Since 2011, the Climate Science Legal Defense Fund has supported hundreds of researchers who have been attacked, sued, defamed, and threatened — and this year the organization has been busier than ever. The group’s director, Lauren Kurtz, says she’s happy that her organization is being sought out by scientists in need—and really sad that there is a…

Anne Schechinger, isn’t opposed to federally subsidized insurance, but she believes it’s long past time that we look very hard at places like the Lonestar State and ask whether things need to change.By Matthew LaPlante

It's possible that a nation suffering from the extreme effects of climate warming might take simple steps that could change the global atmosphere. There’s not much to stop it from happening, so Ben Kravitz says the the world needs to be prepared.By Matthew LaPlante

John Vucitech suggests that it’s not just the science that matters when we’re talking about our longstanding views on wolves–it’s also a matter of compassion, and of understanding.By Matthew LaPlante, Raegan Edelman

Coral reefs are some of the oldest, most diverse ecosystems on Earth. But they’re also among the most vulnerable. So, what do we do? Mary Hagedorn has an idea: Let’s collect as many as possible and freeze them.By Matthew LaPlante

Rafi Kohan’s latest book tells the story of trash talk, and explains why the practice of leveling vicious insults at our rivals might not be all that bad.By Matthew LaPlante, Raegan Edelman

Bill Weir once felt as though he was watching the American story change in staggering ways. But now he wakes up each morning with more wonder than worry.By Matthew LaPlante

Brittany Gowan says that no matter where you are, and no matter how far you might feel from the world as it once existed, you can still connect to nature.By Matthew LaPlante

If you have a gnawing sense that this is end of the world as we know it, then know this: You’re not alone. And Athena Aktipis has some advice for you.By Matthew LaPlante

Until recently, there hasn’t been a great way of assessing groundwater storage, or understanding how climate change is impacting it.By Matthew LaPlante

Matthew’s recent paper looks at the potential connections between ocean temperatures and epic winters, like the one we experienced in the Mountain West in 2022-23.By Matthew LaPlante, Raegan Edelman

For 21 years, the pub event series known as Nerd Nite has cross-crossed the globe, making science accessible and fun.By Matthew LaPlante

In The Asteroid Hunter, Dante Lauretta chronicles the quest to retrieve a sample from Bennu, which is one of the large asteroids that is most likely to collide with the Earth.By Matthew LaPlante

The young adults who comprise Generation Z live in a world of far less violent crime relative to the generation before them. So, why are so many of them struggling? Educator John Creger thinks he has part of the answer: They often need help understanding who they are in this world.By Matthew LaPlante

Anne Curzan might seem like a strange sort of English teacher. The veteran professor doesn’t believe in “right” and wrong” when it comes to grammar. Rather, she wants people to be able to make informed choices about language.By Matthew LaPlante

Laura Lewis met a bonobo named Louise as part of a study on the capacity of bonobos to remember the faces of apes they’d spent time with decades earlier. And Louise remembered.By Matthew LaPlante

Like many Americans, Sarah McCammon grew up in a deeply evangelical family, where she was plagued by fears and deep questions about her belief system, but scared to leave.By Matthew LaPlante

Until recently, nematodes weren’t known to live in the Great Salt Lake. And, in fact, very little lives there — because the lake’s salinity makes most life untenable. But, as it turns out, these tiny worms were doing just fine.By Matthew LaPlante

When humans debate climate policy, the questions asked are often posed in terms of what will work best. Fairness isn’t always, or even often, taken into account. But Stacia Ryder thinks that needs to change.By Matthew LaPlante

Ultra-processed food and the companies that produce them contribute significantly to the epidemic in diabetes, cancer, dementia, and other chronic disease. Is it time to regulate these products like tobacco? And will it take a class action suit to make that happen? Erik Peper believes so.By Matthew LaPlante

Memory is not a rigid, static picture of what came before. Rather, it’s a nebulous, ever-changing conceptualization of who we were, what we believed, what happened to us, and what was happening around us.By Matthew LaPlante

There is precedent for humans connecting with other living things, like getting attention, love, and companionship from dogs and cats and a few other animals that have been domesticated to provide partnership. Now, there’s a new option for meeting this need — social robots — who may end up being even better at fulfilling the human desire for connec…

