Chronic Pain: A New Approach

On this week’s show, Beth speaks with Dr Afton Hassett, psychologist and pain researcher about her book, Chronic Pain Reset: 30 Days of Activities, Practices, and Skills to Help You Thrive. Not just a guide for evaluating pain and its triggers, her book offers straightforward and often fun strategies to move past chronic pain. Dr. Hassett is Associate Professor and Director of Pain and Opioid Research in the Department of Anesthesiology at the University of Michigan, and a principal investigator at the Chronic Pain & Fatigue Research Center there. Her book and research explore the key role that your brain plays in processing pain and how small, simple actions can make profound changes in how you experience chronic pain. Chronic Pain Reset is written for people with chronic pain and those who care for them.

Executive Producer: Susan Moran
Show Producer:Beth Bennett

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COP28 Climate Summit: Pledges & Realities

Climate Change & COP28 (start time: 1:30) A major global climate conference is taking place now in Dubai, amidst a year of record-breaking heat, wildfires, floods and more around the world.  COP28 is short for the 28th Conference of the Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The aim of the conference is to have nations address climate change by pledging to cut greenhouse gas emissions (and actually following through), investing more in clean energy, and having richer nations help fund climate-adaptation measures in developing countries and especially vulnerable communities. Our guests today are Dr. Alice Alpert, a senior scientist at Environmental Defense Fund who previously served on the U.S. delegation to some COP conferences; and science journalist Tom Yulsman, who directs the Center for Environmental Journalism at CU Boulder.

Hosts: Susan Moran, Joel Parker
Producer & Executive Producer: Susan Moran
Engineer: Joel Parker

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Teen Raptor Survey//Gaia Theory for 21st Century

Bald Eagle Nest – Photo by Mia Hock

Soccer Headers and Brain Damage (starts 1:00) New research about long term effects of soccer heading — the practice of hitting a soccer ball with the head, indicates a brain damage risk, even without “official” concussions.

Teen Raptor Survey (starts 3:00) Naturalists Steve Jones and Elena Klaver lead the Boulder Teen Naturalists on a survey of wintering raptors.   Another event coming up, for bird lovers, is the Audubon Xmas Bird Count.

Gaia Theory for the 21st Century  (starts 11:30)   Martin Ogle explains Gaia Theory, Model and Metaphor for the 21st Century.  He’s presenting this Thursday at the Lafayette Public Library.

Host/Producer/Engineer: Shelley Schlender
Executive Producer: Susan Moran
Contributors: Benita Lee

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Ghosts of Thanksgiving Past

Wild turkeys in Utah
Merriam’s turkey, courtesy of Flickr user “Fool-On-The-Hill.”

In addition to recent news about possible therapies to restore lost sense of smell due to COVID, we do a deep dive into the How on Earth archives to bring you some still-relevant stories from past Thanksgiving episodes:

Host/Producer/Engineer: Joel Parker
Executive Producer: Susan Moran
Contributors: Shelley Schlender, Beth Bartel, Benita Lee, Stacie Johnson

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From Sewage to Planet Savior?

The Power of Poop (start time: 5:41)  This potent byproduct of our digestive system holds the promise of being a big part of the solution to several public health and environmental challenges of our time, such as drinking water scarcity and degraded cropland. In this week’s show, How On Earth’s Susan Moran interviews Dr. Bryn Nelson, a science writer and former microbiologist. His debut book, called Flush: The Remarkable Science of an Unlikely Treasure, recently appeared in paperback.

Host/Producer: Susan Moran
Engineer: Alexis Kenyon
Executive Producer: Susan Moran

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Naming Birds – with Boulder Naturalist Steve Jones

Pampas (Swainson’s) Hawk – cc Stephen R. Jones

Bird Feather Fossils  (starts 1:00)  give new evidence about what we know, and don’t know, about how flying feathers evolved.

Boulder Naturalist Steve Jones  talks about the movement to stop naming birds after people. (starts 2:30)

Host/Producer/Engineer: Shelley Schlender
Executive Producer: Susan Moran
Headline contributors: Beth Bennett

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The Little Book of Aliens

The Little Book of AliensIn this Halloween episode, we talk with Dr. Adam Frank, an astrophysicst/astrobiologist at the University of Rochester, about his recent book: The Little Book of Aliens. We hear some of the stories and learn about the science of life “out there” – astrobiology – and the past, present, and future search for extraterrestrial intelligence.

Host/Producer/Engineer: Joel Parker
Executive Producer: Susan Moran
Headline contributors: Shelley Schlender, Beth Bennett

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Climate Change Maladaptations

Over the Seawall (start time: 7:33): One of the key things that makes us human is our ability to problem-solve.  But often our engineered fixes backfire and even make the problem we’re trying to solve much worse. How On Earth host Susan Moran interviews journalist Stephen Robert Miller about how this applies to massive seawalls, re-engineered rivers, grandiose canals (such as the Central Arizona Project) and other technological fixes that have unintended consequences.  Miller’s debut book, due out next week, is called Over the Seawall: Tsunamis, Cyclones, Drought, and the Delusion of Controlling Nature (Island Press). Check out Stephen’s upcoming book talks: Nov. 2 at CU Boulder’s ATLAS 102, 7:00-8:30 p.m.; and Nov. 28 at  Boulder Book Store,  6:30 p.m.

Host/Producer: Susan Moran
Engineer: Sam Fuqua
Executive Producer: Susan Moran
Headline contributors: Beth Bennett, Joel Parker, Shelley Schlender

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Recovery: The Lost Art of Convalescence

In this episode of How on Earth we hear the full interview Beth did with physician and author Gavin Frances.

CU Kite Fall Flying Expo (starts 1:00) CU Boulder collaborates with NASA and the kite/toy store Into the Wind to share a Kite Flying Expo about how kites can be used for atmospheric science study.

RECOVERY: The Lost Art of Convalescence. (starts 8:05) Author Gavin Frances emphasizes the importance of taking an active role in one’s recovery and outlines many paths one can take in doing so. It is an act that we engage in and that has the potential to transform our lives, if only we can find ways to learn its rhythms and invest our time, energy, and participation.

Executive Producer: Susan Moran
Show Producers: Beth Bennett, Susan Moran, Shelley Schlender
Engineer: Sam Fuqua

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Recovery: The Lost Art of Convalescence (excerpts) / Fund Drive

As part of the KGNU Fund Drive, this episode of How on Earth features excerpts of Beth Bennett’s interview of Dr. Gavin Francis about his book Recovery: The Lost Art of Convalescence. We explore the difference between sickness and health, and the gap between them: Recovery. Based on decades of treating disease and injury, Dr Francis proposes a more active role of the individual in their recovery.  We also talk about the importance of self-care and compassion, the role of the environment we create for ourselves, and the importance of caregivers.

Producer/Engineer: Joel Parker
Hosts: Joel Parker, Shelley Schlender
Feature Contribution: Beth Bennett
Executive Producer: Susan Moran

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 27:50 — 38.2MB)

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