The KGNU Science Show
Poking the Squid – Good Reads calls author and illustrator Perrin Roosevelt Ireland’s new book a brilliantly funny, beautifully illustrated graphic nonfiction book that shatters our puritanical and binary notions of nature..
Hosts/Producers/Engineers: Shelley Schlender, Joel Parker
Executive Producer: Beth Bennett
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 27:07 — 37.3MB)
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Parenting Across the Animal Kingdom (start time: 5:02) As humans, we tend to think that we raise our children with more care than any other animal on the planet. After all, human kids depend on their parents on average for much longer than do those of any other species. But are we really so unique in how we care? How do other animals out there care for their young? What are the evolutionary benefits of “it takes a village” childrearing, with grandparents, aunts and uncles, and others playing a big role, as compared to the nuclear family-type model: mom and dad, or a single mom or dad? And are there evolutionary benefits of “tough love” and extreme free-range parenting? Science journalist and humorist Elizabeth Preston starting asking such questions after giving birth to her first child nine years ago. She found answers (through scientists and their research, and quirky encounters) in the lives of beetles, killer whales, Canada jays, elephants, poison frogs, and many more animals. In this week’s show, How On Earth host Susan Moran interviews Preston about her new book, The Creatures’ Guide to Caring: How Animal Parents Teach Us That Humans Were Born to Care.
Hosts: Susan Moran, Joel Parker
Show Producer/Executive Producer: Susan Moran
Engineer: Joel Parker
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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 26:51 — 36.9MB)
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Global conflicts are revealing vulnerabilities in the global reliance on imported fossil fuels and centralized power. Energy Analyst Kyle Datta says energy security needs may speed the adoption of renewables and “as a side effect,” reduce the rise of global warming.
For Datta’s full speech, which he presented with videos at the 2026 Gold Lab Symposium, go here.
Host/Show Producer: Shelley Schlender
Executive Producer: Susan Moran
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 26:55 — 37.0MB)
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Complex Animal Networks (start time: 7:17) As humans, we’re all familiar with, as we live in and are members of, nations. But most of us don’t think of non-human species, be they tiny ants or beavers or bears, in this context. But Ryan Huling does, and he hopes you will, too. In this week’s How On Earth, host Susan Moran interviews Ryan Huling about his just-published debut book, The Hidden Nations of Animals: A Grand Tour of Earth’s Wild Civilizations. The book is part travel and nature writing, part cartography, part exploration of sophisticated communication and movement patterns among wild animal populations in the far corners of the Earth, and under our feet. Some of the central characters in the book, such as red-crowned cranes, are thriving in places that are too dangerous for humans to live. Huling is a senior writer at the Good Food Institute Asia Pacific.
Hosts: Susan Moran, Joel Parker
Show Producer: Susan Moran
Engineer: Joel Parker
Executive Producer: Susan Moran
Headline contributors: Joel Parker, Shelley Schlender, Susan Moran
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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 26:48 — 36.8MB)
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Climate Change & Action: From the Arctic to Colorado (start time: 2:33) Twenty years ago the Academy-winning documentary An Inconvenient Truth was released in theaters nationwide. It sparked millions of people to ask themselves, How can I wake up and do something to help solve, not just contribute to, the climate crisis? The film helped form the modern climate movement, following the environmental movement of the 1970s. Two decades later, despite a rise in public awareness of and concern about the impacts of melting sea ice, and intensifying droughts, wildfires and hurricanes, the Trump administration has met the moment by calling global warming a hoax, rolling back environmental regulations, defunding climate science research, and demanding more oil, gas and coal production. Meanwhile, many Americans, besieged by soaring costs of gasoline and other commodities, and struggling to pay rent or mortgage, are more immediately concerned about the economy and other issues than climate change per se. Yet despite shrinking federal support for renewable energy energy, the green electricity revolution is happening in many states and around the world. In this week’s show, KGNU host Susan Moran interviews Mark Serreze, director of the National Snow and Ice Data Center; and science journalist Tom Yulsman, who until recently was the director of the Center for Environmental Journalism at the University of Colorado Boulder, where he was also a journalism professor.
Host & Show Producer: Susan Moran
Engineer: Abby O’Brien
Executive Producer: Susan Moran
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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 26:11 — 36.0MB)
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Protest It, Respect It, Defend It, Use It (starts 1:00) Friday at Denver Patagonia and Saturday at Boulder Patagonia environmental activists Annie Leonard and André Carothers discuss their new book
Silent Sky (starts 2:00) Viva Theater celebrates the unsung heroism of female astronomer Henrietta Leavitt. Silent Sky runs April 22 – June 7th at Boulder’s Dairy Arts Center
Gold Lab Symposium (starts 6:26) Thursday and Friday, this all day health and science symposium shares dialogues with Nobel Prize Winners, Indigenous Knowledge Holders, Computational Scientists and more, at CU-Boulder’s Jennie Smoly Caruthers Biotechnology Building Register On Line. for live sessions or remote.
Executive Producer: Susan Moran
Show Producer: Shelley Schlender
Engineer: Abby O’Brien
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 26:50 — 36.9MB)
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On this week’s How on Earth, Beth speaks with author, psychologist, and aging explorer Alan Carpenter to discuss the paradigm shift on aging he espouses. Following a life changing accident, he turned his life around by diving into the science of healthy aging. In his book, Choose Better, Live Better, he outlines 9 avenues one can address for extending health span i.e. the portion of one’s life spent in good health with the ability to live and function independently.
Executive Producer: Susan Moran
Show Producer: Beth Bennett
Additional Contribution: Shelley Schlender
Engineer: Abby O’Brien
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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 26:54 — 21.2MB)
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The Loneliness Epidemic – Social media fuels extra risk. Especially vulnerable are people undergoing transitions . . . such as college students, who today share what can lead loneliness and how to heal from it. CU-Boulder senior Lorraine Healey also talks with Colorado State University “Friendship Researcher” Natalie Pennington about why times of transition can trigger loneliness but also be important times for growth.
Hosts: Mac Hebebrand, Benita Lee and Lorraine Healey
Show Producers: Lorraine Healey and Shelley Schlender
Executive Producer: Susan Moran
Additional Music by Lynn Patrick
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 26:55 — 37.0MB)
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On this week’s How on Earth, Beth speaks with Suzanne Simard, professor and researcher at the University of British Columbia, about her book, WHEN THE FOREST BREATHES, both a call to action, and a journey into the heart of British Columbia’s old growth forests and the indigenous communities that live there, and her efforts to unite them to ensure the health of these vital ecosystems.Also: an allergist’s take on why this year’s seasonal allergies are worse than normal.
Executive Producer: Susan Moran
Show Producer: Beth Bennett
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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 27:43 — 21.8MB)
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Buy Now Pay Later – is this lending service simply enticing, or is it addictive? For the GenZ 20 somethings that are its biggest users, is Buy Now Pay Later a danger or a deal? CU Boulder student and Howonearth volunteer Juliana Krigsman speaks with students about this, plus Adam Brown – director of New Schools Center for Global Mental Health, Renee Shannon Hickey – Mindful Creation Counseling in Colorado, and Harvard Business Economics Researcher Justin Katz.
Hosts: Joel Parker
Show Producers: Juliana Krigsman and Shelley Schlender
Executive Producer: Susan Moran
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 26:58 — 37.1MB)
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