Resilient Futures Podcast

112 Episodes

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From Restaurant to Reef: Building Resilient Coasts and Recycling (Oyster) Roasts

2026-09-0133:03

This month, we're welcoming the team from Shell to Shore, an Athens-based oyster shell recycling initiative that works with restaurants across the state of Georgia to rebuild shorelines. Oysters -- the same kind you slurp down as an appetizer at that restaurant downtown -- have incredible potential for fighting sea level rise. In the wild, oysters build reefs together, with baby oysters settling on the old shells of bivalves past and offering a tough breakwater to stabilize shorelines and sl...

Community Resilience: How National Laboratories Use Interdisciplinary Expertise to Support Healthy Energy Systems

2026-07-0240:17

The energy sector is continually complicated by aging power infrastructure, changing technology and competing needs from communities and industry. The Critical Infrastructure Resilience Group is here to help make sense of this complex landscape. The CIRG, a unit of Oak Ridge National Laboratory, works on national research-based solutions for maintaining energy systems and national security. Thomaz Carvalhaes and Hillary Fishler, R&D Staff Scientists at Oak Ridge, join host Alysha to disc...

Let It Burn: How Fire Makes Forests More Resilient

2026-06-0142:47

After a decade working across the Southeast, Jordan Youngmann is seeing his hometown in upstate New York through fresh eyes–and his work is just warming up. Pre-European colonization, forests looked very different: while many people think of this world as a "pristine" landscape, forest systems across North American were highly regulated by Indigenous groups. Today, these systems are largely fragmented by urban and agricultural spaces, but historically, they were managed by harnessing a force...

Dawg Days: A Flood Risk Assessment for the University of Georgia

2026-05-0142:30

This podcast comes to you from the University of Georgia, a campus that has stretched across the hills of Athens, Georgia since 1785. UGA is situated between the Upper and Middle Oconee Rivers, with tributary creeks flowing all across campus- even right under our football stadium! This month, hosts Alysha and Todd are joined by fellow UGA colleague Zak Ruehman, Director of Engineering Services here at the Institute for Resilient Infrastructure Systems. Zak's team recently wrapped up an excit...

The Gospel of Grass: Patrick Keyser Speaks to the Resilience of Native Grasslands

2026-04-0142:24

Patrick Keyser knows the grass may not always be greener--but there's still a lot to learn from it. Since long before European colonization, grasslands have a rich history as one of North America's most diverse, resilient, and iconic landscapes. These ecosystems are the epicenters of agriculture in the US, but native grass species are disappearing as introduced plants take over and land uses change. As a University of Tennessee professor and Director of the Center for Native Grasslands...

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