A Traveler’s Guide to the End of the World: Tales of Fire, Wind, and Water, is the newest book from nature writer and New York Times bestselling author David Gessner. His daughter, Hadley, is an undergraduate at New York University. They join us to explore what climate science tells us about the prospect of a hotter, drier, more storm-prone, less livable planet by 2063, the year she turns 60.
Climate change is coming for life on earth – in the form of floods, more severe and destructive storms, drought, ocean acidification, marine and terrestrial heat waves, water supply problems, air pollution. The list goes on, but humans can adapt, mitigate, and maybe even survive.That's the focus of Dr. Orrin Pilkey's newest book, Escaping Nature: How to Survive Global Climate Change.
When Lenny Simpson was just 5 years old, tennis great Althea Gibson handed him a tennis racket and called him "champ". That moment changed his life. He went on at age 15 to play his mentor Arthur Ashe in the U.S. Open. Lenny Simpson returned to Wilmington in 2013 and launched One Love Tennis in honor of the mentors who did so much to help him live into his potential.
Singer / songwriter Tift Merritt and visual artist Thomas Sayre explore the unorthodox making of an upcoming show at the Cameron Art Museum called Four Walls.In this episode, Sayre raises questions about the sacred structures that undergird society, Tift Merritt interrogates the form of concert, and CAM Executive Director Heather Wilson explains why the ongoing challenge to previously-accepted concepts is part of her job.
Since 1961, the Peace Corps, envisioned and created by President John F. Kennedy, has sent volunteers around the globe to help developing countries. The obvious aim is to meet the goals identified by the host country – not the Americans. But just as important are the relationships that develop from this work, promoting world peace and friendship.
"Mahatma Gandi said the way you measure a society is how they treat the weakest in the society."Maad Abu-Ghazalah says this is why he started rescuing abused and abandoned dogs and donkeys in the West Bank. As a Palestinian-American with family still there, he explores his culture and his hopes for peace.
He won a spot on Blake Shelton's last team in 2023, after caving to family pressure to audition for the NBC show. And that's when the way Carlos Rising thought about his musical talent began to shift.
Breaking The News was supposed to be a documentary about a new nonpartisan, nonprofit newsroom called The 19th*, started by two women who wanted to cover news at the intersection of gender, politics, and policy. But when The 19th* launched in early 2020, so did an international pandemic. The way the filmmakers had to film changed. And the story they thought they were telling also changed.
UNCW restoration ecologist Amy Long is rehabilitating local tidal marshes, grasslands, and savannahs. Strategic restoration can bring back biodiversity that was nearly lost, as evidenced by the New Hanover County Landfill property. Two dramatic examples: diverse butterfly populations and regular sightings of bald eagles.
Research clearly shows that spending time in nature is critical for mental, physical, even cognitive health. Can our mental health crises make a stronger case for conservation?
Evolutionary Ecologist Stacy Endriss of UNCW’s Environmental Sciences Department is exploring how invasive plants are affecting North Carolina wetlands. She’s also looking at creative approaches – including biocontrol – for dealing with the impacts.
“A fundamental question that each of us must answer is: Who are the victims of racism? Upon careful investigation, it seems quite clear that the answer is ‘everyone’.” Dr. Catherine Meeks, Exec. Director, Absalom Jones Center for Racial Healing
Andy Wood: Bullfrog tadpoles have an alkaloid in their skin. It’s a chemical compound that tastes a little bit like rotten lemon and Ajax. It’s a horrible taste, so very few things eat them.RLH: Have you tried this? It’s a very, um, specific description.AW: I would never admit that.In the wild coastal plain of southeastern NC, Andy Wood and I explore the wildness of suburban stormwater management ponds. What we find is, no surprise, quite a surprise.
The most vulnerable populations around the region struggled during 2023 – including humans, animals, and even native plants. What does the state of these groups say about us?
Enviva company officials assured critics that wood pellets are mostly made of waste: treetops, limbs, even sawdust. Not true, according to reporting from environmental journalist and WFU Professor Justin Catanoso, who also says the science shows wood pellet burning contributes more to the climate crisis than burning coal.
Alice Brooks says when she learned that her son, Darien, had profound autism spectrum disorder, she cried on the front porch all night. Today, she says Darien and his diagnosis are the greatest blessings of her life.
Cooking food, working as nurses, working in maintenance and repair units, dressing as men: for millennia, women have worked near and actually on the battlefield. But they still make up less than a quarter of the active U.S. military force, and they still face career barriers.Despite fear of retaliation in the face of misogyny, three local female veterans, Deborah Dicks Maxwell, Marcia Morgan, and Veronica Carter, say they're proud of the times they spoke up for their rights and dignity.
Black Barbie, the documentary film by Lagueria Davis, explores the way the doll shapes culture, and ultimately the way people think about themselves. It’s a close look at representation, starting with the filmmaker's aunt, Beulah Mae Mitchell, who was on the original Barbie manufacturing line with Mattel and played a key role in bringing Black Barbie to life.
"Everybody that goes to combat, it touches them in a certain way. It's hard to talk about some of those things."Marine Corps veteran Steven Shortt says so many like him want to connect with civilians, especially given the growing divide between the military and civilian communities. But when one of your core values is serving a mission larger than yourself, it gets weird.
What makes history come alive? When you can see repercussions, for good or for ill, in the present day. It’s why North Carolina state historian LeRae Umfleet, the author of the state’s official report on Wilmington’s 1898 massacre and coup d'état, keeps talking about it.