It's Hot in Here

As tensions grow surrounding the U.S. pullout from the 2015 UN Paris Climate Agreement, keeping up to date on the latest negotiations is of the utmost importance. This week on It’s Hot In Here radio Climate Blue delegates to the COP 23 UN Climate Conference Tyler Fitch and Chris Karounos joined regular host Ben Sonnega to report back on the sights and sounds in Bonn, Germany. The negotiations have taken place every year for the last 23 years with the goal of creating a unified vision for acting on global climate change.

Tyler is a second-year Masters’ student in SEAS (School for Environment and Sustainability), studying social processes and outcomes of transitioning to clean energy. This year, he led a campaign to get the University of Michigan to sign on to the We Are Still In pledge.

Chris is cofounder of Abaca Games and was a student co-creator of the open online course called Act on Climate. He studies Environmental Informatics and is a mycorrhizal fungus Nerd. Follow this link to sign up for early access to his climate change based video game coming in January!

These two busy gentlemen were kind enough to sit down and share some of their personal stories from the weeks spent in Bonn, as well as opinions on the state of climate negotiations at the international stage. The show also includes an interview with Secretary Kijiner of the Marshall Islands conducted by Chris while he there. The interview reflects general sentiments shared by both Tyler and Chris stressing that as we work towards international agreements, it is important to keep in mind these are real lives at risk; in particular for the currently sinking island nations. This is the sad truth of climate change. Those contributing the least to global emissions are commonly suffering the most immediate and severe consequences. Despite this heart-wrenching feeling, Chris shares how uplif

This week on It’s Hot In Here radio, those lucky enough to enter the WCBN studios were greeted by the warm and rich tones of the cello and baroque flute warming up to play. On flute was Taya König-Tarasevich, who has studied music in Siberia, Freiburg Germany and Ann Arbor Michigan and now plays from New York City where she lives with her husband. On the cello was Ann Arbor native and Community High alumna Anna Steinhoff. Described by critics as “soulful,” and “the rhythmic heart of the ensemble”, she has studied music at Oberlin and Northwestern University. She is still currently based in the Chicago area. Also joining us on the mic is pianist Shin Hwang. Shin is a prize-winner of the 1st International Westfield Fortepiano Competition, and a versatile keyboardist who has won recognition in both modern and historical performance.

Unfortunately Shin could not bring the hefty fortepiano into the studio, but we still got to hear from Taya and Anna both together and solo.

Are you concerned about climate change? Would you like to learn about how you can address and respond to this challenge – whether as an individual, by collaborating with others, or through political actions? Click play on this episode of It’s Hot In Here to hear from the SEAS graduate students that helped design the Act on Climate MOOC now available on Coursera. The course uses food, energy, transportation and cities as frames for things impacting climate change, and uses true and inspiring case studies as the subject material for discussion. We heard from the students as well as local farmer, green realtor, and board member of local sustainability initiative The Agrarian Adventure, Jeff Tanza.

In this show listeners get a quick and dirty version of the course as we discuss all of the possible behaviors that an individual could take across these topic areas, and discuss some local events and happenings to follow-up with. This is where our friend Jeff played a particularly useful role as a member of the Ann Arbor community. We discussed his work with The Agrarian Adventure and gett

This October the University of Michigan directly addressed the most pressing issue of our time at the 2017 Michigan and the Climate Crisis conference. This week-long celebration of the University’s bicentennial was aimed at confronting the present and future of the climate crisis. Luckily, the Hot In Here team was able to track down some of the speakers throughout the week for interviews. These speakers include Sandra Steingraber, Stephen Mulkey, Michael Mann, and Wege Lecture guest, internationally renowned environmentalist, and founder of 350.org Bill McKibben.

Throughout the show you will see that these leading scientists all agree on one thing; we can’t leave science “on the shelf” (as Steingraber put it). Hear their powerful call to action seep through as host Harry Rice picks their brains about the issues we face. This along with music from John Prine, The Tragically Hip, Rumspringa, and more can be found here!

The University of Michigan’s Bicentennial Celebration and the introduction of the new School for Environment and Sustainability, both occurring this weekend got the team at It’s Hot In Here feeling reflective. How have we experienced sustainability in our respective times here? What things are most promising? Where does the University fall short?

This week’s guest, Doug Ham, joined hosts Harry Rice, Bean Sonnega, and Heena Singh for an engaging and fruitful, free-flowing conversation on his experience with the Michigan Medical System and its sustainability goals. Doug holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Biological Anthropology, and is currently enrolled in the accelerated Bachelor’s of Nursing program at the University of Michigan. In this episode he spoke on issues such as the amount of disposable waste products generated by the hospital system, as well as views on interdisciplinary involvement between the medical field and other disciplines at the university. Yet, one of his best contributions was offering the perspective of an outsider looking in to the newly launch School for Environment and Sustainability, and causing some of us to address the difficulty in implementing such a lofty goal for our future.

The new school has made a point of focusing on involving experts from across campus such as those at the Ford School of Public Policy and the Ross School of Business. The Hot in Here panel all agreed that this interdisciplinary work will be the catalyst for positive change as we look to the University of Michigan to take the lead towards a more sustainable future.

All of this and more was nicely accompanied by music from Ann Arborites Sufjan Stevens and, past Michigan Wolverine, Iggy Pop. Thanks for tuning into this week’s episode of It’s Hot In Here. We look forward to many more conversations with you.

On this eerie Friday the 13th in the WCBN-FM studio, Roustabout Theatre’s Joe Zettelmaier and Anna Simmons join host Ben Sonnega for a chat about the troupe’s latest production, the hilarious and haunting Dark Ride Radio Hour.

