Planet Watch Radio Podcast

Astrophysicist Martin Gaskell discusses—at virtually the same time as its publication to the word—what has been called the "greatest astronomical discovery of all time." The conversation ranges from science to intriguing notes on spirituality. Dr. Gaskell is a professor of astronomy at the University of California Santa Cruz. An Infrared View of the M81 Galaxy | NASACredit: NASA/JPL-Caltech Dr. Gaskell shares fascinating insights about Black Holes, Gravitational Waves, the Nobel Prize, Mars Exploration, going back to the Moon, the Origins of the Universe, and the relationship between science and spirituality. With a Ph.D., 1981, University of California, Santa Cruz andPostdoctoral fellow (1981-1983), University of Cambridge, Dr. Gaskell is currently a researcher and lecturer in Astronomy & Astrophysics at UCSC. His primary research interests are in theoretical and observational studies of what happens around the most bizarre objects in the universe: supermassive black holes in the centers of galaxies.  As matter spirals into these black holes, it produces a tremendous release of energy as what is called an "active galactic nucleus" or AGN for short. AGNs are the most powerful energy sources in the universe (more powerful than an entire galaxy of stars).  Because they are so luminous they can be seen far away —back to the early days of the formation of galaxies when the universe was young. Much of Gaskell's work involves collaboration with other researchers around the world. "I like to work at the interface of theory and observation.  My research involves observations with giant telescopes on the ground, satellites in space, computer simulations, and sometimes just good old fashioned pencil and paper."

Monterey Bay Salmon and Trout Project Executive Director Ben Harris talks about the importance of salmonids—salmon and trout— in maintaining the ecological health of ocean and land. Harris explains how and why Pacific salmon populations have drastically declined, and describes efforts underway to help native Monterey Bay populations of Coho and Steelhead recover from the brink of extinction. He also discusses why farmed salmon should be "off the table" and how food choices we make at the market can affect not only the fate of the fish, but also the health of the oceans and our own well-being. Harris pursued his life-long interest in fish by earning his B.S. in Fisheries Biology from Humboldt State University in California and then an M.S. in Fisheries Resources from his native West Virginia University. One of his goals as the Executive Director of MBSTP is to bring back the much-loved Salmon and Trout Education Project.

On this episode of Planet Watch, an inspiring and uplifting interview with Lynne Cherry, the originator, producer and director of  Young Voices for the Planet films. Lynne talks about her current film project and also discusses the mental health considerations involved in educating the young about climate change and environmental crisis. Young Voices for the Planet, a film series, features youth working to limit climate change and its impacts in their communities and around the planet. The films document inspiring success stories of youth speaking out, creating solutions, challenging decision-makers, informing their communities, and catalyzing change. The engaging films, which feature diverse students from elementary to high school age taking on a variety of projects to reduce the carbon footprint of their homes, schools and communities, are available to students and teachers. The films are supported by standards-aligned, interdisciplinary, project-based curriculum. "The Young Voices for the Planet movies allow your young voices to be heard. Seeing what other young people have done and are doing will inspire you to action!" Lynne is author/illustrator of 30 award-winning children’s books including her popular and beloved rain forest classic, The Great Kapok Tree and her environmental history A River Ran Wild. Lynne received her BA from Tyler School of Art; a Masters in History at Yale University. She has had artist-in-residencies at Princeton University, the Smithsonian Institution and Cornell University and science-writing fellowships from the Marine Biological Lab and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. She was a winner of a Metcalf Fellowship and the Brandwein Prize. Her academic writings include a chapter in “Written in Water” published by National Geographic Books, a chapter “Kids Can Save Forests” in “Treetops At Risk” edited by Dr. Margaret Lowman (Springer) and a chapter “Teaching Climate Change With Hope and Solutions: Lessons from a Film Project” in the book “Education in Times of Environmental Crisis.” (Routledge, 2016)

Nuclear Winter, first described by Drs. Brian Toon, Rich Turco, Tom Ackerman, James Pollack, and Carl Sagan ("TTAPS")   equates the plume of smoke from a comet impact that covered Earth causing the great extinction of the dinosaurs 66 million years ago with the global winter that could extinct most life on Earth in the event of a Nuclear War. Understanding what the scientists told them of the threat of Nuclear Winter led to Reagan and Gorbachev to initiate a nuclear non-proliferation treaty process that has been followed by every US president since, until Trump. In his recent TedTalk Dr Toon  renews those warnings, that nuclear weapon detonation will cause massive atmospheric darkening from world-wide smoke and fires, resulting in the annihilation of much of the life on Earth. Dr. Toon, currently an Atmospheric and Oceanic a researcher at University of Colorado, was a lead atmospheric chemist on the NASA Ozone Hole research, which led to perhaps the most impressive example to date of human cooperation—the Montreal Protocol Banning Substances that Deplete the Ozone. Since the treaty was signed in 1987 by nearly every country on the planet, the international treaty to phase out ozone depleting chemicals has been carefully monitored. In this episode of Planet Watch, Dr. Toon reports on the progress to date on repairing the Ozone Hole. Air Date: November 4, 2018 on KSCO radio station AM1080 meeting of Montreal Protocol working group  

