking havoc on women's employment."
Youli Lee is one of those women who hit the breaking point of working from home while caring for her children. She took a leave of absence from her federal job after finding it impossible to do her normal work from home while her three children — ages 8, 11, and 13 — were also at home doing virtual school.
When news came that the kids' schools in Fairfax County, Va., would only partially reopen at best, she decided: "I can't keep this up. This is too much."
Stevenson says the burden of home schooling, cooking and cleaning "is taking its toll on a lot of families. Even when men are doing more than they've perhaps done in any other generation, it's still not half."
Indeed, the Labor Department finds that married mothers do almost double the amount of household chores and parenting as married fathers.
At the end of 2019, women held just over half of all payroll jobs, for only the second time in history. Now, women now account for 49.7% of the workforce.
"Women got hit hardest, earliest," by layoffs in restaurants, retail, and health care — industries that were hard hit by the pandemic and which employ a lot of women, Stevenson notes.


npr--2020-10-02--After 'Egregious' Violation, Judge Orders Census To Count Through Oct. 31 For Now

After 'Egregious ' Violation , Judge Orders Census To Count Through Oct. 31 For Now A federal judge has issued an order to clarify that , for now , the U.S. Census Bureau must continue counting for the 2020 census through Oct. 31 after finding the bureau made multiple violations of an earlier order that extends the national head count 's schedule .
The latest ruling by U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh — who issued the order late Thursday in California — comes after days of confusion sparked by a one-sentence tweet from the Census Bureau that Koh called `` @ @ @ @ @ @ @ '' of the preliminary injunction order she issued last week .
The bureau released the tweet minutes before the judge began a virtual conference Monday for a lawsuit over the Trump administration 's push to cut the census short .
It said that Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross , who oversees the bureau , had announced Oct. 5 as a `` target date '' for ending all counting efforts .
Internal emails and other documents show that Ross chose that date to deliver the first set of census results , the latest state population @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 31 — even though last week the judge issued an order that prohibits the administration from implementing Dec. 31 as a deadline .
Earlier this week , the 9th U.S .
Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the Trump administration 's request to set aside Koh 's preliminary injunction while it is on appeal .
In her new order , Koh spelled out that last week 's ruling suspended Sept. 30 as the bureau 's revised end date for counting until Trump officials `` cure all the legal defects '' specified in the previous @ @ @ @ @ @ @ required the agency to reinstate Oct. 31 as the end date it had previously announced in response to delays caused by the coronavirus pandemic .
Koh laid out more examples of the Trump administration 's `` chaotic , dilatory , and incomplete compliance , '' including failing to update the Census Bureau 's website after she issued her order last week and sending a text message to the bureau 's workers on Monday that said that door-knocking efforts `` will finish on October 5 . ''
`` Defendants ' dissemination of erroneous information @ @ @ @ @ @ @ plan to the next ; and unlawful sacrifices of completeness and accuracy of the 2020 Census are upending the status quo , violating the Injunction Order , and undermining the credibility of the Census Bureau and the 2020 Census , '' Koh wrote in the new order .
`` This must stop . ''
The judge has now ordered the bureau , which employs hundreds of thousands of workers for the national count , to send a text message to all of its employees on Friday that says that the Oct. 5 date @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the agency will continue its data collection operations through the end of the month .
The bureau 's director , Steven Dillingham , is also required to submit a sworn statement to the court by Monday that `` unequivocally confirms '' the administration is complying with the court 's order .
`` The Court will subject Defendants to sanctions or contempt proceedings if Defendants violate the Injunction Order again , '' Koh warned .
The Census Bureau , Commerce Department and Justice Department did not immediately respond to NPR 's requests for comment @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in the lawsuit , led by the National Urban League , had requested that a text message be sent to notify census workers of the court 's directives .
`` We appreciate the Court 's swift action - we just want the government to follow the Court 's orders , '' said Melissa Sherry , a partner at the law firm Latham & Watkins who has argued in court for the plaintiffs , in a statement .
Kristen Clarke — president and executive director of the Lawyers ' Committee for Civil Rights Under @ @ @ @ @ @ @ represent the lawsuit 's plaintiffs — said that the judge 's latest order will `` support efforts to achieve a full and fair count of the population , particularly in states that continue to face an undercount and are home to significant numbers of Blacks , Latinos and other communities of color . ''
In Congress , Democrats on the House Oversight and Reform Committee have asked the bureau to provide documents and a briefing by career officials on how the announcement of the Oct. 5 date has affected census operations .
`` @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of Congress have been stating : rushing the 2020 Census will result in an inaccurate and incomplete count , '' Rep. Carolyn Maloney , a Democrat from New York who chairs the committee , said in a statement .
`` The Trump Administration should follow this court order and stop politicizing the 2020 Census . ''
The administration is also trying to fend off a separate , Maryland-based lawsuit over its last-minute changes to the census schedule .
Justice Department attorneys have told a three-judge panel hearing that case that the bureau needed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ have enough time to process the results and meet the legal deadline of Dec. 31 for delivering results to the president — despite top career officials at the bureau publicly saying as early as May that the pandemic has made meeting that deadline no longer possible .
Koh called the administration 's announcement that counting would wrap on Oct. 5 a `` blatant contradiction '' of its earlier position , and the judges in Maryland have asked Justice Department attorneys to explain how the bureau would produce an accurate count at this point @

