Undark: Truth, Beauty, Science

Ep. 32: Decentralized Internet, a Trip into Space, and a Roiling Debate Among Science Writers by

This month: building a heat map with the help of citizen scientists, monitoring an Estonian forest, and the heartbreaking cost of fragmented care.

This month: the toll of human-caused wildfires, rescuing snakes to prevent human-animal conflict, and capturing the impacts of an ambient killer. Transcript and individual segments available at https://undark.org/article/podcast-30-wildfires-snakes-air-pollution Update: An earlier version of this podcast and transcript provided an incorrect description of PM2.5, a scientific and regulatory term referring to fine particulate matter that is 2.5 micrometers or smaller in diameter. Although particulate pollution larger than 2.5 micrometers is generally considered less hazardous, it is still a public health concern. There is also no meaningful lower threshold for particulate pollution below 2.5 micrometers that can be considered safe.

Join former NYT Science Times editor David Corcoran for a discussion with popular science writer and prolific book author Carl Zimmer about the history of heredity, and why you can’t boil down something as complex as intelligence to a couple of genes. Also, podcast host Kasha Patel talks with Undark’s Matters of Fact and Tracker columnist Michael Schulson about the safety of CBD, or cannabidiol, for dogs; and science journalist Anja Krieger takes listeners to the small German town of Schleswig, where a major leak has sparked a big debate.

David Corcoran talks with former EPA administrator Gina McCarthy about bridging the gap between science and the public. Also: an airplane ride-along with a group of tornado chasers from the NOAA, a closer look a carbon dioxide study with big implications, and game of Two Truths and Lie.

Our latest podcast looks at the resilience of bees; a study in memory transfer; and an attack on science.

A tiny fish is fast disappearing from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. Many ecologists consider it a sign that both the local ecosystem and the nation’s approach to conservation are in crisis.

In this episode of the Undark podcast, we talk with reporter Charles Schmidt about his article on a misguided U.S. crackdown on lead poisoning. Also, Vanessa Schipani on media violence and Garrett Tiedemann on the personal toll of a genetic disorder.

Our latest Undark podcast looks at an ancient civilization, rediscovered but threatened; science and the media; and the world's strangest flower.

Join Undark podcast host and former NYT editor David Corcoran as he talks with Kerstin Hoppenhaus and Sibylle Grunze about their Undark documentary on stem rust. Also: commentator Seth Mnookin on how people get their science news; and reporter Kate Morgan visits a fossil park in New Jersey where dinosaurs met their fate.

Join our podcast host and former NYT editor David Corcoran as he talks with Carrie Arnold about her Undark Case Study on the he toxic legacy of a 1973 chemical accident. Also: commentator Seth Mnookin on the biggest science stories of 2017, and Randy Scott Carroll on what it means to be alive.

The environmental price of clean energy in the Balkan states and the rise of predatory journals. Plus, Part 1 of a two part series on what it means to be "alive."

A campaign to wipe out polio in a corner of Nigeria where it stubbornly hangs on, issues in science journalism, and growing your own produce at home.

Threats to the national parks, a controversial editorial in Nature, and a rare genetic disorder afflicting descendants of New Mexico’s Spanish settlers.

The ethical debate surrounding a New York Times reporter hired by the Manhattan Project to be its chronicler and cheerleader, as well as an effort to increase science communication in the public sphere.

A program to stop deforestation and protect wildlife in Kenya, a controversial literature review on gender identity, and whirling disease in Banff National Park.

An effort to monitor public health in North Korea by studying refugees who defected to the South, media coverage of health care and addiction, and the effects on your body from being buried at sea.

A visit with the virus hunters of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the state of long form science journalism, and a tool for treating obsessive hair-pulling.

The future of the Great Plains ecosystem, the downside of conservation in East Africa, and a recap of the March for Science.