Life on Mars? Dr. Jr. R. Skok of the SETI Institute discusses Current and Upcoming Exploration and Research on MARS Dr. Skok, explorer and planetary scientist with SETI, earned his B.S. at Cornell University and his Ph.D. from  Brown in Geological Sciences. In the spring of 2017, he took part in an international scientific expedition to study the El Tatio geyser field in the Chilean Andes. Dr. Skok has been studying deposits from hot spring and geyser systems throughout the world that closely resemble those on Mars, in order to understand what they mean for habitats and preservation of life here on Earth. Based on this work, Dr. Skok and his colleagues at SETI and NASA are planning future expeditions to search for life on Mars. The evolution of life on Mars could be relevant to Climate Change studies on Planet Earth. On this episode of Planet Watch, JR also talks about his Made of Mars project and his experiences exploring caves around the planet. For more on current Mars research see previous Planet Watch episodes with Dr. Chris McKay and Dr. Carol Stoker. Air Date: October 21, 2018 on KSCO radio station AM1080

The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change  (IPCC) 2018 predicts far more dire and rapidly escalating consequences of Climate Change than any IPCC analysis thus far, and calls for a historically unprecedented  transformation of the world economy to avert the worst of the damage. Dr. Kristie Ebi Dr. Natalie M. Mahowald Two of the IPCC's authors, Dr. Nathalie Mehowald of Cornell and Dr. Kristie Ebi of University of Washington, share their thoughts on the report, the problem, and possible solutions. Air Date: October 14, 2018 on KSCO radio station AM1080  

  Chris McKay, NASA Mars Researcher, and Friederike Otto, University of Oxford climate modeller Science is the focus of this week's Planet Watch.  Senior NASA scientist Chris McKay, in the Planetary Systems Branch of NASA Ames, is an expert on the evolution of the solar system and the origins of life. Chris is also involved in planning for future Mars expeditions, including human exploration of the "Red Planet." Chris will answer the question , "What is Enceladus?" and will share with us what the recent news about this "tortured moon of Saturn" means for the search for life beyond Planet Earth. In our second interview this week, we talk with Dr. Fredierike Otto, a climate modeler at the University of Oxford, and director of a consortium of scientists in the UK and elsewhere who are working to find the footprint of human caused climate change in extreme weather events. In her July 2018 article in Nature International Journal of Science she predicts that weather forecasters will soon provide instant assessments of global warming's influence on extreme events. Air Date: October 7, 2018 on KSCO radio station AM1080

How secure is the US voting system? The upcoming midterm elections may be the most important in the history of American Democracy. Yet evidence has shown that there was foreign interference in the 2016 election, with suspected attacks on voter registration systems in twenty-one states. A recent DEF CON hacking conference in Washington DC demonstrated serious risks to our critical voting infrastructure, which affect our national security. Any voting system connected to the internet runs the risk of machines being hacked and data being compromised or altered. With our voting machines running on proprietary software that cannot be checked for bugs or malicious code, and no paper records of votes cast on the machines, there is no way to conduct verifiable audits of elections. Researchers have found that many of our systems are riddled with basic security blunders and poorly written software. Going into the midterms, what measures, if any, are being taken to correct vulnerabilities in our voting system? Today on Planet Watch, computer scientist and voting security expert Robert Kibrick discusses what we can do to defend American Democracy and protect every voter's ballot. Kibrick is a retired research astronomer on staff at the University of California Lick Observatory with expertise in computer networking, software development, programming, hardware troubleshooting, optical imaging, observational astronomy, and mathematical computing. He has been volunteering with the Verified Voting Foundation, a non-governmental, nonpartisan organization founded in 2003 by computer scientists from Stanford University. Electronic voting machines with no verifiable paper trail, massive disenfranchisement of voters, and Electoral College injustices arising from gerrymandering are some of the main issues experts have identified that must to be addressed quickly to keep our democracy alive. Democracy is not a spectator sport. Get involved! Air Date: September 30, 2018 on KSCO radio station AM1080

Brain-Harming Chlorpyrifos just the latest agricultural pesticide poisoning our children and our planet Californians for Pesticide Reform  co-director Mark Weller, and author/pesticide activist Mary Flodin talk with with Planet Watch hosts Rachel and Joe about challenges and successes in the decades-long struggle to protect communities from toxic pesticide exposure (www.facebook.com/CaPestReform). Based out of the Salinas office of the Monterey Bay Central Labor Council, Mark provides mentorship and support for organizers statewide, including Safe Ag Safe Schools . SafeAgSafeSchools.org is a coalition of over 50 organizations and individuals working together to reduce the threat of pesticide exposure in the Monterey Bay area. "SASS" focuses on increasing grassroots pressure on policy-makers to reduce hazardous pesticide use in and around schools and residential communities. Mark is co-author of the book, Dollars and Votes: How Business Campaign Contributions Subvert Democracy. Air Date: September 23, 2018 on KSCO radio station AM1080

