Gulf Streams

Ever since the development of the High Line in New York, urban leaders have recognized the potential for unconventional spaces -- especially in economically marginalized areas or in deindustrialized spaces -- for new greenways. These spaces are often privately led, and explicitly aim for economic development as a goal of the new amenity. We sit down with Kevin Loughran (Temple University) to talk about his book, Parks for Profit, and the development of urban parks across the country, including Buffalo Bayou Park in Houston. 

On today's show we have two segments both thinking through how to bring more natural solutions and greenery into the world. First is a conversation with the team at SPARK, a local non-profit that builds park spaces for students, and how they're thinking about green initiatives in parks. After that we learn about Nature's Burial, a new organization working to preserve local landscape while helping put loved ones to rest in planet healthy ways.

Keeping a city's canopy thriving is hard work: the planting, growing, and replanting of trees takes constant effort. Today we sit down with Barry Ward (Trees for Houston) to talk all about the work of maintaining and growing Houston's tree canopy. Later in the hour our researcher Sophia talks to Robby Robinson (Buffalo Bayou Preserve) in a Critter Corner segment.

Teaching the science of ecology and environment is an essential part of educating the next generation of environmental caregivers. But how we communicate those core ideas and help future scientists to understand the world around us requires finding ways of connecting and learning across science and nature. Artist Boat, a local nonprofit dedicated to science education through the arts, works to bridge that divide through artistic engagement and conservation work. On today's show we talk to their Karla Klay, their executive director, to learn all about how they marry art and science to help protect our environment.

Our co-host Dr. Chaney Hill (Rice University) is joined by Christopher Nicholson (Rice University) to sit down with author Kent Wascom (author of such books as The Blood of Heaven, The New Inheritors, and his newest book, The Great State of Florida). Together, they discuss the role of contemporary fiction in telling the story of the Gulf South and better understanding our natural world through fiction. 

Today we sit down with Austin gardener and designer Pam Penick, who tells us all about her newest book Gardens of Texas: Visions of Resilience from the Lone Star State. Over a career writing and thinking about garden spaces, Penick shares her insights into how gardens can survive and thrive even in the harshest of Texas environments. 

We sit down with Christopher Brown, whose new book A Natural History of Empty Lots to discuss finding meaning in abandoned places. Then we chat with Dr. Rebecca Potts (Rice University) who discusses how we came to afford value to places out of larger theological viewpoints. 

Artist jackie sumell joins us to discuss her newest artwork, right here in Houston, Endangered Feces. A piece that helps to create ecosystems as it naturally decomposes, summell explains her process, mission, and goals with this new phase in her work. 

Nathaniel Rich (Tulane University) is a journalist, novelist, and creative writer whose work spans deep, investigative research to historical fiction. His documenting legal challenges to PFAS was turned into the 2019 film Dark Waters. Today our researcher Antara and host Weston Twardowski sit down to chat with him about his book Second Nature, which explores how humans are inherently entangled with our "natural" worlds, and what that means for how we choose to live with nature going forward. 

On today's show we sit down with Dr. Rakan Zahawi (Charles Darwin Foundation) and Dr. Bren Ram (Island Conservation) who walk us through the work global conservation organizations take on, and how the lessons from conservation groups globally can help us rethink our local environments.