74. Getting Our Hands Dirty

<p>Michael Greenstone knows it’s corny, but he wants to make the world a better place — by tracking the impact of air quality, developing pollution markets in India, and … starting a podcast, which Steve says proves he’s over the hill.</p><p> </p><ul><li><strong>SOURCES:</strong> ... Show More

<p>Suleika Jaouad was diagnosed with cancer at 22. She made her illness the subject of a <i>New York Times</i> column and a memoir, <i>Between Two Kingdoms.</i> She and Steve talk about what it means to live with a potentially fatal illness, how to talk to people who've gone thro ... Show More

<p>Physicist and former pop star Brian Cox tells Steve about discovering the Higgs boson, having a number-one hit, and why particle physics research will almost certainly not create a black hole that destroys all life on earth.</p><p> </p><ul><li><strong>SOURCES:</strong><ul><li> ... Show More

From our planet's underwater caves to its ancient soils, there are entire worlds right beneath our feet. This hour, we explore the subterranean forces that shape our lives above the ground. Guests include cave diver Jill Heinerth, death care advocate Katrina Spade, soil scientist ... Show More

It's easy to overlook the soil beneath our feet, or to think of it as just dirt to be cleaned up. But soil wraps the world in an envelope of life: It grows our food, regulates the climate and makes the planet habitable. "What stands between life and lifelessness on our planet Ear ... Show More

Storm Daniel devastated the city of Derna in Libya after heavy rainfall broke a dam, causing extreme flooding downstream. The World Weather Attribution (WWA) reports that severe flooding in Libya and across the Mediterranean has been made more likely and more intense due to human ... Show More

Original broadcast date: March 11, 2022. From our planet's underwater caves to its ancient soils, there are entire worlds right beneath our feet. This hour, we explore the subterranean forces that shape our lives above the ground. Guests include cave diver Jill Heinerth, death ca ... Show More

There is almost nothing more important to understand about people than intelligence. It can be measured more accurately than anything else in the social sciences. It differs tremendously and importantly between individuals. It is the single most important determinant of life succ ... Show More

As the COP27 environment summit draws to a close we look at some of the issues still to be resolved. BBC Environment correspondents Victoria Gill and Georgina Rannard join us from the meeting. And we head to the houses of parliament in the company of a group of teenagers who are ... Show More

Last week NASA’s Osiris-Rex mission successfully touched down on asteroid Bennu’s crumbly surface. But the spacecraft collected so much material that the canister wouldn’t close. NASA systems engineer Estelle Church tells Roland Pease how she and the team back on Earth performed ... Show More

UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak gave a hastily arranged press conference this week in which he confirmed he would be rowing back on some previously made government commitments regarding net zero - the point at which we remove as much carbon from the atmosphere as we put in. The rea ... Show More

<p>Most of us don’t like to dwell on our toilet habits, but this week Crowdscience has gone down the drain to discover what wastewater can tell us about our health.</p><p>It’s been more than a year since scientists across the globe started to track the spread of Covid-19, with he ... Show More