Organic farming policy pioneer Mark Lipson talks about crafting the national standard for organic farming, and how our federal agricultural policies impact our health and the health of our environment. Mark started his advocacy career as the first paid staff member at the California Certified Organic Farmers (now the nation’s largest organic certification organization). He worked as a senior analyst and policy program director for the Organic Farming Research Foundation and eventually made his way to the USDA . He worked on agricultural policy for the Obama administration, serving in the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Washington, D.C. as the first organic policy advisor from 2010 to 2014. Over the past two decades, Mark shepherded several historic changes in agricultural funding through Congress. Currently, Mark is a Research Associate with the Center for Agroecology and Sustainable Farming Systems at University of California Santa Cruz (UCSC). He knows organic farming from the ground up: he got his hands in the dirt early in his career, helping to organize Molino Creek, a co-operative farming community located on the coast of Central California. (Molino Creek pioneered the growing of flavorful, dry-farmed tomatoes grown without irrigation.) On this episode of Planet Watch Radio, Mark, Joe, and Rachel examine claims about how much carbon agriculture can sequester from the atmosphere, and have a candid discussion about what we may expect from the new Farm Bill and how Trump's rampant dismantling of American regulatory agencies may effect organic agriculture, the quality of the food we eat, and our health.

Today's interview is with Lois Robin, producer of The Dirt on Climate Change, a film about ecological and biological approaches to climate change. Lois has been an author, filmmaker, and environmental activist for thirty years. Her newest film takes on what we can do to enhance nature's ability to sequester carbon through naturally occurring processes. The film features people who  practice no-till, regenerative agriculture to sequester carbon in soil and plants, and keep rain in the soil rather than letting it run off to the rivers. The film also addresses the role trees play in the carbon and water cycles, livestock management and regenerative grazing, the importance of forest regeneration, and even projects residential gardeners can take on to help sequester carbon. In 2017, Lois accompanied her son, Daniel Robin, who spoke at the Harvard conference on Climate Reckoning, where many of the concepts explored in Lois' film were discussed. For highlights on that conference see http://www.in3finance.com/highlights-of-2017-climate-reckoning-at-harvard-university For educators, there is a great deal of excellent teaching material available on this importance of cultivating healthy soil, including a NOAA webinar about the Life Lab "Kiss the Soil" Curriculum https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTjlF3DUZpM&feature=youtu.be Teachers can download the curriculum  https://kisstheground.activehosted.com/f/5   Another film beautifully illustrating the connections between healthy soil and a healthy, living planet is Symphony of Soil by Deborah Koons Garcia.

Standing Rock Water Protectors: Climate Justice Showdown Still Hanging Fire Lakota Chief Chase Iron Eyes In what defense attorneys are calling a major victory for their client and for the water protectors of Standing Rock, prosecutors have dropped all serious charges against former North Dakota congressional candidate Chase Iron Eyes in his case resulting from protests of the Dakota Access pipeline. Chief Iron Eyes, an attorney who works for the Lakota People’s Law Project, was facing a maximum of six years in state prison after his arrest for alleged criminal trespass and incitement of a riot near the Standing Rock Sioux reservation on February 1, 2017. “The world should know that it’s legally impossible for me and other Native people to trespass on treaty land," stated Chief Iron Eyes. Iron Eyes’ attorneys filed documents on Monday proving that his arrest occurred on treaty land never ceded by the Sioux tribe. The state of North Dakota ruled weeks ago that this land had never been acquired nor legally owned by pipeline parent company Energy Transfer Partners (ETP). "I and the water protectors are not terrorists. We and the US veterans who stood with us to protect Mother Earth are the true patriots,” said Iron Eyes.   Romero Institute co-founder Daniel Sheehan was chief attorney on Iron Eyes’ defense team for the Lakota People’s Law Project. Lakota People's Law is an ongoing campaign of the Romero Institute, an interfaith, nonprofit law and public policy center that grew out of the Christic Institute, and which has been at the center of profoundly significant landmark legal cases for social and environmental justice since the 1980's.   Radio Planet Watch is honored to host Daniel Sheehan's son, Lakota People's Law Project Program Director Danny Paul Nelson. Nelson, who holds a BA in Political Theory from Harvard and an MA in Social Science from the University of Chicago, speaks with Planet Watch hosts Jordan and Goodman about the recent legal victory from Standing Rock, and connections between indigenous rights and climate justice. Danny Paul Nelson of Lakota People's Law Project “Our work to prepare Chase’s defense unveiled solid evidence of a racially ­motivated criminal alliance between the oil companies and the private military security industry (colluding with local, state, and federal law enforcement) to deny Native Americans and their allies their civil and treaty rights,” said Danny Paul. “Standing Rock focused the attention of the world on the importance of Native sovereignty and the needs to protect water and resist climate change. Chase’s willingness to pursue a 'necessity' defense has produced strong legal tools for future protesters.” Prior to the interview with Danny Paul on today's show, Planet Watch shared an audio clip from a just ­released video, We Are Not Terrorists. In the video, Iron Eyes and his team position their anti­-pipeline protest in the context of what they assert to be a growing threat posed to civil liberties, embodied by the rise of anti­protest legislation and the burgeoning alliance between the oil companies and the private military security industry. The video is accompanied by an open letter to President Donald Trump. Danny Paul exposes a dangerous trend has emerging in Trump's America: The administration is opening Native American reservations and national monument lands to fossil fuel extraction, and activists are being targeted by law enforcement and treated like terrorists. Currently, 20 states have passed or are considering legislation that would curtail citizen rights to protest environmental destruction and human rights violations. Moving forward, Lakota People’s Law Project Chief Counsel Daniel Sheehan and the entire team will continue to strategically confront the fossil fuel industry and their destructive agenda, which threatens our water, our planet, and the entire human family.

