Birds: Risk and Resilience (start time: 5:55) What speaks of Spring more than the songs of American robins, yellow warblers, spotted towhees and other birds in the early morning? As we relish in these avians choruses, it’s also an important time to examine why bird populations in North America have, by and large, been plummeting in recent decades, due to multiple stressors, including climate change and habitat destruction. At the same time, some conservation efforts (including bipartisan legislation) on the federal, state and local levels, are bearing some fruit. And everyone can help give these winged creatures a hand, starting with their own gardens, and by getting involved in citizen science projects, such a bird-banding and bird-counting. In this week’s show, host Susan Moran interviews Arvind Panjabi, a senior research scientist at Bird Conservancy of the Rockies, a nonprofit organization devoted to the conservation of birds and their habitats. (Listen to Shelley Schlender’s sound portrait of five migratory birds that are visiting Colorado now (start time: 2:58).
Host/Producer: Susan Moran
Engineer: Jackie Sedley
Executive Producer: Joel Parker
Headline Contributors: Joel Parker, Shelley Schlender
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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 27:33 — 37.8MB)
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Sweet in Tooth and Claw (start time: 0:59) Since the 1800s, science has been obsessed with the notion, stemming from Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution through natural selection, that only the “fittest” can survive and pass on their strong genes. As in, it’s a ruthless, violent world. And today, we humans find ourselves mired in a hyper-polarized society fixated on competition, disruption, and “If you win, I lose” thinking. A good time to take a look at a different way of living together–how a “kinder, gentler” approach also helps species evolve. In this week’s show, Susan Moran interviews journalist/author 
COP16: Hope & Hurdles (start time: 1:20) On this week’s show, host Susan Moran interviews two conservation biologists at Colorado State University — 
Attention all Nature Lovers and Amateur Naturalists, Friday April 27th kicks of the 
Multitudes of Microbes (start time: 3:38): You may find it unsettling to learn that our human cells make up only half of our bodies. The other half is a bunch of microbes (in the neighborhood of 40 trillion), all living and reproducing in, and on, our bodies. What’s more, these invisible machines could have a powerful influence on your brain, and on your overall health. 
This week’s pledge- drive show features a teaser introduction to Ed Yong’s new book 
Real Food (start time 4:20): What we eat , and how we eat, is inextricably connected to our own health as well as the health of the planet. Every decision we make—whether to bake a chocolate cake or buy it from Safeway or at a Farmer’s Market—is full of nuances and even contradictions. 
