B4uLeap

Alan Bell was a young, athletic prosecuting attorney taking down Florida's top organized crime figures when a move to a new office building prompted a series of odd and increasingly debilitating symptoms. Eventually he was so sick that doctors advised him to move to the Arizona desert where he lived in an 800 square foot glass and steel bubble, confined to a wheel chair and tethered to an oxygen tank. His new book Poisoned chronicles his journey to recovery and to fighting for other victims of environmental contamination.

Can comedy take down the orange menace, before he nukes the planet? We talk to two comedians who are taking on Trump with satire. Maysoon Zayid is Trump's worst nightmare: she's a smart, funny, Muslim-American disabled woman comic from New Jersey. Then, Greg Proops is the smartest man in the world, and you should be reading his book and listening to his podcast. Laugh, and resist!

Many people are terrified at the prospect of Donald Trump’s tiny fingers on America’s nuclear weapons button. Another terror in our backyards: the nation’s biological research labs, which handle deadly pathogens like ebola, anthrax and others. We discuss the potential for global disasters with Professor Kennett Benedict of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, and with journalist Alison Young, who has investigated US biolabs for USA Today for more than a decade.

Professor Robin D.G. Kelley outlines the five things we must do now to resist Trump, and Becky Bond discusses the lessons she learned while working for the Bernie Sanders campaign, and how we can use these “Rules for Revolutionaries” now. Also, clips from some of our favorite post-election podcasts.

Anya Fernald is a judge on the Food Network’s Iron Chef, founder of the world’s largest sustainable meat company, and author of the new cookbook Home Cooked. Also, Dr. Stanton Glantz was the first to expose the tobacco industry’s deceptive practices, and now he’s working to expose the the sugar industry. And an update on the toxic chemical BPA in canned food. 

What’s the connection between race, culture, health and food? We talk with Chef Therese Nelson, founder of the Black Culinary History Project, and Dr. Ricardo Salvador, who tells us about the Plate of the Union campaign. Also, hear what you can do about the toxic chemical BPA in your food.

Featuring best-selling science humorist Mary Roach, Pulitzer Prize winners Deborah Blum and Dan Fagin, food advocates Dr. Marion Nestle and Anna Lappe, legendary satirists Paul Krassner and Harry Shearer, and many others.

Brahm Ahmadi co-founded People’s Grocery to tackle environmental injustice and health disparities in West Oakland’s under-served “food desert.” Now Brahm is creating the People’s Community Market, a revolutionary grocery store for West Oakland. And a former podcast guest, social justice comedian Negin Farsad is coming to Oakland to promote her new book How to Make White People Laugh. We’ll hear the event details and more.

Simran Sethi's new book Bread, Wine, Chocolate: The Slow Loss of Foods We Love chronicles her travels to six continents in pursuit of delicious and endangered tastes, with stories that highlight the inspiring people and places that are bringing back the foods we love. Check it out!

Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha's research demonstrated that Flint's children were suffering from lead poisoning due to the change in the town's drinking water supply. Dr. Robert Bullard, one of the nation's leading scholars of environmental justice, has been researching towns like Flint for decades. Hear their feelings about Flint now and for the future, and learn how you can have your water tested for lead.

Growing up in the high desert of California, Jim Doty was poor, with an alcoholic father and a mother chronically depressed and paralyzed by a stroke. Today he is the director of the Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education (CCARE) at Stanford University, of which the Dalai Lama is a founding benefactor. Hear him tell some of the remarkable stories from his new memoir, Into the Magic Shop.

The race to the next generation of batteries may change everything, making electric cars and the transition to an all-electric, 100% renewable energy economy a reality. We talk to Steve LeVine, author of "The Powerhouse," about the race to build a better battery, and to researcher Mark Jacobson, who has authored plans for a global transition to 100% renewable energy.

Do you like energy bars or granola bars? How about packaged fresh juice smoothies, or ready-to-eat pizza crusts? If you eat these or any of thousands of other foods you have the military to thank. Hear Anastacia Marx de Salcedo, author of Combat-Ready Kitchen, on the military origins of our food. Then, organic farmer Judith Redmond on the climate and agriculture connection.

A story of science detective work, corporate irresponsibility, and persistent activism with author Dan Fagin, whose book Toms River: A Story of Science and Salvation won the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for general nonfiction. Also, Michael Brune, Executive Director of the Sierra Club, who grew up in the Toms River area.

John Warner has been called the father of green chemistry, but can he restore my grey hair to its natural color? We hear about John’s journey from a working class family in South Boston to helping to create the field of green chemistry, and we find out if green chemistry can restore my grey hair.

A talk with addiction specialist Dr. Sheldon Weinberg, an excerpt of a talk by tobacco control expert Dr. Stanton Glantz, and CEH's Caroline Cox on cancer-causing chemicals in e-cigarettes.

Born out of a global expedition fearlessly undertaken by a young woman, Project Animal Farm offers a riveting and revealing look at what truly happens behind farm doors. Also, an update on the use of animal drugs in meat production from Cameron Harsh of the Center for Food Safety.

Grant Gillham ran a phony "citizens" group for the chemical industry - now he's speaking out about his former clients' lies. And John Stauber, author of the classic expose of corporate propanganda, "Toxic Sludge is Good For You."

Evaggelos Vallianatos worked at the EPA for 25 years, and his new book Poison Spring outlines how the chemical industry’s influence has derailed regulations on pesticides and other toxic chemicals. Also, Jay Feldman of Beyond Pesticides on pesticide use in marijuana production – should you be concerned about pesticide residues when you light one up? And CEH’s own Caroline Cox on our work to protect children and families from disease-causing pesticides.