Grid Alternatives Director of International Programs Jenean Smith is today's guest on Planet Watch Radio. The vision of Grid Alternatives is a successful transition to clean, renewable energy that includes everyone, and its mission is to make renewable energy technology and job training accessible to underserved communities everywhere. On today's program, find out about exciting volunteer opportunities in Nepal, Nicaragua, and around the world bringing solar electricity to rural villages! Jenean joined the solar industry in 2007 to work for Mitsubishi Electric's Solar Division and later worked for Trojan Battery Company's Renewable Energy Division. She is the founder of Power to the People, a non-profit organization that helps bring renewable energy solutions to the developing world, and facilitated its acquisition by GRID Alternatives. Before working in the solar industry, she was the Youth Program Director for the Riecken Foundation in Honduras and was a Peace Corps volunteer in San Lorenzo, Nicaragua. Jenean holds a BA in Sociology from UMASS Boston, an MBA from Northeastern University and a Masters in Sustainable International Development from Brandeis University.  

A major fraction of all driving consists of  "cross-town-scale" trips (20 miles or less).  If you're paying attention to our oncoming climate "train wreck" you're well aware of the great importance of getting people out of their cars. Better public transportation can do some of that, but how about a new public system for electrified personal transit? Find out about the new E-Bike-Share program now in Santa Cruz, San Francisco, Sacramento, Denver, New York, Austin, Chicago, Washington D.C., Berlin, and coming to your city soon! Joe Jordan and Rachel Anne Goodman interview JUMP Bikes "spokes"person Meaghan Mitchell about this new phenomenon. Air Date: August 19, 2018 on KSCO radio station AM1080

Save Our Shores is an ocean conservation organization in the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary. Led by Executive Director Katherine O'Dea, the Save Our Shores team of scientists, ecologists, educators, and conservationists are passionate about protecting the Monterey Bay and are making waves nationally as advocates for the world's oceans. Today, O'Dea visits Planet Watch Radio's Rachel Anne Goodman and Joe Jordan for a conversation centering on current news about drilling, threats to our Marine Sanctuaries, and legislation aimed to stave off the worst attacks on our oceans. Air Date: August 12, 2018 on KSCO radio station AM1080    

Rebroadcast of January 21, 2018 show: The president’s efforts to open most of the U.S. coastlines to oil drilling has sparked a bipartisan condemnation and resistance across most of the affected states. In this episode we hear from Dan Haifley, Executive Director of O’Neill Sea Odyssey and former Director of Save Our Shores about efforts to resist drilling of California and other coastlines. We also hear from Natural Resources Secretary for California, John Laird about legal and political maneuvering to avoid offshore drilling.  Original Air Date: January 21, 2018 on KSCO radio station AM1080

Friends visit Planet Watch's Joe Jordan for a free-ranging conversation on what an "everyday person" can do about the consequences of anthropogenic climate change, including our attitudes and actions when confronted catastrophic floods, droughts, crop failures, world hunger, the extreme decline in biodiversity, and a world on fire. Jack Nelson, Surrey Kent, and Diane Warren, all  members of Citizens Climate Lobby, are just "regular citizens" who have decided to tackle the climate issue. They talk about what everyday people might do to "make the world a better place" for their children and grandchildren. Jack is a recently retired county land use planner; Diane was a social service agency case worker until she became a full-time mom; and Surrey is a physician's assistant. Air Date: July 29, 2018 on KSCO radio station AM1080

