logo
episode-header-image
Feb 2025
50m 57s

William A. Selby, "The California Sky Wa...

Marshall Poe
About this episode

Often stereotyped as the land of unflaggingly perfect weather, California has a world-renowned reputation for sunny blue skies and infinitely even-keeled temperatures. But the real story of the Golden State's weather is vastly more complex. From the scorching heat of Death Valley to the coastal redwoods' dripping in dew, California is home to a dizzying array of landscapes and bespoke weather patterns. 

In The California Sky Watcher: Understanding Weather Patterns and What Comes Next (Heyday Books, 2024), earth scientist William A. Selby takes readers on a journey through the seasons and across the state, exploring the atmospheric science that connects us all under our single sky dome. With over 100 photographs, diagrams, and explanatory charts, Selby guides us through the grand cycles that govern the world we see, feel, and hear every day, from the cirrus clouds that swirl overhead to the breezes that beckon us outside. Unraveling the mysteries behind the state's fog, floods, fires, droughts, and snowstorms, Selby shares his love affair with the sky and reveals what these changeable energies forecast for the future of California's climate.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/environmental-studies

Up next
Yesterday
Jack Buffington, "Environmental Innovation: An Action Plan for Saving the Economy and the Planet by 2050" (Rowman & Littlefield, 2024)
Environmental sustainability policy has failed due to focusing on symptoms rather than the root cause problems. Through significant research and a detailed roadmap for how to achieve sustainability by 2050, Buffington provides a realistic, game changing path forward that is both ... Show More
43m 43s
Aug 22
Tim Lenton, "Positive Tipping Points: How to Fix the Climate Crisis" (Oxford UP, 2025)
As global change escalates, we are already starting to experience damaging tipping points in the social, ecological and climate systems that we depend upon - and much worse is to come. These shocks tell us we have left it too late for incremental change to save us: we need to cha ... Show More
56m 53s
Aug 18
Alyssa Battistoni, "Free Gifts: Capitalism and the Politics of Nature" (Princeton UP, 2025)
Capitalism is typically treated as a force for relentless commodification. Yet it consistently fails to place value on vital aspects of the nonhuman world, whether carbon emissions or entire ecosystems. In Free Gifts, Alyssa Battistoni explores capitalism’s persistent failure to ... Show More
1h 31m
Recommended Episodes
May 2024
49. Weather Forecasts
With industries relying on them and profits to be made, weather forecasts are more precise and more popular than ever. But there are clouds on the horizon. Zachary Crockett grabs an umbrella. SOURCES:Steve Adelman, head of Adelman Law Group, PLLC and vice president of the Event S ... Show More
13m 46s
May 22
Meet A Pioneer Of Modern Weather Prediction
Climate scientist Jagadish Shukla grew up in a small village in rural India, where people starved if the monsoon season didn’t bring rain. To help his village, he set out to become a scientist and discover a way to predict the seasons—an unthinkable idea at the time, in the 1960s ... Show More
18m 51s
May 5
Jupiter’s Cyclones, Amazon’s Satellites and T. rex Collagen
The congressionally mandated National Climate Assessment grinds to a halt. Amazon launches its first round of Internet satellites. The European Space Agency launches a satellite to measure the biomass of Earth’s trees. New data from NASA’s Juno spacecraft offer insights into Jupi ... Show More
9m 1s
Jun 9
Cosmic Coin Toss, Record Heat in the North Atlantic and Living Worm Towers
New simulations suggest the Milky Way’s long-predicted collision with Andromeda might be less of a cosmic certainty than we thought. A massive marine heat wave in 2023 sent North Atlantic temperatures soaring—equal to two decades’ worth of typical warming—with weak winds and clim ... Show More
8m 51s
Jul 30
Your Guide to Summer’s Extreme Weather, from Corn Sweat to Flash Floods
The summer of 2025 has been a doozy in the U.S., with extreme weather across the country. Flash flooding caused destruction and death in Texas. Corn sweat made a heat wave in the eastern half of the U.S. worse in the Midwest. Senior editor for sustainability Andrea Thompson takes ... Show More
9m 4s
Oct 2024
S27E129: Martian Volcanic Discovery, Exomoon's Volcanic Cloud, and Solar Maximum's Impact
SpaceTime Series 27 Episode 129 *First Evidence of a Volcanic Splatocone on Mars Scientists have identified what appears to be the first evidence of a volcanic splatter cone on Mars, similar to those found on Earth. This discovery, led by Ian Flynn from the University of Idaho, s ... Show More
27m 46s
Jan 2025
Extreme Winds, Martian Clays & Hidden Stars: #491 - The Interstellar Exploration
Space Nuts Episode 491: The Windiest Planet, Martian Mysteries, and Light Pollution Concerns Join Andrew Dunkley and Professor Jonti Horner in this captivating episode of Space Nuts, where they explore some of the most fascinating cosmic discoveries of our time. From the extraord ... Show More
39m 45s
Sep 2022
Jerry C. Zee, "Continent in Dust: Experiments in a Chinese Weather System" (U California Press, 2022)
Today Julia Keblinska and I had the pleasure of talking to Assistant Professor Jerry Zee about his book, Continent in Dust: Experiments in a Chinese Weather System, published by University of California Press in 2022.Continent in Dust offers a political anthropological account of ... Show More
1h 9m
Sep 2024
Partly Cloudy With a Chance of Climate Action
TV Weather Gets Heated. In a world where weather is getting more extreme, the role of meteorologists is becoming more important—and controversial—than ever. Meteorologists have been fired over reporting on climate change, and others have left stations because of death threats. Bu ... Show More
34m 59s
Jul 21
Time Travel to Tide Pool 101 from Our July 1925 Issue
Time travel to an introduction to tide pools, the start of commercial air travel and an intercontinental aviation museum dispute. Host Rachel Feltman is taking a look at a 1925 issue of Scientific American for this archival episode. If you don’t find the past to be a blast, don’t ... Show More
8m 57s