Author: Susan Moran

Replaceable You: The Science of Growing Body Parts

The Quest to Replace Human Body Parts (start time: 3:06) In this week’s pledge-drive show, science writer Mary Roach discusses her latest book, Replaceable You: Adventures in Human Anatomy, which was recently released in paperback (W.W. Norton & Co.). Roach is a New York Times bestselling author of Stiff,  Fuzz, Bonk, and several more books. In Replaceable You, she explores the centuries-old audacious quest to replace and improve human body parts
—sculpting noses from brass, to borrowing skin from frogs and hearts from pigs, to ongoing efforts to grow body parts from scratch using stem cells and 3D printers.

Hosts: Susan Moran, Joel Parker
Show and Executive Producer: Beth Bennett
Engineer: Joel Parker

Listen to the show here:

Play

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 27:59 — 38.4MB)

Subscribe: RSS

Youth+Adult Climate Engagement

From Climate Week to Societal Climate Engagement (start time: 1:22) Last week tens of thousands of people from environmental nonprofit organizations, private companies, academia and other sectors came together in New York City for Climate Week NYC, which coincided with the United Nations General Assembly and the UN  Climate Summit. While climate activists, communicators and others discussed political and economic challenges and opportunities related to transitioning society to clean energy, world leaders at the UNGA displayed in their speeches a widening chasm between nations’ world views. On one end of the spectrum, President Trump rejected warnings of global warming, and on the other end Brazilian president (“Lula”) da Silva urged nations to protect forests and decarbonize economies. In these hyperpolarized times, it seems at once impossible and essential to talk across political divides, and to connect the dots between a healthy climate, a healthy economy, and a healthy human species. In today’s How On Earth, host Susan Moran interviews Dr. Maxwell Boykoff, a professor of environmental studies at the University of Colorado Boulder , Faculty Executive Director of the SPIKE Center for Sustainability Education, and author of the book Creative (Climate) Communications;  and Sofia Billich, a junior at CU Boulder and Co-President of the CU Boulder chapter of the Citizens Climate Lobby, a national nonprofit, nonpartisan organization devoted to promoting climate solutions in Congress.

Host/producer: Susan Moran
Engineer: Abby O’Brien
Executive Producer: Beth Bennett

Listen to the show here:

Play

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 28:11 — 38.7MB)

Subscribe: RSS

How Megafires are Transforming Conifer Forests

Red Feather Lakes landscape 6 years after Cameron Peaks fire. Photo credit: Susan Moran

Forests Vanishing in Wake of Megafires (start time: 7:55) Increasingly  large and hot wildfires are turning many conifer-dominated forests in the western U.S.and Canada into shrublands or grasslands, largely by making it impossible for ponderosa and other pines to reseed themselves. The stakes are high, for flora and wildlife, as well as humans. For instance, charred conifer forests are causing winter snowpack to melt earlier, changing the timing of water availability and threatening future water supply for the 40-plus million people who live in the Colorado River Basin states and on tribal lands. In this week’s How On Earth, host Susan Moran interviews  Dr. Jonathan Coop, a fire ecologist at Western Colorado University. He’s been monitoring shifts in dry-conifer forests in the western U.S. and Canada for many years. Dr. Coop is the lead author of a study, published recently in the journal Science Advances, about how pine seeds aren’t able to regenerate after super intense wildfires. He also co-authored another recent study, in PNAS, which projects a major further erosion of remaining conifer forests in northern New Mexico if current wildfire patterns persist. Dr. Coop was featured in a recent New York Times article on wildfire trends and impacts.
Action Resource: Fix Our Forests Act

Hosts: Susan Moran, Joel Parker
Show Producer: Susan Moran
Engineer: Joel Parker
Headline Contributors: Beth Bennett, Joel Parker
Executive Producer: Beth Bennett

Listen to the show here:

Play

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 26:42 — 36.7MB)

Subscribe: RSS

Moving Beyond Climate “Hushing”

AI-generated image

Climate “hushing” (start time: 5:41) Since President Trump began his second term as president in January, 2025, his administration, at a dizzying pace, has attacked climate change as a Democratic elite “hoax” and gutted federal funding for climate-related research and institutions. Partly in response to these attacks, and in an attempt to appeal to more centrist voters ahead of the midterm elections, many left-leaning politicians have decided to stop talking directly about climate change, and to pull back on initiatives to combat global warming. This pattern is known as “climate hushing.” Some argue that it doesn’t mean these leaders care any less about climate change, and that it’s a necessary strategy to reach more centrist voters. But critics  argue that climate hushing is more insidious and, in effect, it is spurring a vicious cycle: The less leaders talk about climate change, the less the public thinks it’s important and feels inspired to take action. In this week’s How On Earth, host Susan Moran interviews journalist Sammy Roth, who recently wrote an article about climate “hushing” on his Climate Colored Goggles Substack; and Dr. Leah Sprain, an associate professor of Communications at the University of Colorado Boulder, who studies democratic engagement.