In 2015 ,the Ocean Conservancy’s annual coastal cleanup found a total of 2,127,666 cigarette butts, over twice as many as the next most common form of litter. About half of these cigarette butts were picked up in the U.S., showing that while the problem is global, much of it is concentrated in the U.S.. Rachel Kippen is the Environmental Special Projects Coordinator for the City of Watsonville, and Tara Leonard is a tobacco health educator with the Santa Cruz County department of public health. What do these two people have in common? They are working on a three year project funded by California Proposition 56, that aims to educate the public about the environmental and public health costs of cigarettes. One such program is “The Butt Stops Here”. Air Date: July 22, 2018 on KSCO radio station AM1080

Report on last summer's forest fires in British Columbia, Canada, as well as a rebroadcast of an interview with solar and wind expert Chris Bley. Find out what's new in the wind turbine industry that could be scaled up even farther and why this clean energy source could help solve some of our problems. Original Air Date: August 6, 2017 on KSCO radio station AM1080  

Rebroadcast of our interview with Will Travis, expert on environmental policy implications of sea level rise due to out-of-control climate. Former California Coastal Commissioner and sea-level-rise expert Will Travis talks about revolutionary ways cities can adapt to rising sea levels. Thinking outside the box of permanent buildings, he suggests radical re-thinking on how city planning and policy innovations might allow for flexible habitation of coastal areas. Original Air Date: July 23 2017on KSCO radio station AM1080

#KidsGetIt !  Today, July 1, 2018, on Planet Watch, our guest is Ruby Rorty who, at age 14, founded the Santa Cruz Environmental Alliance http://santacruzenvironme.wixsite.com/scea a youth-led organization with the goal of empowering young people as ocean defenders capable of addressing coastal plastic pollution. One of Ruby's initiatives, #NoMoreMermaidTears , raises awareness about small pieces of glass or plastic which may comprise up to 90% of the islands of plastic now floating in the world's oceans. Ruby is an environmental educator and advocate from Santa Cruz, CA, where she grew up in and around the Pacific Ocean. She has joined the international conservation community as a youth leader for EarthEcho International. Ruby is also a board member for CS3 Game Changers with the Green Sports Alliance, and a public speaker on youth, justice, and the environment at events around the world. She will attend the University of Chicago starting next fall. There, she plans to study journalism, public policy, and economics, all in the context of environmental change and sustainability. Today's show hosted by Joe Jordan with co-hosts Tommy Martin and Maia Rodriguez. Air Date: July 1, 2018 on KSCO radio station AM1080

How does what we're learning about the great apes teach us about our humanity and hopes for survival on planet earth? Our guest on this week's Planet Watch is Michelle Merrill. She is currently an independent consultant (perplexedprimate.org) and the founder of Novasutras.org. She taught anthropology and sustainability courses at Cabrillo College from 2006 to 2013. She then had a 2 1/2 year research fellowship at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, doing work that led to her book on education for sustainability in Asia. She earned her Ph.D. in biological anthropology from Duke University in 2004. She worked with bonobos at the Language Research Center at Georgia State University, then in the rainforest of Zaire (now Democratic Republic of Congo) in the mid-1990s. She went on to do her dissertation research on social learning and the evolution of culture through a study of orangutans in the Sumatran rainforests. Air Date: June 24, 2018 on KSCO radio station AM1080  

On the podcast we hear an interview with deep sea researcher Linda Snook whose work takes her 1500 feet down underwater in a tiny submersible. The creatures she sees few people lay eyes on in a lifetime; giant sea bass, strange worms, and lantern fish are some of the surprises she finds on old oil rigs. Linda was part of the 2005 Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary Deep Habitat Assemblages - Research Monitoring and Assessment team and has co-authored a number of articles on her research for NOAA and the Bulletin of Marine Science. She also recently participated in a study on the effects of the electromagnetic fields (EMFs) generated by submarine power cables on aquatic organisms. Then, stories from Cabrillo College journalism students on topics ranging from elephant seals to landfills to sudden oak death. Air Date: June 17, 2018 on KSCO radio station AM1080

David Clague is our guest on Planet Watch. He is a senior scientist and volcanologist at MBARI, the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute. He talks about how Kilauea and other large active volcanoes help us learn more about our planet. Dave’s research interests are nearly all related to the formation and degradation of oceanic volcanoes, particularly Hawaiian volcanoes, mid-ocean ridges, and isolated seamounts. Topics of interest include: compositions of mantle sources for basaltic magmas and conditions of melting; development and evolution of magma chambers beneath spreading centers and Hawaiian volcanoes; volatile and rare-gas components in basaltic magmas and their degassing history; chronostratigraphic studies of eruption sequence and evolution of lava chemistry during volcano growth; subsidence of ocean volcanoes and its related crustal flexure, plate deformation, and magmatic activity; formation of cumulate xenoliths during different stages of Hawaiian volcanism; transport of volcaniclastic sediment on submarine slopes of volcanoes; geologic setting of hydrothermal activity; origin of isolated seamounts; monitoring of magmatic, tectonic, and hydrothermal activity at submarine and subaerial volcanoes; emplacement dynamics of subaerial and submarine lava flows; slope instability on volcanoes. Other guests include Tim Goncharoff of Santa Cruz County Public Works Department, talking about the changes to recycling post China's ruling on zero imported waste. Air Date: June 10, 2018on KSCO radio station AM1080.

