Category: Episodes

Defy Aging // Green Recycling // Corona (not virus) News

Corona (Not Virus) News (starts 1:00)  Astrophysicist Joel Parker explains the probe that touched the sun’s corona.

Green Recycling from Discarded Electronics (starts 3:59) Benita Lee talks with Penn State Scientist Amir Sheikhi about recycling neodymium.

Defy Aging:  A Beginner’s Guide to the New Science of Longer Life and Better Health.  (starts 9:28)  Science Show volunteer, Geneticist and Defy Aging  author Beth Bennett, explains how to promote longevity and  healthspan. 

Host/Contributors: Jill Sjong, Joel Parker, Benita Lee
Executive Producer: Beth Bennett
Show Producer: Shelley Schlender

 

Play

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 26:55 — 24.7MB)

Subscribe: RSS

The Fentanyl Epidemic: Why It’s Growing and Some Solutions

This week on How On Earth, we welcome Benita Lee who brought up the growing problem with fentanyl – a new street drug that’s killing many. Benita talks with DEA agent David Olesky about the scope of the problem and what the agency is doing to combat it. Beth talks with pharmacologist and policy maker Robert Valuck about how the drug affects the brain, causes death, and the protective effect of the blocking drug naloxone.
Executive Producer: Beth Bennett
Show Producer: Beth Bennett
Additional Contributions: Benita Lee

Listen to the Show:

Play

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 29:40 — 26.6MB)

Subscribe: RSS

Can Cattle Reduce Climate Change?

This week on How on Earth, Beth talks with Professor Fred Provenza, author of the book Nourishment: What Animals Can Teach Us about Rediscovering our Nutritional Wisdom. He returns to discuss his current venture into the utility of grazing animals in regenerating soil and reducing our carbon footprint. Yes, cows may actually reduce the rate of climate change.
Executive Producer: Beth Bennett
Producer: Beth Bennett

Listen to the Show:

Play

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 27:45 — 24.6MB)

Subscribe: RSS

Wild Strawberries, Wild Turkeys & Farewell to Bernie Rollin

Bernie Rollin

Green Building Handbook (starts 1:00) CU Boulder Engineering Professor Wil Srubar is the co-author of a new report highlighting innovative building materials that actually store more CO2 than the emissions from their manufacture, making these building materials what’s known as “carbon sinks”

Wild Strawberry Flavor from Fungi (starts 3:29) Holger Zorn explains how and why his team of scientists have identified a fungus that provides a wild strawberry flavor to foods.

Wild Turkeys at Sandstone Ranch (starts 9:07) Naturalists Steve Jones, Ruth Carol Cushman and Scott Severs visit Longmont’s Sandstone Ranch to look for a . . . sometimes elusive . . .  flock of wild turkeys.

Farewell to Animal Rights Activist Bernie Rollin (starts 12:44) CSU Philosopher, Vet Scientist and Animal Rights Activist Bernie Rollin died last week.  We share excerpts from a past interview, plus a story about the friendship between a turkey and a dog, from his memoir, Putting the Horse Before Descartes

Hosts: Benita Lee, Stacie Johnson
Executive Producer: Beth Bennett
Show Producer: Shelley Schlender

Play

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 26:42 — 24.6MB)

Subscribe: RSS

Building Bones without Drugs

On today’s show, Beth talks with Dr John Jaquish about his novel method for treating osteoporosis, using ‘osteogenic’ loading. His method has been shown in clinical trials to build bone without drugs, and consequently without the serious side effects of these drugs. The loading method has been validated in using the classic DEXA screening method as well as blood markers such as NTX or CTX (which measure bone breakdown) and P1NP (which measures bone formation).
Show Producer: Beth Bennett

Listen to the show:

Play

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 27:34 — 25.0MB)

Subscribe: RSS

It’s A Dog’s World!

Ever wonder what the world would be like without us humans? Professor Marc Bekoff and Jessica Pierce answer that question from a dog’s eye perspective in their book, A Dog’s World. In addition to speculating about the future of our canine friends without us, they provide a thorough and well-researched look at all aspects of dog biology.
Show Producer: Beth Bennett

Listen to the show:

Play

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 23:41 — 18.9MB)

Subscribe: RSS

The Natural Funeral

Urn Options s at The Natural Funeral. photo by Shannon Young

Today marks the Day of the Dead in Mexico. It’s a time to welcome the spirits and memories of the dearly departed and to reflect on our own mortality. But in U.S. culture, this type of face-to-face reckoning with death itself is often taboo.

Today we delve into one of those taboos: what to do with ones body after death….and the ecological consequences of each choice. KGNU News Director Shannon Young recently visited The Natural Funeral in Lafayette, the only funeral home in Colorado to offer the newly-legalized practice of body composting and the first in the state to have introduced water cremation.

Executive Producer: Beth Bennett
Producers: Shelley Schlender and Joel Parker
Additional Contribution: Shannon Young

 

Play

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 26:20 — 24.2MB)

Subscribe: RSS

Microscopic ‘antennae’ use quantum mechanics to harvest heat energy

In this episode of How on Earth, Beth talks with Dr Amina Belkadi about her groundbreaking work developing the microscopic ‘rectennas’ (pictured here in a scanning EM photo) to harvest heat energy from their surroundings. This novel approach could revolutionize energy technology.
Show Producer: Beth Bennett
Additional contribution: Shelley Schlender

Listen to the show:

Play

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 23:41 — 18.0MB)

Subscribe: RSS

Beloved Beasts // Fund Drive Show

On this week’s show journalist and author Michelle Nijhuis talks with How On Earth host Susan Moran about her recently published book, Beloved Beasts: Fighting for Life in an Age of Extinction. It’s a book of hope, history, and even humor. Special thanks to listeners who donated and received copies of the book. And thanks to WW Norton & Company for offering several copies to KGNU to help with the fund drive.

Show producer: Susan Moran
Hosts: Chip Grandits, Susan Moran

Play

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 27:09 — 24.9MB)

Subscribe: RSS

Funnel Web Spiders at Sawhill Ponds

Boulder County Nature Association Naturalists Steve Jones and Scott Severs search for autumn spiders and other creatures among the tall prairie grasses at Boulder’s Sawhill Ponds.

Executive Producer:  Beth Bennett
Show Producer: Shelley Schlender

Play

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 26:56 — 24.8MB)

Subscribe: RSS