How can climate change cause both more intense droughts and more severe floods? With help from Prof. Mathew Barlow, we dive into the water cycle on a warming planet, and learn how the basic physics of water moving through the atmosphere can explain a lot of the strange weather we need to prepare for as the world heats up.

For a deeper dive and additional resources related to this episode, visit: https://climate.mit.edu/podcasts/e9-dry-spells-and-downpours

For more episodes of Ask MIT Climate, check out askmitclimate.org. Plus, find us on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube for outtakes, bonus content, and more climate knowledge from MIT. As always, we love hearing from our listeners; email us at [email protected].

Dr. Haleh Rokni walks new and returning students through the simple first steps to access mental health support at MIT Health, and explains why reaching out early can make a big difference. Learn how to access counseling and find out what you can expect at your first appointment. For more information or to get connected call 617-253-2916, or visit health.mit.edu. 

Learn more about Haleh Rokni, MD 

Warehouse automation is often evaluated through an operational lens in terms of productivity gains, labor efficiency, and accuracy improvements. Yet the environmental impact of technologies like drone-based inventory systems remains poorly understood. In this episode, we explore how a capstone project conducted with Verity, a warehouse automation company, and graduate students in the MIT Supply Chain Management (SCM) program quantified the real sustainability benefits of replacing manual forklift-based inventory counting with drones.

Joining the discussion are Tommaso Portaluri, Sustainability Lead at Verity; Camilo Mora, Postdoctoral Associate at the MIT Center for Transportation and Logistics (CTL); and Elisa Ruiz, an MIT SCM alum who worked on the project. Together, they reveal a surprising finding: inventory write-offs and waste reduction account for nearly 40% of post-implementation emissions savings, far outweighing energy savings alone. Through their analysis, they demonstrate how information quality and operational efficiency are intertwined levers for decarbonization, and why inventory management deserves a place at the center of warehouse sustainability strategies. You can read the full findings of the capstone project here and learn more about MIT SCM capstone projects here.

In a world where clothing is constantly produced, purchased, and replaced, there is still a lot to learn about fabric. What may seem like an old, familiar industry turns out to be full of advanced physics, materials science, and engineering challenges. MIT Mechanical Engineering Principal Investigator Svetlana Boriskina develops new fabrics that can provide thermal comfort indoors and outdoors, resist dirt, and create color without dyes or pigments. She shares insights into exploring new areas of research outside her comfort zone, lessons from the textile industry, and what fabrics can teach us about nature itself.

Watch the video podcast for free: https://bit.ly/scienceofeverydaylife

Learn More at learn.mit.edu

Svetlana Boriskina: sites.mit.edu/sboriskina/

Svetlana Boriskina's Courses sites.mit.edu/sboriskina/courses/

In our previous episode, we spoke with Dr. Sarah Das, a Scientist Emeritus at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, about how climate change is affecting the big polar ice sheets of Antarctica and Greenland. She’s been traveling to the poles for her research since the nineties, and this week, she’s taking us behind the scenes: into the world of glacier science, “boomerang flights,” and ice as far as the eye can see.

A video version of this episode is available on our YouTube channel. For a deeper dive and additional resources, visit: https://climate.mit.edu/podcasts/bonus-ice-sheets-polar-scientist.

For more episodes of Ask MIT Climate, check out askmitclimate.org. Plus, find us on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube for outtakes, bonus content, and more climate knowledge from MIT. As always, we love hearing from our listeners; email us at [email protected].

Dr. Daniel Braconnier discusses with Dr. David Hsu about the importance of understanding the electrical grid and its role in the future of energy systems. It explores the complexity of the grid, its historical development, and the challenges and opportunities it presents. This Why THIS Matters episode highlights the inter-dependencies between different energy sources and the need for a coordinated approach to managing the grid. It also addresses common misconceptions about the grid, such as thinking it is a unitary object or separate from other systems. The episode concludes by emphasizing the significance of the grid in the context of climate change and the need for a comprehensive understanding of how the grid is built and how it can be changed to achieve future goals. Why THIS Matters is an MIT Learn Podcast, continue to learn more at: https://learn.mit.edu/