Those of us who studied anthropology in the latter half of the 20th century most likely learned that the birthplace of humankind was East African countries such as Tanzania and Kenya. But for much of that same period, the apartheid regime in South Africa largely prohibited archaeological excavations, at least in part because it didn’t want to unearth any evidence that Blacks and Whites shared common ancestors. This week on Sea Change Radio, we take a look at some of the stunning archaeological discoveries that have emerged from South Africa over the past fifteen years. Our guest today is Dr. Keneiloe Molopyane, an archeologist who leads research in an area known as the Cradle of Humankind. In our wide-ranging discussion with Dr. Molopyane, we get a quick anthropology lesson, learn more about discoveries from the region, and explore the historical context of these prehistorical finds.

Narrator | 00:02 - This is Sea Change Radio, covering the shift to sustainability. I'm Alex Wise.

Keneiloe Molopyane (KM) | 00:17 - Human evolution is very, very complex and you kind of want to view it as a braided stream model. So you have your, your main river, and from your main river comes streams and tributaries. Some link into other streams, some sort of go extinct.

Narrator | 00:39 - Those of us who studied anthropology in the latter half of the 20th century most likely learned that the birthplace of humankind was East African countries such as Tanzania and Kenya. But for much of that same period, the apartheid regime in South Africa largely prohibited archaeological excavations, at least in part because it didn’t want to unearth any evidence that Blacks and Whites shared common ancestors. This week on Sea Change Radio, we take a look at some of the stunning archaeological discoveries that have emerged from South Africa over the past fifteen years. Our guest today is Dr. Keneiloe Molopyane, an archeologist who leads research in an area known as the Cradle of Humankind. In our wide-ranging discussion with Dr. Molopyane, we get a quick anthropology lesson, learn more about discoveries from the region, and explore the historical context of these prehistorical finds.

Alex Wise (AW) | 01:48 - I'm joined now on Sea Change Radio by Keneiloe Molopyane. She is an archeologist and she's based in Johannesburg, South Africa. Keneiloe, welcome to Sea Change Radio.

Keneiloe Molopyane (KM) | 02:01 - Hi guys, how are you?

Alex Wise (AW) | 02:03 - So, I just recently visited your site and the area where the excavations have been taking place that have borne some amazing fruit in terms of what we know of early man. Why don't you first explain the findings that have come out of this region from Molapa and the Rising Star cave system, both, um, Homo Naledi and Australopithecus Sediba. Those are fascinating new breakthrough findings from the last couple decades that most people aren't really very aware of.

Keneiloe Molopyane (KM) | 02:41 - Yeah. Uh, sure. I mean, I could, uh, shed some light on, on my research area. Um, so as Alex said, I am an archeologist. Primarily I do hold a PhD degree in biological anthropology. Um, so essentially that means I study skeletons for a living. And then I decided to dive into paleo anthropology, which is ancient skeletons of ancient humans for a living. And one of the best places to do that is a very small region in the province of , which is in South Africa. That's where, uh, Johannesburg is based and this region is known as the cradle of humankind. And now the cradle of humankind is about 45 minutes from both Pretoria and from Johannesburg, which are our two major cities in the halting region. And so in the cray of humankind, it's just, it's dotted with a whole bunch of cave systems. And of those hundreds of, of caves, there are about 13 to 15 that are known as official Hominin fossil bearing cave systems. So you have the famous Doane Cave where the fossil of Mrs. Place came from.

Disgust, disdain and disbelief are emotions many of us have felt since the November election - and with good reason. But how long can we stay disillusioned and disaffected before fighting back? This week on Sea Change Radio, we speak with author Dave Zirin, from The Nation and Edge of Sports, to have a cathartic chat about the future of this country and how to cope.

Narrator | 00:02 - This is Sea Change Radio, covering the shift to sustainability. I'm Alex Wise. 

Dave Zirin (DZ) | 00:20 - History's gotta be our guide. Like there have been reactionary and revanchist periods in US society before. I think the real difference here, honestly, is people's lack of belief in an absolute truth. 

Narrator | 00:35 - Disgust, disdain, and disbelief or emotions many of us have felt since the November election and with good reason. But how long can we stay disillusioned and disaffected before fighting back? This week on Sea Change Radio, we speak with author Dave Zirin from The Nation and Edge of Sports, to have a cathartic chat about the future of this country and how to cope.