When an Austrian bug collector discovered a new species of beetle in the 1930s, he bestowed upon it the name of a person he greatly admired. He called it Anophthalmus hitleri — and sent Adolf Hitler a note announcing the onomastic tribute. After nearly 90 years, should species still be named after horrible people?…

Long before Julius Caesar became one of the most powerful rulers in the world, he was a relatively unknown curator of the Via Appia, a road stretching from Rome on the Tyrrhenian Coast to the Salento Peninsula on the Adriatic Sea. Our guest John Keahey traversed the Via Appia, and he joins us to talk about it.…

A new book by Lowell Baier is not just a history of The Endangered Species Act, but an explanation of what’s gone right and what’s gone wrong in the implementation of this historic federal statute.By Matthew LaPlante

Slavery in the United States is often thought to be an institution of the American South, but western states played a part as well. In Utah, a law passed in 1852 made slavery and the slave trade legal, and this law was passed under the urging of the first territorial governor, Brigham Young. Historian Paul Reeve joins the program to discuss newly u…

Water crises are nothing new. Indeed they’ve influenced the very course of human history again and again but we’ve never had a planet with 10 billion people on it before, and so can we solve the water crisis at a global scale?By Matthew LaPlante

If we are going to go to Mars, we’re going to need to bring a lot of things that we need to live that the red planet, so far as we can tell, just doesn’t have... and that includes bugs.By Matthew LaPlante

Autism Spectrum Disorder exists on a continuum of behaviors, capabilities, and deviations from norms — and for a very long time, that spectrum didn't include much space for girls.By Matthew LaPlante

Almost all large organizations — from government entities to universities to private businesses — engage in sexual harassment prevention training. And yet the problem persists.By Matthew LaPlante

The recent disaster in Maui was the deadliest U.S. wildfire in more than a century, and it has highlighted a gaping hole in the country's disaster response.By Matthew LaPlante

Consider for a moment what our world would look like without seeds.By Matthew LaPlante

There are no openly gay players in any of the five major men's sports leagues in the United States. But that's not because there are no gay players in those leagues.By Matthew LaPlante

There's a force that people don't think much about — the existential terror of accepting the truth about global warming. But what if we didn't have to be afraid?By Matthew LaPlante

As the Great Salt Lake has shrunk in recent years, it has become an increasingly hostile place to life of all kinds.By Matthew LaPlante

Under climate warming, the risk of wildfires is increasing. So, we're all going to need to adapt.By Matthew LaPlante

The top-grossing movie of 2023 is a movie about a doll that is known for creating toxic expectations about girls' bodies and also paving the way for girls to be anything they want.By Matthew LaPlante

Humans have evolved to do lots of things. And one thing scientists are now coming to recognize is that we also evolved to fight — with each other.By Matthew LaPlante

The OSIRIS-Rex mission has picked up a piece of the asteroid Bennu projected to pass close to Earth. Precautionary? Maybe. But there's a big enough risk that we're doing something about it.By Matthew LaPlante, Raegan Edelman

85% of deaf children attend mainstream public schools and many deaf advocates will say this is a good thing, but good intentions and good educational practices are two different things.By Matthew LaPlante

Romeo and Juliet has always been about life in a pandemic, we're just starting to notice it.By Matthew LaPlante

Ira Hayes has been commemorated in movies and songs, but his actual life after WWII is still shrouded in a lot of mystery.By Matthew LaPlante

There is no national strategy, let alone a global one to mitigate the dangers of diseases that spread from animals to humans.By Matthew LaPlante

There are many ways Latino people and cultures have influenced the country. Some linguists say that an entirely new American dialect is taking shape right now, in Miami.By Matthew LaPlante

In American history, women have largely been left out of newsrooms, so how has that changed history?By Matthew LaPlante

When you think about a beehive, you probably imagine the queen as the leader. But that's not actually how it works.By Matthew LaPlante

We still need to figure out better long term water solutions. And those discussions tend to happen with more urgency when water is scarce.By Matthew LaPlante

One of the places the world is warming the most is in our cities, as a result of the urban heat island effect. But there’s a way to combat this problem.By Matthew LaPlante

Climate scientists are now looking at rivers and streams. And what they're finding is that these parts of our world are warming rapidly.By Matthew LaPlante

In a rapidly warming world, hot sex just took on a whole new meaning.By Matthew LaPlante