What do Dogs Think?

CanineConfiidentialThis week on How on Earth, Beth talks to author Dr Marc Bekoff, Professor Emeritus, CU Boulder. His new book has the wonderful title of Canine Confidential. If you enjoy dogs, dog parks, and watching them interact with each other and people, you’ll enjoy this book!
Hosts: Beth Bennett and Gretchen Geibel
Producer: Beth Bennett
Engineer: Maeve Conran
Additional contributions: Joel Parker
Executive Producer: Beth Bennett
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Junk Raft // The Green Reaper

Junk RaftJunk Raft (starts 6:20) Marcus Eriksen discusses what can and cannot be done about the “plastic smog” of microscopic debris permeating the world’s ocean, from the state-sized floating islands of plastic in the Pacific, to the microscopic debris that sinks all the way down the the deepest parts of the Pacific, OR gets eaten and into the food chain.  Eriksen is author of the book Junk Raft, recounting his adventures when he sailed the Pacific from L.A. to Hawaii on a raft made of garbage to bring attention to the issue.

Green Burial imageThe Green Reaper (starts 19:10) Elizabeth Fournier, a mortician from Oregon, is known to some as “The Green Reaper.” She offers and advocates for natural burial services for those who want to extend their environmental ethos from life on into death.

Host/Producer/Engineer: Chip Grandits
Executive Producer:  Beth Bennett

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Mitochondria and Your Health

This week on How on Earth, Beth interviews Dr Lee Know, author of Mitochondria and theFuture of Medicine. These amazing organelles, which allow complex life on Earth to exist, do more than “just” make ATP. Ask that isn’t enough! They are intimately involved in many aspects of health and disease. The good news is that we can optimize their function to attain longer, healthier lives.You can see the book at https://www.chelseagreen.com/product/mitochondria-and-the-future-of-medicine/

Host: Beth Bennett
Producer: Beth Bennett
Engineer: Maeve Conran
Executive Producer: Joel Parker

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How Food Affects Your Brain

MasleyTwo epidemics sweeping the developed world are Type 2 diabetes and Alzheimer’s disease.This week on How on Earth, Beth interviews Dr Steven Masley about his book, The Better Brain Solution in which he explores the connection between diet (and other lifestyle factors) and these diseases. Based on the results of numerous clinical trials he has conducted in his medical practice, Masley presents a program to prevent and possibly reverse this metabolic syndrome. You can find his book and other information at https://drmasley.com/better-brain-solution/

Host: Beth Bennett
Producer: Beth Bennett
Engineer: Maeve Conran
Executive Producer: Joel Parker

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Ocean Conservation: MPAs

Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument Credit: James Watt/NOAA
Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument
Credit: James Watt/NOAA

This week’s show brings you the following feature interview:
Protecting Ocean Biodiversity (start time: 2:42) In honor of World Environment Day (today), World Oceans Day (Friday) the March for the Ocean (Saturday), and Capitol Hill Ocean Week (all week), we examine one of the biggest marine conservation tools: Marine Protected Areas. What’s working? What’s not, and why? And what does this have to do with residents of landlocked states such as Colorado? A lot. Hoe On Earth hosts Susan Moran and Sadie Babits interview Dr. Kirsten Grorud-Colvert, an assistant professor of marine ecology at Oregon State University. This interview expands our series called The Ocean Is Us. For info on this week’s local March for the Ocean events, go to Colorado Ocean Coalition. National events and resources at Capitol Hill Ocean Week, March for the Ocean, and Blue Frontier Campaign.

Hosts: Sadie Babits, Susan Moran
Producer: Susan Moran
Engineer: Joel Parker
Executive Producer: Joel Parker

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Michael Pollan: How to Change Your Mind (with psychedelics)

How to Change Your Mind PollanMichael Pollan: How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression and Transcendence.  We speak with New York Times Bestselling science writer Michael Pollan about his new book that features LSD and magic mushrooms. Pollan will give a book talk in Denver this Thursday — at the Trinity Methodist Church.  On Friday, Pollan’s Boulder Booktalk will be at Boulder’s First Congregational Church.