Alex Wise (AW) | 01:10 - I'm joined now on Sea Change Radio by Dave Zirin. He is the sports editor at The Nation, and he also runs the Edge of Sports, the Edge of Sports podcast, TV show, and he's the author of 11 books. Dave, it's a pleasure to have you back on Sea Change Radio.

Dave Zirin (DZ) | 01:29 - No, it's great to be here because we need a sea change, so why not start here with you, Alex? 

Alex Wise (AW) | 01:34 - Well, thank you. Like a lot of Americans, I'm at a crossroads spiritually right now in terms of fighting the good fight. When I read articles that tell me, you know, we got to keep fighting. I can't help but feel a little bit defeated at this point. I read a, a title of an article called the Triumph of Ignorance, that this latest election was the triumph of ignorance. And I can't help but feel that yes, the most vulnerable in our populations will suffer from this election, but so many of those people who are going to be affected by it voted for Trump and his lackeys. So how does one keep fighting the good fight in the face of all this terrible news, Dave? 

Dave Zirin (DZ) | 02:20 - Well, first and foremost, again, thanks for having me. Second, of course, we need history to be our guide, and we have to know that nothing in this country that's worth a damn was given to us on high. It has all been fought for from below. The other thing we learned from history is that struggle and opposition can come up from the wildest and most unexpected of places. And when it does come up, when it does rise, and I, I'm not only telling you it will rise, Alex, I'm saying it is rye zing right now demonstration in DC right now, freeway in la shut down yesterday. I mean, people are starting to wake up after an incredibly bruising year. And we could talk about what was so bruising about the past year if we can, but the anger and audience for a fight back. And it is so real and it's never been angrier. I mean, you think about the response to, uh, the, the Luigi killing of the healthcare CEO and I mean, I couldn't, I went to New York and there's Luigi Graffiti all over the place now. I think that's more of a cry of despair. You know, people feel like, well, there's nothing we can do. So the best we can hope for is kind of a lone assassin to extract justice from a society built on such terribly savage inequalities. But the, the anger in our healthcare system that exploded after that, I think was something that took a ton of people off guard. I mean, the, the governor of New York even set up a hotline for CEOs if they felt threatened or dangerous. I mean, it was unbelievable that, that our tax dollars are going to a CEO hotline. Thank you Kathy Hochul, about to push forward a $2 billion stadium for the Buffalo Bills on our tax dollars. Thanks for that. Um, but I think what we're looking at here is the potential for us to try to reclaim what's ...

This week on Sea Change Radio, we take a break from worrying about the election and look beyond these shores. First, we speak to Ayoola Dominic, the CEO and Co-Founder of Koolboks - an innovative refrigeration solution for the large swaths of sub-Saharan Africa that don’t have reliable access to electricity. We get an in-depth look at the company’s technology, learn about the challenges they’re facing and discuss the relationship between Koolboks and the Clinton Global Initiative. Then, we revisit part of our 2023 conversation with author Tim Killeen who has chronicled efforts to curb deforestation in the Amazon.

Narrator | 00:02 - This is Sea Change Radio covering the shift to sustainability. I'm Alex Wise.

Ayoola Dominic (AD) | 00:17 -So what Koolboks has done is we've integrated for the first time in freezers, lithium-ion batteries. So what happens is when you have power, you can connect them to the grid, and when we don't have power you can actually charge with the solar panels.

Narrator | 00:35 - This week on Sea Change Radio, we take a break from worrying about the election and look beyond these shores. First, we speak to Ayoola Dominic, the CEO and Co-founder of Koolboks, an innovative refrigeration solution for the large swaths of Sub-Saharan Africa that don't have reliable access to electricity. We get an in-depth look at the company's technology, learn about the challenges they're facing, and discuss the relationship between Koolboks and the Clinton Global Initiative. Then we revisit part of our 2023 conversation with author Tim Killeen, whose chronicled efforts to curb deforestation in the Amazon.

Alex Wise (AW) | 01:37 - I'm joined now on Sea Change. Radio by Ayoola Dominic. He's the CEO and Co-founder of KoolBoks. Ayoola, welcome to Sea Change Radio.

Ayoola Dominic (AD) | 01:47 - Thank you so much, Alex, for having me.

Alex Wise (AW) | 01:49 - It's a pleasure to have you. Why don't you explain to us what Koolboks is, and if you can summarize what your product is all about, that would be great.

Ayoola Dominic (AD) | 01:58 - So I'll, I'll start with, uh, a bit of a context. So in, in Sub-Saharan Africa, you have over 600 million people that lacks access to electricity and therefore lacks access to refrigeration. Um, as compared to Europe and America, where you have a hundred percent penetration in refrigeration in Sub-Saharan Africa, you'll be shocked to know that it's only 17%. I repeat only 17% of the people have access to refrigeration.