At the University of California, students and faculty are engaged in a campaign to get one of the country's largest public university systems to divest their financial interests in fossil fuel companies on moral grounds and with the argument supporting polluting industries that contribute to global warming is contrary to the values of the institution.They are having some successes and some set-backs along the way. In this episode we hear from two students who are busy engaging in activism and advocacy on this issue.

An interview with NASA scientist Carol Stoker, an expert on Mars, the Red Planet. Carol Stoker is a staff planetary scientist at NASA Ames Research Center. Her most recent work is focused on developing instruments and robotic systems for space exploration and testing them in terrestrial analog environments. She has led field experiments in the Antarctic, arctic, undersea, and deserts in the southwestern US to demonstrate robotic systems to search for life on other planets. Her projects have won six NASA group achievement awards and she has over 100 publications. She is actively involved in the robotic exploration of Mars and in planning for future human exploration. She is currently a co-investigator on the Mars Phoenix mission that recently performed sampling near the north pole of Mars to search for habitable environments for life. She also currently leads activities to develop and test drilling systems to access the Martian subsurface to search for evidence of life. Original Air Date: May 7, 2017 on KSCO radio station AM1080

Stan Sokolow trained and practiced as an orthodontist most of his life. But his interest in solving the world's transportation problems became an obsession when he got inspired by reading about successes in other countries with this innovative solution. Find out which cities are already using this method of people moving and which are about to adopt it. What about self-driving buses? Would you ride on one? Here is more information on BRT:

Ever thought of making your own electricity in a nearby stream? We’ll talk with Don Harris, world-class guru on micro-hydropower and inventor of the Harris Hydroelectric Permanent Magnet Turbine about his experiences with these low-cost, high-return devices. Don lives up in the hills in the off-grid community of “Last Chance”, north of Santa Cruz, but his electric power generating systems have been installed at small stream sites all over the world. Original Air date: April 9, 2017 on KSCO radio station AM1080  

A conversation with David Orr, writer and professor emeritus of environmental studies and political science from Oberlin College about the future of American democracy. What do we do to repair the damage being done to our basic institutions by the current administration? What happens after 2018, 2020, and next week if there is a constitutional crisis? How does that relate to saving the environment? Tune in and find out. Dr. Orr is spearheading a project to develop conversations across the country about "what do we do now?" For more information on Dr. Orr's new project: www.stateofamericandemocracy.org  Original Air Date: February 4, 2018 on KSCO radio station AM1080

Jonathan Fortney is a planet hunter. His job as head of UC Santa Cruz's Astronomy Department is to look for exoplanets, planets orbiting other solar systems. He talks about what it would mean to find life, any life, elsewhere and how that ties in to our own stewardship of our own living planet.

What's so green about skyscrapers? What are the top three best ways to "green them up"? How long until owners recoup their investment in green retrofits? Find out with green building guru, Barry Giles, CEO of BREEAMUSA. Barry is the CEO of BREEAM USA and BuildingWise, as well as a LEED Fellow and a BREEAM Fellow with over 35 years in construction and facilities maintenance. He is a past member of the GBCI’s Credentialing Steering Committee and a past member of the Materials & Resources TAG and the LEED Curriculum Committee. Barry has consulted on or is currently working with 150 high performance existing buildings, along withLEED® and BREEAM® services, and has provided operations efficiency training, energy audits, and carbon footprint analysis, to government agencies, major commercial and institutional projects. As one of the founding members of the LEED-EB Core Committee, Barry assisted the USGBC’s education department in developing the LEED-EB training workshop that debuted in late 2003. A Senior LEED-EB USGBC Faculty, he has delivered all aspects of the workshop to over 5,000 individuals.USGBC Faculty are the official instructors of USGBC's instructor-led workshops working with USGBC's education delivery partners.

An interview with Scott Wing, Curator of Fossils at the Smithsonian Institute's National Museum of Natural History and a Yale educated expert in what happened when earth had its last period of global warming. We'll talk about what he learned that could help us understand and avoid repeating that turbulent time. Scott is a great storyteller and passionate advocate for the environment.His work was featured in this article in National Geographic. https://paleobiology.si.edu/staff/individuals/wing.cfm If you like this show, you'll also be interested in programs #0059 and #0060 about ancient earth and what it can tell us about the future.

