Join our podcast host and former NYT editor David Corcoran as he talks with Carrie Arnold about her Undark Case Study on the he toxic legacy of a 1973 chemical accident. Also: commentator Seth Mnookin on the biggest science stories of 2017, and Randy Scott Carroll on what it means to be alive.

The environmental price of clean energy in the Balkan states and the rise of predatory journals. Plus, Part 1 of a two part series on what it means to be "alive."

A campaign to wipe out polio in a corner of Nigeria where it stubbornly hangs on, issues in science journalism, and growing your own produce at home.

Threats to the national parks, a controversial editorial in Nature, and a rare genetic disorder afflicting descendants of New Mexico’s Spanish settlers.

The ethical debate surrounding a New York Times reporter hired by the Manhattan Project to be its chronicler and cheerleader, as well as an effort to increase science communication in the public sphere.

A program to stop deforestation and protect wildlife in Kenya, a controversial literature review on gender identity, and whirling disease in Banff National Park.

An effort to monitor public health in North Korea by studying refugees who defected to the South, media coverage of health care and addiction, and the effects on your body from being buried at sea.

A visit with the virus hunters of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the state of long form science journalism, and a tool for treating obsessive hair-pulling.

The future of the Great Plains ecosystem, the downside of conservation in East Africa, and a recap of the March for Science.

The toxic legacy and uncertain future of Ohio's former Great Black Swamp, why you should be skeptical of scientific studies you read about, and the fight to restore some of North America’s greatest rapids.