Episodes

  • Episode 308-Book Magic

    Episode 308-Book Magic
    Dec 13 2025
    Episode 308-Book Magic by Dr. Steven Shepard
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    5 mins
  • A Tour of the Essex Junction Water Treatment Plant

    A Tour of the Essex Junction Water Treatment Plant
    Dec 11 2025
    Join me on a tour of the Essex Junction Water Treatment Facility. It's a lot more interesting than you might think!
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    25 mins
  • Episode 307-The Sounds Below

    Episode 307-The Sounds Below
    Dec 10 2025
    The ocean has always been a center-point in my life, a place where I feel the most comfortable. I began SCUBA-diving professionally in 1977, and soon became a dedicated underwater photographer. But it wasn't long before I began to pay more attention to the sounds of the underwater world than I did the sights, and the result was life-changing. Please enjoy.
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    13 mins
  • Episode 306-Nature is Calling-Are You Listening-Part 3

    Episode 306-Nature is Calling-Are You Listening-Part 3
    Dec 6 2025
    This is an audio essay, presented in three parts, about the need to balance the forces of industry and the forces of conservation. We need both, so what I'm about to say, I think, is important. Let me begin by telling you what this audio essay is not about. It is not another tiresome, ‘Chicken Little the Sky is Falling’ story of environmental doom. It is not another finger wagging, how-dare-we-mistreat-the-planet-this-way paean of conservation woe. It is not yet another in a long line of left-wing assaults on the energy sector, nor is it an attack on the right-wing players who want to drill, baby, drill. We are living in a time when society seems to believe that our future MUST be binary. “We can reduce our dependency on oil, or we can be global leaders in conservation and climate change. In fact, “we can reduce our dependency on oil, and we can be global leaders in conservation and climate change.” Here’s how.
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    21 mins
  • Episode 306-Nature is Calling-Are You Listening-Part 2

    Episode 306-Nature is Calling-Are You Listening-Part 2
    Dec 6 2025
    This is an audio essay, presented in three parts, about the need to balance the forces of industry and the forces of conservation. We need both, so what I'm about to say, I think, is important. Let me begin by telling you what this audio essay is not about. It is not another tiresome, ‘Chicken Little the Sky is Falling’ story of environmental doom. It is not another finger wagging, how-dare-we-mistreat-the-planet-this-way paean of conservation woe. It is not yet another in a long line of left-wing assaults on the energy sector, nor is it an attack on the right-wing players who want to drill, baby, drill. We are living in a time when society seems to believe that our future MUST be binary. “We can reduce our dependency on oil, or we can be global leaders in conservation and climate change. In fact, “we can reduce our dependency on oil, and we can be global leaders in conservation and climate change.” Here’s how.
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    25 mins
  • Episode 306-Nature is Calling-Are You Listening-Part 1

    Episode 306-Nature is Calling-Are You Listening-Part 1
    Dec 6 2025
    This is an audio essay, presented in three parts, about the need to balance the forces of industry and the forces of conservation. We need both, so what I'm about to say, I think, is important. Let me begin by telling you what this audio essay is not about. It is not another tiresome, ‘Chicken Little the Sky is Falling’ story of environmental doom. It is not another finger wagging, how-dare-we-mistreat-the-planet-this-way paean of conservation woe. It is not yet another in a long line of left-wing assaults on the energy sector, nor is it an attack on the right-wing players who want to drill, baby, drill. We are living in a time when society seems to believe that our future MUST be binary. “We can reduce our dependency on oil, or we can be global leaders in conservation and climate change. In fact, “we can reduce our dependency on oil, and we can be global leaders in conservation and climate change.” Here’s how.
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    13 mins
  • Episode 303-Interview with Shaun Borri

    Episode 303-Interview with Shaun Borri
    Dec 6 2025
    Older media just never seem to go away...as you're about to find out.
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    22 mins
  • Episode 305-The Abyss

    Episode 305-The Abyss
    Dec 4 2025
    Like every part of our planetary geography, oceans have identifiable regions. Beginning at the beach and gradually dropping to about 650 feet is the continental shelf. This shallow region of the ocean is called the sunlit or Epiplagic zone. From sunlight we move into the beginnings of oceanic darkness: we leave the continental shelf and step onto the much steeper continental slope where we enter the twilight or Mesopelagic zone, which descends to about 4,000 feet—the better part of a mile. Here, light from the surface disappears. We continue in darkness down the continental slope into the midnight or Bathypelagic zone, all the way to 13,000 feet—a crushing depth of nearly two miles. But we’re nowhere near the bottom yet. At 13,000 feet, the slope begins to level as it becomes the continental rise on its way to the sea floor, at about 20,000 feet. This is the Abyss, or the Abyssopelagic zone, the dwelling place of creatures that are the stuff of nightmares. Even their names conjure darkness: gulper eels. Angler fish. Vampire squid. Coffinfish. But this is still not the deepest part of the ocean. That honor goes to the Hadal zone, named after Hades, the underworld. These are the ocean’s deep trenches, and they descend to unimaginable depths of nearly 37,000 feet. Mount Everest could be dropped into these canyons and its peak would lie under deep water. In this program, we look at these deep regions, at the organisms that lives there, and at the sounds of the deep.
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    18 mins