After 'Egregious' Violation, Judge Orders Census To Count Through Oct. 31 For Now
Enlarge this image toggle caption Noam Galai/Getty Images Noam Galai/Getty Images
Updated Saturday at 10:20 a.m. ET
A federal judge has issued an order to clarify that, for now, the U.S. Census Bureau must continue counting for the 2020 census through Oct. 31 after finding the bureau made multiple violations of an earlier order that extends the national head count's schedule.
The latest ruling by U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh — who issued the order late Thursday in California — comes after days of confusion sparked by a one-sentence tweet from the Census Bureau that Koh called "[perhaps] the most egregious violation" of the preliminary injunction order she issued last week.
The bureau released the tweet minutes before the judge began a virtual conference Monday for a lawsuit over the Trump administration's push to cut the census short. It said that Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, who oversees the bureau, had announced Oct. 5 as a "target date" for ending all counting efforts.
Internal emails and other documents show that Ross chose that date to deliver the first set of census results, the latest state population counts, to President Trump by Dec. 31 — even though the judge issued an order last week that prohibits the administration from implementing Dec. 31 as a deadline.
Earlier this week, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the Trump administration's request to set aside Koh's preliminary injunction while it is on appeal. A hearing has been scheduled for this Monday, and the administration has signaled it's prepared to go to the Supreme Court if the appeals court does not rule in its favor.
In her new order, Koh spelled out that last week's ruling suspended Sept. 30 as the bureau's revised end date for counting until Trump officials "cure all the legal defects" specified in the previous order. That, in turn, required the agency to reinstate Oct. 31 as the end date it had previously announced in response to delays caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
Koh laid out more examples of the Trump administration's "chaotic, dilatory, and incomplete compliance," including failing to update the Census Bureau's website after she issued her order last week and sending a text message to the bureau's workers on Monday that said that door-knocking efforts "will finish on October 5."
"Defendants' dissemination of erroneous information; lurching from one hasty, unexplained plan to the next; and unlawful sacrifices of completeness and accuracy of the 2020 Census are upending the status quo, violating the Injunction Order, and undermining the credibility of the Census Bureau and the 2020 Census," Koh wrote in the new order. "This must stop."
The judge ordered the bureau, which employs hundreds of thousands of workers for the national count, to send a text message to all of its employees on Friday that says the Oct. 5 date is "not operative" and that the agency will continue its data collection operations through the end of the month. The bureau's director, Steven Dillingham, is also required to submit a sworn statement to the court by this Monday that "unequivocally confirms" the administration is complying with the court's order.
"The Court will subject Defendants to sanctions or contempt proceedings if Defendants violate the Injunction Order again," Koh warned.
The Commerce and Justice departments did not immediately respond to NPR's requests for comment.
But more than 12 hours after Koh issued the new order, the Census Bureau began texting its workers and issued a statement saying it would update its website "to ensure compliance" with the judge's orders.
Attorneys for the coalition of challengers in the lawsuit, led by the National Urban League, had requested that a text message be sent to notify census workers of the court's directives.
"We appreciate the Court's swift action — we just want the government to follow the Court's orders," said Melissa Arbus Sherry, a partner at the law firm Latham & Watkins who has argued in court for the plaintiffs, in a statement.
Kristen Clarke — president and executive director of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, which is also helping to represent the lawsuit's plaintiffs — said that the judge's latest order will "support efforts to achieve a full and fair count of the population, particularly in states that continue to face an undercount and are home to significant numbers of Blacks, Latinos and other communities of color."
In Congress, Democrats on the House Oversight and Reform Committee have asked the bureau to provide documents and a briefing by career officials on how the announcement of the Oct. 5 date has affected census operations.
"Today's order reaffirms what bipartisan members of Congress have been stating: rushing the 2020 Census will result in an inaccurate and incomplete count," Rep. Carolyn Maloney, a Democrat from New York who chairs the committee, said in a statement. "The Trump Administration should follow this court order and stop politicizing the 2020 Census."
The administration is also trying to fend off a separate, Maryland-based lawsuit over its last-minute changes to the census schedule. Justice Department attorneys have told a three-judge panel hearing that case that the bureau needed to end counting on Sept. 30 to have enough time to process the results and meet the legal deadline of Dec. 31 for delivering results to the president — despite top career officials at the bureau publicly saying as early as May that the pandemic has made meeting that deadline no longer possible.
Koh called the administration's announcement that counting would wrap on Oct. 5 a "blatant contradiction" of its earlier position, and the judges in Maryland have asked Justice Department attorneys to explain how the bureau would produce an accurate count at this point.