Host/Engineer/Producer:  Shelley Schlender
Executive Producer:  Joel Parker

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Chasing New Horizons, continued

51m+Ih4C2FL._SX327_BO1,204,203,200_In 2015, the New Horizons Spacecraft flew past Pluto. Because Pluto is so far away, it took nearly 10 years of travel for the spacecraft to reach that distant dwarf planet — and that was after a decade of work to get the spacecraft to the launch pad. Planetary scientists Alan Stern and David Grinspoon have written a new book, called: “Chasing New Horizons: Inside the Epic First Mission to Pluto”. The book tells the story of developing and operating the New Horizon mission.

How on Earth’s own Joel Parker is also a scientist on the New Horizons mission, and he had a chance to chat with Alan and David about their book. Last week we heard the first part of this interview. In today’s show, we present Part 2 of that interview.  You can also listen to the full extended interview.

Host/Producer:  Alejandro Soto
Engineer:  Chip Grandits
Add’l Contributions/Executive Producer: Joel Parker

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Chasing New Horizons // GoldLab Symposium

Alan Stern David GrinspoonChasing New Horizons  (starts 1:00) brings the reader Inside the Epic First Mission to Pluto to  hear the details and meet the personalities behind building, launching, and flying this audacious mission.  How on Earth’s Joel Parker (also an astrophysicist on the New Horizons mission) speaks with authors and fellow scientists Alan Stern and David Grinspoon. (Booktalks at Boulder Bookstore and Tattered Cover). You can also listen to the full extended interview.

Larry GoldGoldLab Symposium (starts 13:00) This year’s symposium theme is Complexity:  The Intersections Between Health and Policy. Boulder Entrepreneur and symposium founder Larry Gold speaks with How on Earth’s Shelley Schlender about this year’s annual symposium that explores the frontiers of science and health with an eye toward ideas that will inspire even the greatest world expert, with an ear toward being understandable to anyone in the room.

Host/Producer/Engineer:  Shelley Schlender
Add’l Contributions/Executive Producer: Joel Parker

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2018 Graduation Special (part 2)

diploma-and-graduation-hatWith graduation season is upon us, today’s edition of How on Earth is the second of a two-part annual “Graduation Special”. Our guests in the studio today are scientists who will receive their Ph.D. in a STEM-related field.  They talk about their thesis research, their grad school experiences, and what they have planned next.

bio_HyunJooOhHyunJoo Oh – CU Boulder, ATLAS Institute
Topic: Computational Design Tools and Techniques for Paper Mechatronics

 

 

Nathan ParrishNathan Parrish – CU Boulder, Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences
Topic: Low Thrust Optimization in Cislunar and Translunar Space

 

Diana Perry Diana Perry – Stockholm University, Department of Ecology, Environment and Plant Sciences
Topic: Swedish Seagrass Ecosystems in a Changing Climate: Coastal Connectivity and Global Change Sensitivity

 

Host / Producer / Engineer : Joel Parker

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2018 Graduation Special (part 1)

diploma-and-graduation-hatWith graduation season is upon us, today’s edition of How on Earth is the first of a two-part annual “Graduation Special”. Our guests in the studio today are scientists who will receive their Ph.D. in a STEM-related field.  They talk about their thesis research, their grad school experiences, and what they have planned next.

Head Shot at Down HouseOliver Paine – CU Boulder, Department of Anthropology
Topic: Exploring C4 Plant Foods: The Nutritional and Mechanical Properties of African Savanna Vegetation

 

Diba Mani - Informal HeadshotDiba Mani – CU Boulder, Department of Integrative Physiology
Topic: Adjustments in Motor Unit Activity and Mobility Induced by Electrical Nerve Stimulation in Young and Older Adults

 

JN_headshotJohn Nardini – CU Boulder, Department of Applied Mathematics
Topic: Partial Differential Equation Models of Collective Migration during Wound Healing

 

Host / Producer / Engineer : Joel Parker

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