What happens when government regulators seem more concerned with protecting the profits of the corporations that they’re supposed to be regulating than in protecting our health or the environment? We hear from two journalists who follow the problem of politics and corporate interstes trumping science at EPA and FDA. And CEH Executive Director Michael Green tells about the role CEH played in California’s review of hexavalent chromium, the chemical made famous by the movie Erin Brockovich.

What does environmental health and justice have to do with the Black Lives Matter movement? We asked three CEH team members to discuss race, environmental justice, and their concerns around #blacklivesmatter. And, we hear a brief excerpt from CEH Eastern States Director Ansje Miller's remarks at a recent rally on the 5th anniversary of the Citizens United decision.

A talk with Dr. B.J. Miller, Executive Director of San Francisco's Zen Hospice Project, and with long-time ZHP volunteer Mary Doane.

U.S. research labs can create even deadlier strains of Ebola, influenza, and other infectious diseases, in so-called “gain-of-function” research. We hear from biosafety expert Edward Hammond on threats from lab-created superbugs. Also, food safety lawyer Bill Marler and health threats from the hormone-altering chemical BPA, from Connie Engel of the Breast Cancer Fund.

It's our Halloween show, and we talk to the most fun mortician on the planet, Caitlin Doughty. You may know her from her popular webcast "Ask a Mortician," hosted on her website "Order of the Good Death." We talk about morbid kids (it gets better), "secondary flaccidity," the greatest death movie ever, and her new book, "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes, and Other Lessons from the Crematory."

What do animated political cartoons, mass non-violent direct actions, and a global search for humor have in common? Is that the start of a joke? No, it’s today’s episode on creativity in activism! We talk to Peter McGraw, author of The Humor Code; Pulitzer Prize winning animator Mark Fiore and Paul Paz y Miño of Amazon Watch; and activist John Sellers of Agit-Pop Communications.

We hear from Dr. Charles Limb, who straps jazz musicians and freestyle rappers into an MRI machine and studies their brains while they create musical improvisations. His Ted Talk has over 1 million views. Also, two leading activists tell us how creativity informs their work.

We speak to Gerald Markowitz, co-author of Lead Wars, a history outlining the lead industry's 100-year campaign to maintain sales of lead-based paint. Also, CEH Research Director Caroline Cox with tips on avoiding lead threats to your children and family.

Hear Professor Agustin Fuentes explain how New York Times science writer Nicholas Wade gets the science wrong in his new book on race and genetics, and comedian Baratunde Thurston, author of "How To Be Black." Plus we hear about environmental racism and environmental justice.

We speak to Goldman Environmental Prize winner Helen Slottje, scientist Anthony Ingraffea, Professor Mark Jacobson of the Solutions Project, and CEH Energy and Health expert Ansje Miller. Health experts say fracking is damaging communities, and scientists say the fossil fuels from fracking will doom the planet. Hear why fracking can’t work, and how we can protect our children and families from fracking risks!

We hear from the country’s leading expert on food politics, Marion Nestle, on the food industry’s influence, genetically engineered and cloned food, and much more. Then food author, educator and advocate Anna Lappé tells us why GMOs won’t feed the world, and how organic farming can alleviate the climate crisis. And Rebecca Spector of the Center for Food Safety gives us updates on the latest food fights in Congress and the states.

Why does Mary Roach have her arm inside a cow's stomach? What's periblepsis mean? How did I make Mary cry? These and many other questions answered in the podcast, in which we talk about Mary's latest book, Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal. Plus, science writer Virginia Hughes on new research on gut bacteria and obesity.

Some say our genes are our destiny. But what if our biological inheritance is more than just genes? Hear what this means for genetic testing, and our understanding of the basic concepts of genetics, disease and health.

More from Harry Shearer, including Spinal Tap, The Big Uneasy, and more from Le Show, Paul Krassner on Lenny Bruce, Negin Farsad of "The Muslims Are Coming, and Brian Janosch of Cultivated Wit.

You know Harry Shearer from Spinal Tap, the Simpsons, movies, TV and his weekly radio show Le Show. Paul Krassner hung out with Abbie Hoffman, Ken Kesey, and Lenny Bruce. Negin Farsad tells us about The Muslims Are Coming, and Brian Janosch talks about working with Baratunde Thurston at Cultivated Wit.   

Breast cancer and other changes in breast health may be a signal for all human health. With Florence Williams, author of Breasts: A Natural and Unnatural History, Ted Schettler, author of the Ecology of Breast Cancer, and Connie Engel of the Breast Cancer Fund.

A chat with Deborah Blum, a Pulitzer Prize winning science journalist and author of The Poisoner’s Handbook, which uncovers the birth of modern forensic science. And a leading toxicologist tells us why the dose doesn't always make the poison.

We learn about geoengineering and take a quiz: guess which one is NOT a real proposal to cool the planet. Also, how the chemical industry distorted science for decades, and genetic science clashes with human rights in the Grand Canyon.

A scientist, a lawyer and a beekeeper on pesticides, Bee Colony Collapse and what we can do about it. Also Queen Latifah, nut farmers, and should worker bees seek OSHA protections.

We learn about infant formula, hermaphroditic frogs, and why your taint is shrinking. Eveline Lubbers studies corporate campaigns to undermine human rights and environmental activists. We speak to her, and to Dr. Tyrone Hayes, who has been the subject of attacks by a leading pesticide company after his studies shows their blockbuster product feminizes male frogs.

We discuss synthetic biology, Silkwood (the movie), the color purple (not the movie) and why we should have stuck with khaki! Our guests are Jim Thomas of the ETC Group, whistleblower Becky McClain, and independent researcher Edward Hammond.

We speak to three Bay Area activist-Dads about fatherhood and progressive activism.