npr--2020-10-02--Reaction To Trump's Infection: Sympathy In South Korea, Some Schadenfreude In China

Reaction To Trump 's Infection : Sympathy In South Korea , Some Schadenfreude In China South Korean President Moon Jae-in sent a message to President Trump on Friday , wishing him and first lady Melania Trump a `` swift recovery '' after they tested positive for the coronavirus .
`` We 'd also like to send special words of solace and encouragement to your family and U.S. citizens , '' Moon wrote .
Among South Korea 's neighbors , there was little other immediate official reaction to the news that President Trump tested positive for coronavirus , which causes COVID-19 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Reuters that China — which Trump has blamed as the source of the global pandemic — hopes Trump and his wife will soon recover .
Chinese social media users mocked Trump , but the news was reported without commentary by state-run media .
U.S. allies such as South Korea and Japan are under mounting pressure from Washington to join the U.S. in confronting Beijing .
South Korea 's Yonhap News Agency quoted an anonymous government source saying Seoul is monitoring financial markets for signs of instability caused by Trump 's illness .
Markets @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Korea and China .
Japan 's Nikkei index dipped on news of Trump 's infection and ended the day down 0.67 % .
In Japan , chief government spokesman Katsunobu Kato declined to comment on Trump 's infection but noted he had heard of no changes to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo 's plans to visit Japan , South Korea and Mongolia next week .
Pompeo is scheduled to attend a meeting of foreign ministers in Tokyo for the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue , known as the `` Quad , '' an informal security @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , India and Australia .
The Quad is widely seen in China as an anti-China cabal .
Trump continued to blame China for the pandemic this week , including during his gladiatorial debate with Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden on Tuesday .
`` It 's China 's fault , '' he said .
`` It should have never happened . ''
In the hours after the news broke about Trump 's infection , it was the most searched topic on Weibo , China 's biggest microblogging platform .
Compilations of jokes and posts @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , a popular messaging platform .
One read : `` Trump : ' I will soon conquer the coronavirus ! '
American people : 'Yes , but what are we supposed to do ? '
Trump : 'The coronavirus can be effectively treated by injecting yourself with disinfectant . '
American people : 'Time for you to try that , Mr .
President . '
`` There was no official Chinese response , as the country is observing an eight-day national holiday .
One of the few public voices commenting on Trump 's @ @ @ @ @ @ @ editor of the jingoistic Global Times tabloid .
`` President Trump and the first lady have paid the price for his gamble to play down the COVID-19 , '' Hu said in a post on Twitter , which was later deleted .
Twitter is blocked in China but used by the government and state-run media to reach foreign audiences .
Beijing has said it does not fear confrontation with the U.S. but prefers to keep the relationship on an even keel .
`` We believe that a sound and stable China-U.S. relationship is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and it is needed for achieving the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation , '' Chinese Ambassador to the U.S. Cui Tiankai tweeted Thursday evening , before the news of Trump 's positive test broke .
The Trump administration has claimed that China is the most active among nations trying to interfere in upcoming presidential elections .
But a Department of Homeland Security official cast doubt on that narrative last month , when he filed a whistleblower complaint , saying he was told to highlight the threat of Chinese and Iranian interference , while @ @ @ @

