When there are crops to grow and no rain to help grow them, farmers and irrigators turn to groundwater. It's a story all over the country, and our understanding of the long-term effects of pumping groundwater are limited. It's clear that taking water from underground aquifers depletes those aquifers over time, but the effects on streams and evaporation to the atmosphere are less well understood. Now comes research that models the broader effects of groundwater extraction, demonstrating the

Start a conversation with a political opponent. Would you even know how to open? We've gotten very good at pushing each other's buttons, but show limited ability to actually communicate. James Hoggan, who comes from a public relations background, gathers wisdom from respected thinkers in his book I'm Right and You're an Idiot: The Toxic State of Public Discourse and How to Clean it Up . The book is now in a second edition reflecting the results and aftermath of the 2016 election.

The salmon and steelhead are the glamour fish of western rivers. But you'll find lamprey in many of the rivers, too. A lamprey is a jawless fish--don't call it an eel--that attaches to other fish for feeding. Lamprey are very important to Native Americans in the region, and it was a member of the Yurok tribe, biologist Keith Parker, who discovered that there are actually two distinct sub-species of lamprey. His work through the Yurok Tribe Fisheries Department is garnering attention.

It's still the American dream for many people: hop into the car, strap in, fire up, and take off. That assumes that the car cooperates, starts up and runs well. When it doesn't, well, that's the domain of Zach Edwards, the owner of Ashland Automotive . Once a month he visits for a segment we call The Squeaky Wheel: car repair and operation tips and tricks. We invite the audience to chime in with stories and questions at 800-838-3760 and [email protected] . This month, how to help a mechanic

Maybe it's not easy to be kind to people with whom you disagree, but it's possible. Case in point: the former neo-Nazis who help their former comrades leave hate groups behind. That's just one example psychologist Jamil Zaki provides in his book The War for Kindness: Building Empathy in a Fractured World . Building empathy? Yes, Zaki points out that empathy is not fixed at birth, it's learned.

They are an ancient people, but the Coquille tribe celebrates a 30-year anniversary this weekend (June 29th). It's been 30 years since the Coquille became a federally recognized tribe once again, after years off the lists, as a "terminated" tribe. An act of Congress restored tribal status in 1989, and the Coquille have worked to enhance the well-being of members and grow financially since that time.

It's not smoky in the region as June comes to a close, but we should probably add the word "yet." Summer has featured a great deal of wildfire and smoke in recent years, and we're all bracing for more. Oregon's two U.S. Senators introduced new legislation recently to provide more help to communities and individuals that get smoked-in. The Wildfire Smoke Relief Act of 2019 is one of a handful of pieces introduced by Sens. Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley.

As humans put some distance between themselves and nature, men claimed the role of the "outdoorsy" people. Eugene writer Ruby McConnell made a move to reclaim that space with a book called A Woman's Guide to the Wild . And she continues down that trail with a book aimed at females in the 9-12 age group, with A Girl's Guide to the Wild , out this year. It's got the expected features: safety and orientation in the woods, for example, but also things like science experiments to conduct outdoors.

It's hard to imagine counting up to a billion of anything. But that's the approximate weight--in pounds--of pesticides used in the United States each year. And it gets more interesting: close to a third of those pesticides, in weight, were substances that are illegal in Europe. The United States continues to allow the use of pesticides banned in other countries. Recently published research compares American pesticide use and regulation with that of Europe, China, and Brazil. And it finds us

Archaeology is all about trying to better understand how people lived their lives in the past. It doesn't hurt to try some of their food and drink. That's where Travis Rupp comes in; he calls himself a "beer archaeologist" and attempts to recreate some very old recipes for fermented beverages. As the hot days of summer approach, who better to have as a guest on our Underground History segment?