From This Old House, Clearstory returns with a brand-new season—with more incredible insight from industry leaders, historians, and builders alike. Listen as host Kevin O’Connor unveils some unexpected truths, flashes back to the past, and takes a glimpse into the future to shed light on the stories behind our homes.

We are ending 2020 with some good news: Clearstory will be back for its second season in spring 2021! In the meantime, we’re bringing you an episode of “The Walk-In,” a podcast from our friends at America’s Test Kitchen. In this episode, podcast host and chef Elle Simone Scott sits down with Mashama Bailey, executive chef and co-founder of The Grey in Savannah, Georgia, to chat about cooking with intention, developing confidence in the kitchen, and balancing creative energy with business savvy.

Clearstory will be back for season 2, but in the meantime, we’re excited to announce the debut of the Ask This Old House Podcast. Just like the Emmy-Award winning TV show on PBS, the podcast features the Ask This Old House experts, who answer home improvement questions from homeowners around the country. In the first episode, This Old House editor Chris Ermides sits down with master electrician Heath Eastman to help a homeowner with a ceiling fan in a loft space, and a bathroom chandelier. 

After major natural disasters, like Superstorm Sandy and the Paradise, California fires, why do some homeowners choose to rebuild, often in the very same spot, while others opt to move and start fresh elsewhere? We hear stories from people who’ve made these tough decisions. Then, psychology professor Susan Clayton and This Old House’s Richard Trethewey talk about what “home” really means.

We’ve all seen a dumpster full of debris on a job site, but do you know anything about where that construction waste ends up? We generate about 570 million tons of construction waste every year... and that number is growing. Listen as This Old House Contractor Charlie Silva sorts through what we can reuse or recycle, the EPA’s Nicole Villamizar runs the numbers, and Professor Debbie Reinhart looks to smarter technology.

Clearstory will be back with a brand new episode next week. In the meantime, we’re excited to share a favorite podcast of ours: Proof from America’s Test Kitchen. Kevin sits down with host Bridget Lancaster to learn more about the podcast which “goes beyond recipes and cooking to investigate the foods we love,” and then we bring you the “Prepping for the Worst” episode of the show.

In the future, you might have wireless electricity powering virtually everything in your home fed by transparent solar cells planted in your window glass. Alex Gruzen of WiTricity and Professor Vladimir Bulovic of MIT.nano explain the electric futures they are working on. And in the meantime, This Old House electrician Heath Eastman shares what he’s wiring up these days.

Not everyone wants to talk about it, but the toilet is responsible for saving countless lives throughout human history. Hodding Carter, author of “Flushed: How the Plumber Saved Civilization” takes us on a journey through the toilet’s development, and This Old House’s Richard Trethewey tours the Plumbing Museum with an eye to the past before looking to the future.

Put simply, building science is used to optimize the performance of a building...but what does that actually mean for your home? Noted expert and industry consultant Christine Williamson helps decode the science, and offers practical tips to make your home more comfortable and efficient, and This Old House’s Richard Trethewey dons his lederhosen and fawns over German energy efficiency.

The design, the materials, the maintenance. Let’s face it, most of us don’t really know what’s up there protecting us. It’s battered by the wind, the rain, snow, and the sun and it’s supposed to take it all without any complaints or leaks. In this episode, Duo Dickinson, architect and author of “A Home Called New England” tells us what the perfect roof has to deal with, while Anne Cope, Chief Engineer of the Insurance Institute for Business and Home Safety shares how roofs are tested. You’ll also hear tips from This Old House’s Charlie Silva and Jeff Sweenor on how to keep roofs in tip-top shape and what to do when you need a new one.