Reaction To Trump's Infection: Sympathy In South Korea, Some Schadenfreude In China
Enlarge this image toggle caption Lee Jin-man/AP Lee Jin-man/AP
South Korean President Moon Jae-in sent a message to President Trump on Friday, wishing him and first lady Melania Trump a "swift recovery" after they tested positive for the coronavirus. "We'd also like to send special words of solace and encouragement to your family and U.S. citizens," Moon wrote.
Among South Korea's neighbors, there was little other immediate official reaction to the news that President Trump tested positive for coronavirus, which causes COVID-19.
A Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson told Reuters that China — which Trump has blamed as the source of the global pandemic — hopes Trump and his wife will soon recover. Chinese social media users mocked Trump, but the news was reported without commentary by state-run media. U.S. allies such as South Korea and Japan are under mounting pressure from Washington to join the U.S. in confronting Beijing.
South Korea's Yonhap News Agency quoted an anonymous government source saying Seoul is monitoring financial markets for signs of instability caused by Trump's illness.
Markets were closed for holidays in both South Korea and China. Japan's Nikkei index dipped on news of Trump's infection and ended the day down 0.67%.
In Japan, chief government spokesman Katsunobu Kato declined to comment on Trump's infection but noted he had heard of no changes to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's plans to visit Japan, South Korea and Mongolia next week.
Pompeo is scheduled to attend a meeting of foreign ministers in Tokyo for the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, known as the "Quad," an informal security grouping that includes the U.S., Japan, India and Australia. The Quad is widely seen in China as an anti-China cabal.
Trump continued to blame China for the pandemic this week, including during his gladiatorial debate with Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden on Tuesday. "It's China's fault," he said. "It should have never happened."
In the hours after the news broke about Trump's infection, it was the most searched topic on Weibo, China's biggest microblogging platform. Compilations of jokes and posts mocking Trump made the rounds on WeChat, a popular messaging platform. One read: "Trump: 'I will soon conquer the coronavirus!' American people: 'Yes, but what are we supposed to do?' " Another one said: Trump: 'The coronavirus can be effectively treated by injecting yourself with disinfectant.' American people: 'It's your turn to try that, Mr. President.' "
There was no official Chinese response, as the country is observing an eight-day national holiday. One of the few public voices commenting on Trump's infection was that of Hu Xijin, editor of the jingoistic Global Times tabloid. "President Trump and the first lady have paid the price for his gamble to play down the COVID-19," Hu said in a post on Twitter, which was later deleted. Twitter is blocked in China but used by the government and state-run media to reach foreign audiences.
Beijing has said it does not fear confrontation with the U.S. but prefers to keep the relationship on an even keel. "We believe that a sound and stable China-U.S. relationship is in the interest of both countries, and it is needed for achieving the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation," Chinese Ambassador to the U.S. Cui Tiankai tweeted Thursday evening, before the news of Trump's positive test broke.
The Trump administration has claimed that China is the most active among nations trying to interfere in upcoming presidential elections. But a Department of Homeland Security official cast doubt on that narrative last month, when he filed a whistleblower complaint, saying he was told to highlight the threat of Chinese and Iranian interference, while downplaying Russian meddling.


npr--2020-10-03--Coronavirus World Map: Tracking The Spread Of The Outbreak

Coronavirus World Map : Tracking The Spread Of The Outbreak On Sept. 28 , the world marked a tragic milestone : 1 million deaths from COVID-19 .
That 's according to a tally maintained by Johns Hopkins University .
And public health experts believe the actual toll – the recorded deaths plus the unrecorded deaths – is much higher .
While the number of cases has slowed in many countries that were hit hard early on by coronavirus , the number of new cases continues to increase .
Since early July , new daily cases averaged over 200,000 worldwide .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ country-by-country breakdown of new and total cases since January .
At over 6 million cases , the United States leads the world 's COVID-19 crisis .
In late spring and early summer , new COVID-19 cases were largely driven by cases in the Americas .
While the U.S. has consistently had the most new daily cases of coronavirus in the region , Brazil 's new daily cases increased rapidly between May and August .
However , in September , several countries that had previously flattened their curve saw a resurgence in cases , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , daily case counts have risen swiftly since June , without signs of slowing down .
Explore how the number of coronavirus cases have shifted in different parts of the world over time .
The first chart compares each continent to each other , while the next charts highlight the number of cases in select countries by region .
To compare country outbreaks , the chart below graphs trend lines for average new daily cases and deaths against each country 's totals to date .
This type of visualization highlights a state 's @ @ @ @ @ @ @ overall size of its outbreak .
When both new and total case and death counts grow quickly , the curves bend upward .
As new cases and deaths slow , the curves level or bend down .
In countries like Israel , which is seeing a second wave of case growth after an initial wave in April , the line forms a V-shape , as the initially bent curve spikes upwards again .
Click here to see the state-by-state breakdown of cases in the United States .
This story was originally published on @ @ @ @ @

Coronavirus world map: We've now passed the 600 million mark for infections
Editor's note: This page is no longer being updated. The last update was Sept. 5, 2022. For current data about COVID-19 cases and deaths around the world, Johns Hopkins University and Our World in Data are useful resources.
In late January 2020 only a few dozen COVID-19 infections had been identified outside of China. A year later, the world tallied its first 100 million cases. It took the globe just 7 more months to pass the 200 million mark— then another 5 months to hit 300 million, according to researchers at Johns Hopkins University. Now the virus has spread to every corner of the globe and has been blamed for more than 6 million deaths.
The United States, India and Brazil in that order have had the most COVID cases and the three nations collectively account for almost half of all recorded infections so far in the pandemic.
Explore the chart below to find a country-by-country breakdown of new and total cases since January 2020.
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Explore how the number of coronavirus cases have shifted in different parts of the world over time. The first chart compares each continent to each other, while the next charts highlight the number of cases in select countries by region.
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This story was originally published on March 30, 2020.