The KGNU Science Show
If you listened to Beth’s chat with author Katy Bowman about her book (Your Perfect Movement Plan) – complete with some audience questions – and want to hear more, here is the full hour plus session. (Actual conversation starts about 2 minutes into the file.)
Listen now:
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 52:31 — 70.3MB)
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Tackling Plastic Pollution (start time: 3:50) In this week’s show, host Susan Moran interviews science journalists Fionna Samuels, an assistant editor at Chemical & Engineering News, a publication of the American Chemical Society; and Priyanka Runwal, an associate editor at C&EN. Along with other colleagues, they wrote cover articles in the November 28th issue of C&EN on the sources and impacts of plastic pollution. Indeed, plastics, mostly made from fossil fuels, are wreaking havoc on our environment and potentially our bodies. Although it’s still unclear precisely how much our bodies are accumulating tiny plastic particles, and to what effect, scientists are warning that nanoplastics could be altering our brains, our reproductive system, and our metabolism. Recently, representatives from many nations, including the United States, met to reach a first-of-its-kind United Nations global treaty to tackle plastic pollution. They failed. But outside the realm of treaties, a lot is being done, and far more can be done, to reduce the production, use, and waste of plastic.
Show Host/Producer: Susan Moran
Cohost/Engineer: Joel Parker
Executive Producer: Shelley Schlender
Listen to the show here:
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 26:42 — 36.7MB)
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Field Report (starts 1:00) We join Boulder naturalists Steve Jones and Ruth Carol Cushman on a Christmas Bird Count as Boulder’s winter water saunas.
Xmas Bird Count’s Bill Schmoker (starts 4:28) Boulder’s Annual Xmas Bird Count is Sunday December 15th. Bill Schmoker is the organizer of this Count, which is one of the longest-running and largest in the nation. He explains how it’s done, and why it’s important to the science of bird ecology.
Host: Benita Lee
Show Producers: Elena Klaver/Shelley Schlender
Additional Contributions: Ruth Carol Cushman, Steve Jones
Executive Producer: Shelley Schlender
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 26:58 — 37.1MB)
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Cocoa Flavonoids (starts 1:00) Could a cozy cup of cocoa help with holiday stress? Nutrition Scientist Catarina Rendeiro explains how chocolate can provide anti-inflammatory flavanoids, but MOST do not. And there’s a way to tell.
Science of Happiness (starts 10:33) CU Boulder Neuro-psychologist June Gruber explains the Science of Happiness, her Positive Emotion and Psychopathology Lab, how keeping a gratitude journal can benefit health . . . and plans for Thanksgiving. Gruber’s class on the Science of Happiness gets rave reviews.
Executive Producer: Shelley Schlender
Show Producers: Joel Parker/Shelley Schlender
Additional Contributions: Beth Bennett
Engineer: Jackie Sedley
Listen to the show here:
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 26:58 — 37.1MB)
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Executive Producer: Shelley Schlender
Show Producer: Beth Bennett
Additional Contributions: Shelley Schlender
Engineer: Jackie Sedler
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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 24:11 — 20.5MB)
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Today’s show features NASA’s Europa Clipper mission, which launched on October 14th, 2024 on a Falcon Heavy rocket, setting the spacecraft on its 10-year journey to explore Jupiter’s moon Europa. Europa Clipper carries nine instruments to study this ocean world covered by an ice shell to determine if there are places in the watery depths below the surface that could support life. The mission’s goals are to study ice shell, the sub-surface ocean, and the moon’s composition and geology. Our guest is Dr. Bonnie Buratti, a Senior Research Scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and Deputy Project Scientist for the Europa Clipper mission.
Executive Producer: Shelley Schlender
Show Producer & Engineer: Joel Parker
Listen to the Show:
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 27:00 — 37.1MB)
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COP16: Hope & Hurdles (start time: 1:20) On this week’s show, host Susan Moran interviews two conservation biologists at Colorado State University — Chris Funk and Liba Pejchar. They both recently attended the United Nations Biodiversity Conference, or COP16, which is still underway in Cali, Colombia, and they share their experiences, perspectives, and optimism from the global gathering. Nearly 200 nations are attending the summit to negotiate targets aimed at slowing the alarming decline in plant and animal species and critical habitats around the world. The outcomes of the talks could determine the roadmap for the future of the planet (despite the fact that the United States has not been a signatory to the global biodiversity treaty). The stakes are high: Biodiversity is shrinking globally faster than at any time in history, with around 1 million plant and animal species currently threatened with extinction, according to an intergovernmental panel of scientists. Two years ago, the biodiversity conference, which convenes every two years, met in Montreal and hashed out a landmark agreement. Among the 23 measures in the accord is a commitment to place 30 percent of the planet, and 30 percent of degraded ecosystems, under protection by 2030. Some progress has been made, yet so far no nations have met their targets, and COP has no enforcement mechanism.
Hosts: Susan Moran, Joel Parker
Show Producer: Susan Moran
Engineer: Joel Parker
Executive Producer: Shelley Schlender
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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 27:25 — 37.7MB)
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Wild, local mushrooms can break down deadwood into healthy soil, and they can do this surprisingly fast. Used correctly, fungi are an emerging way to reduce the forest tinder that makes mega-wildfires more likely. But there’s a wrong way and a right way to use mushrooms for mitigation Our experts today will talk about the ways that are safe for the environment, and the results.
Our experts today are Jeff Ravage of the Coldfire Project and Zach Hedstrom of Boulder Mushroom . They describe efforts underway to use mushrooms to break down deadwood into soil — to reduce forest tinder and also for sequestering carbon in soil.
Host/Show Producer: Shelley Schlender
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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 26:11 — 30.0MB)
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CU Boulder Nobel Prize Winner Tom Cech discusses his new book, The Catalyst, RNA and the Quest to Unlock Life’s Deepest Secrets
Tom Cech is our featured interview for the KGNU Fall Membership Drive. Thank you to listeners who are contributing funds to help our volunteer powered, noncommercial, community radio station. If you like what you hear and want to aid our efforts, please donate securely on line at KGNU.org.
If you would like to join our team of volunteers who report for the science show and make it happen, please contact us via: contact [no spam] howonearthradio.org
Just put the @ where it belongs.
Hosts: Shelley Schlender, Susan Moran
Show Producer: Shelley Schlender
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 27:46 — 38.1MB)
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Beliefs, Perceptions, Decision-making (start time: 4:37) For many people if feels like our society, and our beliefs, have never been as polarized as they are now. Indeed, we are living in a politically polarized society. But it’s not as unique, or as extreme, as many think. In this week’s show we look behind the curtain of our beliefs and behaviors, and we discuss how emotions, far more than reason, determine our decision-making, including how we vote.
How On Earth host Susan Moran interviews Leaf Van Boven, a psychology professor at CU Boulder; and Drew Westen, a professor of psychology and psychiatry at Emory University, in Atlanta, Georgia, who is the author of The Political Brain: The Role of Emotion in Deciding the Fate of the Nation.
Hosts: Susan Moran, Joel Parker
Show Producer: Susan Moran
Engineer: Joel Parker
Executive Producer: Susan Moran
Listen to the show here:
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 26:39 — 36.6MB)
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