A visit with Patricia Rain, the Vanilla Queen and a look at the future fate of our favorite flavors. Patricia Rain is an author, educator, culinary historian, and owner of The Vanilla Company, a socially conscious, product-driven information and education site dedicated to the promotion of pure, natural vanilla, and the support of vanilla farmers worldwide. The Vanilla Cookbook (Celestial Arts, 1986) established her as an authority on this exotic rainforest product.  She has continued to do research on the uses of vanilla in a diverse variety of applications: as a flavor in both sweet and savory foods; as a medicinal; as a fragrance; and in aromatherapy.  The Vanilla Chef (Vanilla Queen Press, 2002) is a companion book to the Internet business. Vanilla:  The Cultural History of The World’s Favorite Flavor and Fragrance (Tarcher, a member of the US Penguin Group, 2004) is her most recent book. Will there be vanilla, chocolate, and coffee in three decades? What can we do about the threats to the ecosystems and communities where these precious commodities grow? https://vanillaqueen.com/  

Guests Len Beyea, an energy efficiency engineer/expert on green buildings and efficiency and Peter Drekmeier, former Mayor of Palo Alto and an eco warrior for the Tuolumne River, among other causes, share their insights on how local municipalities and private companies can drastically reduce their carbon footprint by lowering energy use in buildings. Plus a little April foolish news.      

Dark Skies, Starry Nights: What have we lost by lighting up the world with artificial light? What can we gain by helping the skies stay dark at night, and infusing our days with natural light? How is artificial lighting impacting wildlife? What is being done to protect our sleep problems and loss of the night sky view? These are some of the questions we'll be taking up with members of the International Dark Sky Association Lisa Heschong and Jeff Parry.

Peter Fiekowsky is an entrepreneur committed to leaving a world we're proud of for our  children.  He is a founder of initiatives in climate restoration: 300x2050.com  and Healthy Climate Alliance. Founder and president of AVI LLC. Board  member of Repower Capital Inc. MIT physicist with 27 patents. Peter is an expert at identifying  and specifying intended outcomes so that pathways to success are  quickly identified and effective, committed teams are assembled that  achieve them. He connects experts and organizations that can contribute  to major initiatives from a variety of angles, and he supports them in  working collaboratively and constructively towards common goals. Peter’s current focus is on restoring a healthy climate for our children. 300x2050.com  provides links between potential funders and climate restoration  practitioners, facilitating funding that allows climate restoration work  to be scaled up. The Healthy Climate Alliance serves as a hub to  connect and support nine key communities--notably faith and spiritual  communities, policy and government, and science and research--allowing  them to enable each other’s progress towards restoring a healthy  climate. While some would say his ideas are overly optimistic, others say we can't hope to fix things if we don't start now and try everything that bears promise for turning around our march toward a hot earth.

We present a conversation with Dr. Mary Wilcox Silver,Professor Emeritus of Ocean Sciences, one of the first women to head a major Ocean Sciences department at a UC. Her works focuses on phytoplankton and ocean food webs. What do phytoplankton have to do with Alfred Hitchcock's movie, The Birds? Find out how Mary Silver figured out the answer!

James Zachos's investigations of the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum and other major climate shifts in Earth's past are highly relevant to understanding how human activities are driving modern-day global climate change. A study he coauthored in 2016 shows that the current rate at which carbon is being released into the atmosphere is unprecedented in at least the past 66 million years. He and his associates are also investigating ocean acidification (see acid oceans) that accompanied the extreme transient warmings. Zachos is a professor of Earth and planetary sciences at UC Santa Cruz. In addition, he is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, American Geophysical Union, California Academy of Sciences, and Geological Society of America. He received the 2016 Milutin Milankovic Medal from the European Geosciences Union. His work has been widely featured in media coverage of climate change, including articles in the New Yorker and National Geographic magazines. Air Date: March 4, 2018 on KSCO radio station AM1080

In this episode, we look at how archeologists are working with native tribes to mitigate the impact of sea level rise on native burial sites. We explore mapping the complex webs of interdependence involved in one native fishery and how that sheds light on our own food systems. Our guest is Mike Newland, a professional Archaeologist from Sonoma State University who is a leader in addressing issues involving cultural heritage and climate change. Plus, a look at using archeology to reunite the cremains of loved ones with their relatives after the Santa Rosa fires in California.

Dr. Surya Prakash, author of Beyond Oil and Gas: The Methanol Economy, which he co-wrote with George Olah and Alain Goeppert. Find out about his latest discovery for converting methane gas to plastics and other chemical science breakthroughs such as methanol which can reduce pollution. Prakash is holder of the George A. and Judith A. Olah Nobel Laureate Chair in Hydrocarbon Chemistry at the Loker Hydrocarbon Research Institute and Department of Chemistry at the University of Southern California.