Joseph Zettelmaier is executive director of Roustabout Theatre and is an award-winning playwright with over 20 professional productions to his name. He’s taught at Eastern Michigan University for over a decade and been produced locally and internationally. Joseph Albright is a professional actor and director, appearing both on stage and on screen. He’s also been the Theatre Director at Ypsilanti’s Corner Health Center for many years. Anna is managing director for Roustabout and currently works at the University Musical Society.

Joe and Anna came to discuss not only the origins of the theatre troupe and their latest spooky endeavor, but all things Halloween (Joe’s undeniably favorite holiday) including classic Halloween rock tunes, favorite costumes, raffle prizes to be won at the live show, and much more!

Fashioned as a golden-era radio show, including live Foley sound effects, the Dark Ride Radio Hour will feature four new horrifying radio scripts by Joseph Zettelmaier, and TWO opportunities to catch the performance! The Dark Ride Radio Hour is an immersive experience, just in time for the Halloween season. Close your eyes to image the action or watch the way these gruesome sounds are made!

Performances will take place on October 14th at Bona Sera in Ypsilanti AND on October 21st at the Trinity House in Livonia, making this the very first Roustabout event to “roust” in and of itself! Go online and buy your tickets now as they are going fast!

Get in the Halloween spirit with Roustabout Theatre on this week’s episode of It’s Hot In Here.

When asked to describe an average day of class at the EcoQuest study abroad program, our guests replied, “there’s  no such thing.”

This week on It’s Hot, adventurers   Lauren Vesprani and Jessa Webber joined host Ben Sonnega live on air to share  one of the most exciting abroad experiences an undergraduate student could have.

Jessa is a senior studying Environmental Policy with a minor in Law, Justice, and Social Change, and Lauren is a senior studying EEB, evolutionary anthropology, and Program in the Environment. Last winter, both of them attended EcoQuest, a environmental and field-based study abroad program in New Zealand. The program runs in partnership with the University of New Hampshire and invites college students from the United States  to join in an immersive semester of ecological science studies based around the ecosystems and communities in New Zealand.

Lauren and Jessa share stories of everything from deep water diving in coral reefs, to direct encounters with leading New Zealand government officials (and even a run-in with hypothermia! Listen in for more on why this experience-based learning environment is such a wild success,  plus music from New Zealand artist Pacific Curls, as well as Jack Johnson and Bob Dylan. What does adventure mean to you, Hot listeners, and do you agree most of us learn best when we live the lessons?

For those that care about the mitigation of climate change, it can seem like the list of institutional changes that are needed goes on and on. Luckily we have people like Noah Feingold putting in the time to work on specific and measured solutions.

Noah joined Hot hosts Ben Sonnega and  Heena Singh today as he is starting his second-year MBA/MS graduate program at the Erb Institute. This is a dual-degree program between the Ross School of Business and School of Natural Resources and Environment. Noah is focusing his graduate studies on sustainability issues in the transportation sector. Before coming to Ann Arbor, Noah spent four years in Boston, MA working in economic consulting. Noah received his B.A. in Math and Economics from Wesleyan University in Connecticut, where he was a member of the varsity baseball team. Maybe all that hard training and teamwork makes him better able to  focus on and work toward the complex goal of green aviation?

Global aviation accounts for approximately 2 percent of global CO2 emissions (some estimates find that the impact on global warming is closer to 5 percent due to water vapor and nitrogen emissions). Strong growth in the aviation industry and decarbonization in other industries could raise the 2 percent to 5-10 percent of global CO2 emissions in the coming decades. Nevertheless, aviation groups have set a goal to reduce CO2 emissions by 2050 to 50 percent of 2005 levels. The development of sustainable aviation fuels (SAF) is critical to reaching this goal.

This past summer, Noah interned at the Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI)–you remember that Colorado-based non-profit think-and-do-tank that focuses on the efficient and restorative use of resources? We talked about it in Part One of this series, our very first show this fall season, with Eric Krostich.  Noah worked in their New York location on the sustainable aviation practice area that emerged from RMI’s partnership with Sir Richard Branson’s Carbon War Room.  The partnership has introduced an airport-centric model to aggregate SAF demand to in turn spur additional supply of SAF production. Noah’s research focused on the regulatory landscape around biofuels and the positive externalities associated with SAF, too often unvalued but potentially assets to an airport  guaranteeing demand of SAF.

From Frank Sinatra’s “Fly me to the moon” to Steve Miller Band’s “Fly like an Eagle,” and even a call in from a cranky coal industry professional, this exciting episode of It’s Hot In Here  is well worth tuning in for before your weekend gets all the way turned up.

The day that the United States dropped the atomic bomb on the people of Nagasaki is one that will not be forgotten in history, but do we truly understand all of the repercussions still?

During this week’s show on It’s Hot In Here host Ben Sonnega was joined by Aleksandr Sklyar, a University of Michigan PhD candidate in Sociocultural Anthropology. Alex told us about the website Nagasaki Atomic History and the Present (NAHP) which he created with Georgia Butcher and Benjamin Kelsey last summer at Colgate University. You can access NAHP and see for yourself!

The site features interviews with atomic bomb survivors conducted by Alex during his time spent in Japan, as well as statements from experts in the field on nuclear weapons technology. The site also features a NUKEMAP simulator that allows the user to plug in their hometown and see data like the number of casualties and the range of the blast if a similar bomb were to be dropped in the US.

In this episode Ben and Alex discuss everything from nuclear weapons education approaches, to cultural differences in how the history is written, to nuclear war scenarios played out in Japanese anime, taking a question or two from callers along the way.  Stream or download; enjoy and reflect on the ways we as students can also become teachers, gathering and conveying information in innovative ways.