Alex Wise (AW) | 02:30 - We're talking permanent refrigeration, like you have a refrigerator running 24 7, right? 

Ayoola Dominic (AD)  | 02:36 - Correct. And you obviously, we know what that means in terms of food wastage. About a third of all food is wasted before it gets to market. And we're talking small restaurants, we're talking small bars, and these are things that normally we would take for granted in the West, but it's a real problem in Africa. So, um, looking to solve this problem, myself and my co-founder, like three years ago, designed to found a company called the Koolboks. And the goal was to make refrigeration affordable and accessible to everyone that needs it. So using the sun and water, which is abundant in Africa, we created a solution that is able to generate refrigeration for up to four days, whether or not you have power, whether or not you have sunlight. And this we did by storing energy in the form of ice as opposed to just storing energy in the form of batteries. But of course, looking at the peculiarity of the customers we serve, then the big question, I mean, what good is the technology if no one can afford it? So what we did was we integrated in our units a pay as you go technology enabling individuals and small businesses to be able to pay as low as 10 to $15 every month to own a refrigerator. And today we've deployed in over 6,000, um, units across 26 countries in only three years, and we're still doing more actually.

Coral reefs are among the planet's most beautiful treasures, hosting creatures strange and colorful. They're more than just pretty, though. Coral reefs provide vital habitats for a vast array of marine organisms, they are an essential piece of ocean ecosystems, and they actually protect coastlines from erosion. This week on Sea Change Radio we speak to Curt Storlazzi from the US geological survey who outlines a recent study promoting the bolstering of coral reefs off of Puerto Rico and Florida. Storlazzi compares coral reefs to seawalls in terms of protecting us from rising sea levels, gives a snapshot of the study's cost benefit analysis, and explains how the proposed reef bolstering program could help protect vulnerable coastal populations.

Narrator | 00:02 - This is Sea Change Radio, covering the shift to sustainability. I'm Alex Wise.

Curt Storlazzi (CS) | 00:24 - We're working with Nature. Nature figured out how to do this. We haven't been the nicest to nature, but we're learning that if we take care of nature, hopefully it can help continue to take care of us, and we just need to help accelerate that recovery.

Narrator | 00:39 - Coral reefs are among the planet's most beautiful treasures, hosting creatures, strange and colorful. They're more than just pretty, though Coral reefs provide vital habitats for a vast array of marine organisms. They're an essential piece of ocean ecosystems, and they actually protect coastlines from erosion. This week on Sea Change Radio, we speak to Curt Storlazzi from the US Geological Survey, who outlines a recent study promoting the bolstering of coral reefs off of Puerto Rico and Florida. Storlazzi compares coral reefs to sea walls in terms of protecting us from rising sea levels, gives a snapshot of the study's cost benefit analysis and explains how the proposed reef bolstering program could help protect vulnerable coastal populations.

Alex Wise (AW) | 01:44 - I am joined now on Sea Change Radio by Curt Storlazzi. He is a research geologist at the US Geological Survey, Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center. Curt, welcome to Sea Change Radio. 

Curt Storlazzi (CS) | 01:53 - Thank you for having me. 

Alex Wise (AW) | 01:54 - So you and your colleagues at the USGS have just completed a study outlining the value of Coral Reef Restoration in Florida and Puerto Rico. Maybe you can summarize it for us to just get started?

Curt Storlazzi (CS) | 02:09 - What are we trying to do? We're trying to provide unbiased sound, scientific information to guide management. Over the past decade or so, uh, we show that coral reefs act like natural submerged breakwaters dissipating a lot of wave energy, and thus protecting the coastline in the associated coastal communities. Our colleagues have also shown, however, that over the past decades to half a century, that the reefs have severely degraded, they've gotten deeper and less complex, and that's allowing more wave energy to reach the shoreline, and it's causing increased erosion and, uh, and coastal, uh, flooding during the storms. So this study that we just did, which was funded by the 2017 Hurricane supplemental, so, you know, following hurricane's, Irman Maria, that really negatively impact Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands and Florida, as part of the billions of dollars for recovery, the government put a little bit of money aside to say, what can we do to reduce these impacts in the future? Because we know, again, as those reefs have degraded, they've gotten deeper and, uh, less complex that's allowed more wave energy to reach shore, reach the shoreline. One, to understand of how can we work with nature to re, to, uh, increase that effectiveness of, uh, protect or the, their ability to protect the coastline. And so using a really complex modeling system, uh, it's 12 steps and like most 12 step processes, long and painful. But , it comes to a, a good conclusion. Um, basically what we were able to do is model coastal flood...