In this podcast we present an interview with former Director of the California Coastal Commission, Charles Lester. Lester presided over the most powerful regulatory body in the nation when it comes to coastal protection under Governors Davis, Schwarzenegger, and Brown. He'll talk about protecting our coasts against drilling, development and sea level rise among other things. Plus news and a report about Watsonville Wetlands Watch, a program to protect what's left of this precious natural area. Air Date: February 11, 2018 on KSCO radio station AM1080

A conversation with David Orr, writer and professor emeritus of environmental studies and political science from Oberlin College about the future of American democracy. What do we do to repair the damage being done to our basic institutions by the current administration? What happens after 2018, 2020, and next week if there is a constitutional crisis? How does that relate to saving the environment? Tune in and find out. Dr. Orr is spearheading a project to develop conversations across the country about "what do we do now?" For more information on Dr. Orr's new project: www.stateofamericandemocracy.org  Air Date: February 4, 2018 on KSCO radio station AM1080    

How will Trump's tariffs on solar panels affect efforts to install millions of solar panels and fight climate change? Who are the winners and losers in this trade game? We'll hear from Markus Beck CTO of Siva Technologies, a solar manufacturing firm in the Bay Area, and Antony Tersol, Principal at Applied Solar Energy in Monterey. Air Date: January 28, 2018 on KSCO radio station AM1080

The president's efforts to open most of the U.S. coastlines to oil drilling has sparked a bipartisan condemnation and resistance across most of the affected states. In this episode we hear from Dan Haifley, Executive Director of O'Neill Sea Odyssey and former Director of Save Our Shores about efforts to resist drilling of California and other coastlines. We also hear from Natural Resources Secretary for California, John Laird about legal and political maneuvering to avoid offshore drilling.  Air Date: January 21, 2018 on KSCO radio station AM1080

For Jean and Jerry Thomas, organic farming came out of a love of gardening and an aversion to pesticides and the polluted world both of them grew up in around Los Angeles. Now, four decades later, they have handed a rich legacy to their children who are running Thomas Farms, a flower business that went through a long stage as an organic farm. In this podcast, they talk about how farming this way can help heal the planet and our own health.  Air Date: January 14, 2018 on KSCO radio station AM1080

We hear from Dr. Robert Kopp, one of the leading climate scientists in the U.S. talking about the most recent government report and what it says about sea level rise. Also, a story about selective logging in Santa Cruz County and a wave energy test facility in Oregon. Plus bombogenesis, ridiculously resilient ridges, and other new names for unusual and extreme weather events.  Air Date: January 7, 2018 on KSCO radio station AM1080

Happy New Year from Joe and Rachel! Welcome to a new bunch of shows and an expanding network of radio stations running the program. In the coming year we'll have more interviews with leading scientists and engineers and big thinkers helping us figure out how to live more wisely on this planet. For this week, Joe has picked out his favorite bits from last year to share with you. Air Date: December 31, 2017 on KSCO radio station AM1080

Why do our brains behave so differently around water, and how can we harness that relationship to clean up the rivers and oceans of the earth? We talk with best-selling author and marine biologist Wallace J. Nichols about his book BlueMind and the new book he's writing about ways to save the blue part of our planet. Air Date: December 10, 2017 on KSCO radio station AM1080

This week's program focuses on the opportunity within the tragedy that is Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria. Will the island move rapidly to embrace solar and micro-grids to make it more resilient? Will it go back to being 50% reliant on fossil fuels in giant centralized plants? Find out with journalist Ana Campoy and energy expert Cathy Kunkel. Kunkel grad­u­ated summa cum laude from Prince­ton Uni­ver­sity and received her B.A. in physics in 2006. As a Churchill Scholar, Kunkel com­pleted her Mas­ter of Advanced Study from the Depart­ment of Applied Math­e­mat­ics and The­o­ret­i­cal Physics from Cam­bridge Uni­ver­sity. Cathy was a Ph.D. stu­dent at the Energy and Resource Group at the Uni­ver­sity of Cal­i­for­nia at Berkeley.

A tour of an off-the-grid solar home in California with Bob Stayton, author and engineer, plus passive cooling of your home and homemade solar bread . Air Date: July 16, 2017 on  KSCO radio station AM1080 Power Shift: From Fossil Energy to Dynamic Solar Power is Bob's new book, available on Amazon. Contact Radio Planet Watch hosts Joe Jordan and Rachel Anne Goodman at radioplanetwatch@gmail.com

Solar energy! The sun can provide clean energy and can save you money. Find out from solar expert Jack Martin how he won a solar car race with a vehicle he built,  and why. Community College teacher "Sustainable Jack", who has taught solar installation to thousands, discusses alternative energy and environmental issues on his show "Home Power Radio Hour" every week on our affiliate radio station WCOM-LP in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. From another of our affiliate radio stations, WGRN FM Community Radio out of Columbus, Ohio, we interview community radio founder Eugene Beer. Bringing the two solar pioneers and community radio champions into our studio in Santa Cruz, California with their long-time friend "Cosmic Joe" yields a fun and far ranging conversation from solar ferries and boats, advanced vehicles of all sorts, frontiers of electric power, and - as Jack says, "Bringing The Hope of Sustainability to a Terminal Culture." Tune in for all of this, plus Joe's usual astronomical gems and scientific brain teasers.