Host/Producer: Susan Moran
Engineer: Abby O’Brien
Executive Producer: Beth Bennett
Headline Contributor: Beth Bennett

Listen to the show here:

Play

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 26:51 — 36.9MB)

Subscribe: RSS

Plastics: Health Risks & Solutions

Image credit: Monterey Bay Aquarium

Microplastics: Health Concerns, Solutions (start time: 6:02)  The Environmental Protection Agency recently issued a new rule related to monitoring 30 unregulated chemicals in drinking water that could pose human health risks. While the list includes pesticides and so-called “forever” substances, it omits microplastics, as well as pharmaceuticals. That’s despite pressure from Democratic politicians, as well as advocacy groups over the last two years urging the EPA to include microplastics in the new rule due to human health concerns. This apparent about-face by the EPA, as well as the fact that this week is Plastics Pollution Awareness Week in Colorado, prompted us at How On Earth to summon experts to shed some light on what is known about the human health risks of exposure to microplastics, as well as what’s being done here in Colorado and nationwide to reduce plastic production and waste. Host Susan Moran interviews Dr. Trisha Vaidyanathan, science director at Beyond Plastics; Ryan Call, policy analyst at EcoCycle; and Emily Freeman, circular economy policy advisor at the City of Boulder. For info about how to join the Boulder Plastic Count (July 20-26), click here.

Hosts: Susan Moran, Joel Parker
Show Producer: Susan Moran
Engineer: Joel Parker
Executive Producer & Headline Contributor: Beth Bennett

Listen to the show here:

Play

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 27:00 — 37.1MB)

Subscribe: RSS

Childrearing Tips (and Cautionary Tales) From the Animal Kingdom

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

Listen to the show here:

Play

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 26:51 — 36.9MB)

Subscribe: RSS

Hidden Nations of Animals

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

Listen to the show here:

Play

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 26:48 — 36.8MB)

Subscribe: RSS

Climate Change: Perils and Progress

Tromso, Norway
Photo credit: Tom Yulsman

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

Listen to the show here:

Play

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 26:11 — 36.0MB)

Subscribe: RSS

Women’s Health Pt. III: Menopause & the Brain

Estrogen on the brain
Credit: Mosconi Lab

The Brain on Menopause (start time: 01:24) In this week’s show, we offer the finale of our three-part series on menopause and women’s health. We focus on a most precious organ: the brain. And we discuss how  hormones such as estrogen and cortisol affect brain health; on how experiencing stress during childhood can intensify perimenopause symptoms; and on what women can do to reduce risks as well as to take part in research. How On Earth’s Susan Moran and contributing host Meghan Rabbitt interview Dr. Christina Metcalf, a clinical psychologist and researcher at the CU Anschutz Department of Psychiatry Colorado Center for Women’s Behavioral Health and Wellness.  Journalist Meghan Rabbitt wrote the recently published book The New Rules of Women’s Health: A Guide to Thriving at Every Age.
Information on how you can participate in CU Anschutz research studies:
* “Find a Research Study” tool lets people filter by category, 3 menopause-related studies currently recruiting.
*RAHH Lab (Resilience and Adaptation in Hormones and Health Lab)
-New menopause research study focusing on estradiol and the brain, called CEREBRA, starting in April 2026. Email cerebra-study@cuanschutz.edu.
    – Menopause stress reduction study (MENORISE, starting in September 2026. Email christina.metcalf@cuanschutz.edu.

Hosts:  Susan Moran, Meghan Rabbitt
Show Producer: Susan Moran
Engineer: Joel Parker
Executive Producer: Susan Moran
Listen to the show here:

Play

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 25:56 — 35.6MB)

Subscribe: RSS

Conserving Imperiled Prairie Dogs, Raptors & Their Grasslands

White-tailed Prairie Dogs Credit: Rich Reading

Preserving prairie dog+raptor ecosystem (start time: 5:03)  Spring has just begun, even if winter hardly visited Colorado. On the plains, prairie dog colonies seem to be in full swing.  However, populations of these keystone species have plummeted, as the grasslands they and raptor predators rely on are being fragmented by urban development, as well as oil and gas, and to some degree solar and wind, development. In this week’s show we discuss the imperiled prairie ecosystem and efforts to further conserve them, with Dr. Rich Reading, vice president of science and conservation at the Butterfly Pavilion; and Dana Bove, founder of the nonprofit Front Range Nesting Bald Eagle Studies. Click here for information about and to register for their and colleagues’ upcoming Science and Conservation Symposium (March 31 and April 14) in Denver.

Hosts: Susan Moran, Joel Parker
Show Producer: Susan Moran
Engineer: Joel Parker
Executive Producer: Beth Bennett

Listen to the show here:

Play

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 27:17 — 37.5MB)

Subscribe: RSS