California kicked off 2025 with some of the most devastating wildfires in the state’s history. Thousands have already lost their homes, dozens have been killed, and as of today the largest of the Los Angeles area fires is only 14% contained. This week on Sea Change Radio we speak with meteorologist Anthony Edwards of the San Francisco Chronicle to learn more about what caused the fires, how climate change is making events like these more commonplace and inevitable than ever, and what we can all do to better prepare for them. Then, we take a few minutes to look at the burgeoning industry of amateur meteorology in the ski industry and the impact that the growth in untrained meteorological professionals is having on Edwards's job, and on the field in general.

Narrator | 00:02 - This is Sea Change Radio covering the shift to sustainability. I'm Alex Wise.

Anthony Edwards (AE) | 00:23 - In California, we just had two of the four most destructive wildfires in state history occur on the same day in January. I mean, these extremes are occurring all over the world, and we're seeing destructive events accelerating.

Narrator | 00:38 - California kicked off 2025 with some of the most devastating wildfires in the state's history. Thousands have already lost their homes, dozens have been killed. And as of today, the largest of the Los Angeles area Fires is only 14% contained this week on Sea Change Radio. We speak with meteorologist Anthony Edwards of the San Francisco Chronicle to learn more about what caused the fires, how climate change is, making events like these more commonplace and inevitable than ever, and what we can all do to better prepare for them. Then we take a few minutes to look at the burgeoning industry of amateur meteorology in the ski industry and the impact that the growth in untrained meteorological professionals is having on Edwards' job and on the field in general.

Alex Wise (AW) | 01:44 - I am joined now on Sea Change Radio by my friend Anthony Edwards, who's a meteorologist and journalist at the San Francisco Chronicle. Anthony, welcome to Sea Change Radio.

Anthony Edwards (AE) | 01:52 - Thank you, Alex. It's good to be here. 

Alex Wise (AW) | 01:54 - So you're not just a meteorologist, you're a journalist, which adds a little context to what consumers of weather news are trying to, consumers are always trying to connect the dots from seeing these scientific models of wind patterns and weather patterns, but then the real life effects of climate change and, and extreme weather like we're seeing down in Los Angeles. Why don't you first talk about some of the challenges that you have as a journalist and meteorologist trying to connect those dots, and then I want to dive a little bit more into the details of what's going on in Los Angeles.

Anthony Edwards (AE) | 02:32 - Sure, yeah. Well, that's a great question. I mean, in California here, typically, uh, I feel like sometimes we're laughed at by other parts of the country, you know, and people in tornado alley, you know, they, they see these crazy thunderstorms and whatnot. But for a large portion of the year here in California, you know, we generally have pretty nice weather and to raise the alarm bells when things are really getting real. That's the big challenge, right? Because when we do have extremes, I mean, we, we've seen this the past few years in California. Now we have crazy fires. We had the fourth largest wildfire in state history this summer up in Northern California, and now two of the four most destructive wildfires in state history are burning in Southern California right now. And, you know, we've seen flooding, extreme heat waves here too. So I think the challenging part is to tell people, you know, hey, things are getting real. Like it's time to, to be ready to go if you need to evacuate your house, because a lot of people move to the state thinking, you know, oh, we're all good. Like, this is heaven.

When you visit the World Wildlife Fund’s list of critically endangered species, the first animals named are large, beloved mammals like the African Forest Elephant and the Eastern Lowland Gorilla. While these majestic creatures tug at our heartstrings, there are also a lot of smaller, more unsung organisms that are in grave risk of extinction, like the lowly freshwater mussel. This week on Sea Change Radio, we speak to environmental writer, John Platt, the editor of The Revelator to talk about some of the less glamorous animals that have recently been declared extinct or are on the brink of extinction. First, we take a deep dive into the plight of the ivory-billed woodpecker, a regal swamp-dwelling bird whose demise may or may not have been premature. Then we discuss why Hawaii is referred to by some naturalists as the extinction capital of the world, and look at the ethical quandaries presented by the emerging field of resurrection biology, also known as de-extinction.

