Scratch & Sniff COVID Test // Ice Age BONE Fire

TheNoseKnows2Much, from WikiCommons
TheNoseKnows2Much, from WikiCommons

Scratch & Sniff COVID Test (starts 1:00) CU Scientist Dan Larremore explains how a smell test app might offer an affordable COVID screening that’s way more accurate than a temperature check.

 

 

 

HOE Ice Age Bone FireIce Age BONE Fire  (starts 6:00)  Archeologist John Hoffecker and local volunteers recreate a Paleolithic “campfire” that used bones as the primary fuel. Volunteers who helped with this project — Josh Steinsiek, Dustin Goodew of Arapahoe Meat Company, Outdoorspeople Lin and Henry Ballard, Amber O’Hearn and Siobhan Huggins.

Engineer Sam Fuqua
Host/Producer: Shelley Schlender
Additional Contributions:  Edie Hill, Composer
Executive Producer: Beth Bennett

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Covid Vaccine Update

Covid19 Vaccine
Covid19 Vaccine

This week on How on Earth, Beth gives an update on the efficacy, safety, and availability of the mRNA vaccines for the corona virus. You hear from Drs Tony Fauci, Michael Diamond, and Roger Seheult.

Host: Beth Bennett
Producer: Beth Bennett
Engineer: Sam Fuqua
Executive Producer: Beth Bennett

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Octopus Wild

Craig Foster with his octopus teacher
Craig Foster with his octopus teacher

This week we review the hit movie “My Octopus Teacher,” the story about a man who goes diving in a kelp forest off the Western Cape of South Africa, and becomes acquainted with an octopus.   We review the movie with Roger Hanlon, a diving biologist, cephalopod expert and senior scientist at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, MA.   We discuss the octopus’ elaborate camouflage and complex behavior.  We’ll get some answers to our octopus questions:   Do they dream?   Do they play?   Use tools?   Are octopuses a second form of intelligent life on earth?

You can learn more about the South African sea forest at the Sea Change Project.  You can learn more about octopuses at Roger Hanlon’s research.

Host & Producer:   Jill Sjong
Executive Producer:  Beth Bennett
Engineer:   Sam Fuqua

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CU COVID Testing Update // Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever & Climate Change

Inside a Manhole - photo credit BIOBOT
Inside a Manhole – photo credit BIOBOT

CU COVID TESTING UPDATE  (starts 1:00) We join CU Engineering Professor Cresten Mansfeldt as he and his students open a sewer manhole and do maintenance on their wastewater COVID early warning system.  We also get an update on COVID status at CU Boulder.

 

 

Brown Dog Ticks
Brown Dog Ticks

ROCKY MOUNTAIN SPOTTED FEVER & CLIMATE CHANGE (starts 11:15) Brown dog ticks that carry Rocky Mountain Spotted fever usually bite dogs.  But they prefer to bite people over dogs when temperature rise to 100 degrees.  UC-Davis scientist Laura Backus explains her new study and its implications in a time of climate change.

 

Host: Shelley Schlender
Producer:Shelley Schlender
Engineer:Sam Fuqua
Additional contribution: Music from Lynn Patrick
Executive Producer:Beth Bennett

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The Reindeer Chronicles: Stories of Environmental Regeneration

Reindeer Chronicles
Reindeer Chronicles

This week on How on Earth, Beth interviews author Judith Schwartz. In her new book, the Reindeer Chronicles, she takes the reader on a tour of some of the most wounded places on earth, and stories of how a passionate group of eco-restorers is leading the way to their revitalization. This optimistic book describes solutions to seemingly intractable problems that can restore local water, carbon, nutrient, and energy cycles.

Host: Beth Bennett
Producer: Beth Bennett
Engineer: Sam Fuqua
Additional contribution: Joel Parker
Executive Producer: Beth Bennett

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It’s All in Your Mouth: Exploring Holistic Dentistry

Holistic Dentistry
Holistic Dentistry
In this week’s show Beth talks to Dr. Dominik Nischwitz about his new book, It’s All in Your Mouth, to learn more about the relationship between our mouths and the rest of the body. Many European dentists have practiced holistic dentistry for decades. The practice is now becoming more common in the US. This idea is that many common chronic conditions—obesity, inflammation, stroke, diabetes, Alzheimer’s, heart disease, and cancer, among others—often have their origins in the mouth. And by treating the mouth, the body too can benefit. To learn more, you can follow the links above or check out Dr Dom’s Instagram feed.

Host: Beth Bennett
Producer: Beth Bennett
Engineer: Maeve Conran
Additional Contributions: Joel Parker
Executive Producer: Beth Bennett
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Andrea Tilstra – Deaths of Despair – or not

Andrea TilstraCU-Boulder Sociologist Andrea Tilstra discusses how this decade’s reduction of lifespan in the US  ties closely with two factors 1) easier access to painkillers and opioids, and 2) the obesity epidemic and the related health problems that come with it.  Tilstra also explains the quesitons a social scientist/demographer asks when examining the COVID-19 pandemic, the COVID-19 Boulder County local tracking of the pandemic, and the human factors to consider as people face the stresses of social distancing and trying to stay connected.

Producer and Host:   Shelley Schlender
Engineer:   Maeve Conran
Executive Producer:   Jill Sjong
Additional Contributions:  Music from Lynn Patrick

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Clean – The New Science of Skin

31hxj3045QLHow clean is “clean”?  How do you get clean, and how important is it…could it actually be advantageous to your skin and general health to not try to get too clean?  We talk with medical doctor and author Dr. James Hamblin about his new book “Clean:  The New Science Of Skin“.

Hosts: Chip Grandits, Joel Parker
Executive Producer: Jill Sjong
Show Producer and Engineer: Joel Parker
Additional Contributions: Shelley Schlender

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The Shale Revolution: Weld County’s Golden Goose- Part Two

Left: Image courtesy of EcoNation, NZ. Right: Map of active oil and natural gas wells in Colorado.
Left: Image courtesy of EcoNation, NZ. Right: Map of active oil and natural gas wells in Colorado.

In Part Two of the Shale Revolution, we look at the environmental concerns associated with hydraulic fracturing, particularly the air quality along the Front Range.    We interview Detlev Helmig, an atmospheric scientist, who monitors the air quality along the front range.    We also discuss why well setbacks are such a contentious issue in Colorado.

Producer and Host:   Jill Sjong
Engineer:   Maeve Conran
Executive Producer:   Jill Sjong

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The Shale Revolution: Weld County’s Golden Goose- Part One

Left: Image courtesy of EcoNation, NZ. Right: Map of active oil and natural gas wells in Colorado.
Left: Image courtesy of EcoNation, NZ. Right: Map of active oil and natural gas wells in Colorado.

This week on How on Earth, we look at the shale industry, which has transformed this country in ways we could not have imagined a decade ago.    How did this happen?   Where do experts think the fracking industry might be going?     In this two-part series, we consider why Wall Street and environmentalists are becoming strange new allies.

We interview Paula Noonan from Colorado Watch, the platform for tracking Colorado Legislature.   We also listen to excerpts from Bethany McLean, author of Saudi America:   the Truth about Fracking and how it’s Changing the World.

Host/Producer:     Jill Sjong
Engineer:   Maeve Conran
Executive Producer:   Susan Moran

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 27:02 — 32.0MB)

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