KGNU - How On Earth

The Quest to Replace Human Body Parts (start time: 3:06) In this week’s pledge-drive show, science writer Mary Roach discusses her latest book, Replaceable You: Adventures in Human Anatomy, which was recently released in paperback (W.W. Norton & Co.). Roach is a New York Times bestselling author of Stiff,  Fuzz, Bonk, and several more books. In Replaceable You, she explores the centuries-old audacious quest to replace and improve human body parts

Hosts: Susan Moran, Joel Parker

Listen to the show here:

From Climate Week to Societal Climate Engagement (start time: 1:22) Last week tens of thousands of people from environmental nonprofit organizations, private companies, academia and other sectors came together in New York City for Climate Week NYC, which coincided with the United Nations General Assembly and the UN  Climate Summit. While climate activists, communicators and others discussed political and economic challenges and opportunities related to transitioning society to clean energy, world leaders at the UNGA displayed in their speeches a widening chasm between nations’ world views. On one end of the spectrum, President Trump rejected warnings of global warming, and on the other end Brazilian president (“Lula”) da Silva urged nations to protect forests and decarbonize economies. In these hyperpolarized times, it seems at once impossible and essential to talk across political divides, and to connect the dots between a healthy climate, a healthy economy, and a healthy human species. In today’s How On Earth, host Susan Moran interviews Dr. Maxwell Boykoff, a professor of environmental studies at the University of Colorado Boulder , Faculty Executive Director of the SPIKE Center for Sustainability Education, and author of the book Creative (Climate) Communications;  and Sofia Billich, a junior at CU Boulder and Co-President of the CU Boulder chapter of the Citizens Climate Lobby, a national nonprofit, nonpartisan organization devoted to promoting climate solutions in Congress.

Host/producer: Susan Moran

Listen to the show here:

In this week’s show, Beth speaks with author and evolutionary biologist, Rowan Hooper, discussing the themes and examples of symbiosis from his current book, Togetherness: Symbiosis and the Hidden Story of Life’s Greatest Collaborations. He explored the history of study of symbiosis, as well as wonderful stories illustrating this complex phenomenon. And, he went beyond examples to discuss the unifying theme of cooperation in the story of life on our planet. A lesson for our future.

Executive Producer” Beth Bennett

Listen to the show:

CU Boulder Computer Scientist Aaron Clauset says military leaders frequently underestimate the ultimate length and size of a war.   Clauset offers a new way to measure wars, not just by counting deaths at a war’s end – his research shows how death rates change, throughout a war.  This provides insights into what causes wars to escalate, and carries the hope of leading to more ways to avoid wars or help them end.

Go here to reserve a spot, for Clauset’s 6 PM, September 22nd, public presentation, at the CU Boulder Biofrontiers Butcher Auditorium.  Clauset titles his talk:  A Fragile Peace: What the statistics of war tell us about our future.”

Host/Producer: Shelley Schlender

Forests Vanishing in Wake of Megafires (start time: 7:55) Increasingly  large and hot wildfires are turning many conifer-dominated forests in the western U.S.and Canada into shrublands or grasslands, largely by making it impossible for ponderosa and other pines to reseed themselves. The stakes are high, for flora and wildlife, as well as humans. For instance, charred conifer forests are causing winter snowpack to melt earlier, changing the timing of water availability and threatening future water supply for the 40-plus million people who live in the Colorado River Basin states and on tribal lands. In this week’s How On Earth, host Susan Moran interviews  Dr. Jonathan Coop, a fire ecologist at Western Colorado University. He’s been monitoring shifts in dry-conifer forests in the western U.S. and Canada for many years. Dr. Coop is the lead author of a study, published recently in the journal Science Advances, about how pine seeds aren’t able to regenerate after super intense wildfires. He also co-authored another recent study, in PNAS, which projects a major further erosion of remaining conifer forests in northern New Mexico if current wildfire patterns persist. Dr. Coop was featured in a recent New York Times article on wildfire trends and impacts.

Hosts: Susan Moran, Joel Parker

Listen to the show here:

Teaching through screens is part of getting kids ready for the digital world.  But when do tech and screens help students and when do they get in the way?  CU-Boulder Journalism Student Juliana Krigsman explores these questions with teachers, with Boulder Valley School District’s Academic Services Director Lynn Gershman, and with CU-Boulder Psychology and Neuroscience Professor Rosalinde Kaiser.

Host: Benita Lee

Listen to the show here:

Climate “hushing” (start time: 5:41) Since President Trump began his second term as president in January, 2025, his administration, at a dizzying pace, has attacked climate change as a Democratic elite “hoax” and gutted federal funding for climate-related research and institutions. Partly in response to these attacks, and in an attempt to appeal to more centrist voters ahead of the midterm elections, many left-leaning politicians have decided to stop talking directly about climate change, and to pull back on initiatives to combat global warming. This pattern is known as “climate hushing.” Some argue that it doesn’t mean these leaders care any less about climate change, and that it’s a necessary strategy to reach more centrist voters. But critics  argue that climate hushing is more insidious and, in effect, it is spurring a vicious cycle: The less leaders talk about climate change, the less the public thinks it’s important and feels inspired to take action. In this week’s How On Earth, host Susan Moran interviews journalist Sammy Roth, who recently wrote an article about climate “hushing” on his Climate Colored Goggles Substack; and Dr. Leah Sprain, an associate professor of Communications at the University of Colorado Boulder, who studies democratic engagement.

Host/Producer: Susan Moran

Listen to the show here:

In her new book, The Power of the Pause: 90 Seconds to Calm, Reset, and Reconnect, Jillian Pransky teaches readers how a brief 90-second break can help regulate the nervous system and stop automatic, reactive habits. Today, we get into some of the science underlying the utility of the pause, but further, we can easily use it to step out of the stress loop and into a grounded, centered presence, able to meet whatever is happening with intention and compassion. Jillian Pransky has been a mindfulness teacher, yoga therapist, and practitioner for over 30 years, giving her plenty of experience with the power of so-called somatic, or body-centered and self-awareness practices can bring about transformation, healing, and connection… in ourselves, in those around us, and in the world.

Executive Producer: Beth Bennett

Listen to the show:

A heart attack forced Boulder community leader and journalist Sam Fuqua to need emergency care.  While being wheeled into the operating room, Sam hoped to soothe his anxiety by hearing some favorite music.  His hope had scientific merit.  Studies like this indicate that surgery patients who get to choose what music plays during surgery, require fewer painkillers and have an easier recovery.

Music might seem a simple and easy comfort to offer surgery patients, but when How on Earth’s Mac Hebebrand asked some local surgery centers about their views on music, almost all declined the interviews . . . all, except for Boulder Heart Cardiologist Nelson Trujillo.

Stay tuned to hear Cardiologist Nelson Trujillo‘s discussion about music during surgery, and to find out what happened to Sam.

Host: Mac Hebebrand

Colorado River Water (starts 1:00)   Steep cuts are ahead in the use of Colorado River water by Arizona and California.  But what about Colorado?  For answers, we talk with CU-Boulder’s Doug Kenney, water law expert and  chair of the Colorado River Project.

Ghostbots (starts )  AI apps offer to help people  “talk” with the dead.  CU Boulder Information Scientists  Jed Brubaker and Jack Manning and Boulder Unitarian Church Community Outreach minister Jeremy Nichol share research and insights about how these apps work and user responses.

Executive Producer: Beth Bennett