This week on Sea Change Radio we speak to Lisa Song of ProPublica about her recent work spotlighting efforts by the plastics industry to make its fossil fuel-based products seem benign. We examine how plastic recycling falls short in many areas, look at the problems surrounding a relatively new plastic recycling process called pyrolysis, and then discuss her trip to Ottawa, Canada where she attended a UN conference which purported to be plastic-free.

This week on Sea Change Radio, a conversation about the vast and varied coastline of the great state of Maine with Peter Slovinsky, a marine geologist with the Maine Geological Survey. We learn about living coastlines, efforts to protect Maine's coast from rising seas and more frequent storms - and get a bit of a geography lesson at the same time.

When we think about the transition to renewable energy sources, many of us imagine rooftop solar panels and wind turbine-dotted hills. But it's not just about capturing energy, it's also about keeping it. This week on Sea Change Radio we speak with Matt Simon, a Grist senior staff writer, to discuss long-duration energy storage. The transition to renewables for utilities is still very much evolving -- efficiency, intermittency, and storage are among the issues scientists have yet to perfect. Simon shares some ideas for how we can build upon existing technologies to store solar and wind power, with longer capacity than lithium-ion batteries, ranging from reservoirs and caverns to our existing fleet of electric vehicles.

Narrator | 00:02 - This is Sea Change Radio covering the shift to sustainability. I'm Alex Wise.

Matt Simon (MS) | 00:23 - We're actually in this really fascinating time where we are better understanding that the Earth is a resource not for extracting the fossil fuels out of it. That's stupid and done. We need to stop doing that now. We're turning more to the energy that is naturally produced by the earth, but also the energy that we can pump underground, for instance, and store down there as a battery. It's a fascinating frontier.

Narrator | 00:48 - When we think about the transition to renewable energy sources, many of us imagine rooftop solar panels and wind turbine-dotted hills. But it's not just about capturing energy, it's also about keeping it. This week on Sea Change Radio we speak with Matt Simon, a Grist senior staff writer, to discuss long-duration energy storage. The transition to renewables for utilities is still very much evolving -- efficiency, intermittency, and storage are among the issues scientists have yet to perfect. Simon shares some ideas for how we can build upon existing technologies to store solar and wind power, with longer capacity than lithium-ion batteries, ranging from reservoirs and caverns to our existing fleet of electric vehicles.

Alex Wise (AW) | 01:50 - I'm joined now on Sea Change Radio by Matt Simon. Matt is a senior staff writer at Grist. Matt, welcome to Sea Change Radio.

Matt Simon (MS) | 01:58 - And thank you for having me. 

Alex Wise (AW) | 02:00 - It's good to have you back. You have left wired after a dozen or so years there, and congratulations on joining Grist covering climate. How's the transition been so far for you?

Matt Simon (MS) | 02:13 - Thanks. Yeah, it's been fantastic. It's, um, it's amazing to be here with a truly phenomenally talented group of people that are laser focused on climate stuff. So I'm, I'm here covering climate solutions, which I feel like, um, is the most optimistic way, um, for my mental health to be approaching climate coverage this day and age. Um, so I'm feeling surprisingly good. 

Alex Wise (AW) | 02:37 - I wanted to discuss a piece you've written for Grist recently, which delves into long duration energy storage. We often think of just energy storage as battery storage, and that's a very short-lived type of energy. If you can define long duration energy storage, how the people who run electric grids look at this piece of the puzzle, that would be terrific.

MS | 03:03 - Sure. So the core of the issue here is that as we are deploying more renewables like wind and solar, we need ways to store that energy. So when the wind isn't blowing or the sun isn't shining, we need electricity to flow to people's homes. Um, so the idea here that a lot of people have probably heard about by now is that you have these giant banks of lithium ion batteries on the grid. We have, uh, some of these in California already. They have these also in Texas, wherever you're seeing the proliferation of renewables, you're seeing these battery banks pop up. Um, so the idea here is that you, uh, have the sun go down. You're not generating any solar energy. You draw from those battery banks to give people electricity. Uh,

Since 1973, the Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement has been bestowed upon people who have made a significant impact in the fight for a sustainable planet. In 2019, we spoke with that year's Tyler Prize Laureate, Warren Washington, to learn about the beginnings of his groundbreaking career as an atmospheric scientist. This week on Sea Change Radio, we pay tribute to Dr. Washington, who recently passed away at the age of 88. He was the second African American to receive a PhD in meteorology, a former chair of the National Science Board, and a senior scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado. Then, we revisit part of our conversation with physicist Hattie Carwell to learn about her long, illustrious career in the atomic energy space as well as her work at the Museum of African American Technology.