KGNU - How On Earth

WIldfire Mushroom c Coldfire Project Wild, local mushrooms can break down deadwood into healthy soil, and they can do this surprisingly fast.  Used correctly, fungi are an emerging way to reduce the forest tinder that makes mega-wildfires more likely.   But there’s a wrong way and a right way to use mushrooms for mitigation  Our experts today will talk about the ways that are safe for the environment, and the results. Our experts today are Jeff Ravage of the Coldfire Project and Zach Hedstrom of Boulder Mushroom .  They describe efforts underway to use mushrooms to break down deadwood into soil — to reduce forest tinder and also for sequestering carbon in soil. Host/Show Producer: Shelley Schlender Listen to the show here:

Nobel Laureate and CU Boulder researcher Tom Cech. (Photo by Glenn Asakawa/University of Colorado) CU Boulder Nobel Prize Winner Tom Cech discusses his new book, The Catalyst, RNA and the Quest to Unlock Life’s Deepest Secrets Tom Cech is our featured interview for the KGNU Fall Membership Drive.  Thank you to listeners who are contributing funds to help our volunteer powered, noncommercial, community radio station.  If you like what you hear and want to aid our efforts, please donate securely on line at  KGNU.org. If you would like to join our team of volunteers who report for the science show and make it happen, please contact us via:  contact [no spam] howonearthradio.org Just put the @ where it belongs. Hosts: Shelley Schlender, Susan Moran Show Producer: Shelley Schlender Listen to the show here: 

Image credit: Brown University Beliefs, Perceptions, Decision-making (start time: 4:37)  For many people if feels like our society, and our beliefs, have never been as polarized as they are now. Indeed, we are living in a politically polarized society. But it’s not as unique, or as extreme, as many think. In this week’s show we look behind the curtain of our beliefs and behaviors, and we discuss how emotions, far more than reason, determine our decision-making, including how we vote. How On Earth host Susan Moran interviews Leaf Van Boven, a psychology professor at CU Boulder; and Drew Westen, a professor of psychology and psychiatry at Emory University, in Atlanta, Georgia, who is the author of The Political Brain: The Role of Emotion in Deciding the Fate of the Nation. Hosts: Susan Moran, Joel Parker Show Producer: Susan Moran Engineer: Joel Parker Executive Producer: Susan Moran Listen to the show here: 

Boulder Colorado Nature Hikes Local Science/Nature Calendar (starts 1:00)  We share news about the Marshall Mesa Trailhead Closure to eliminate burning underground coal, CSU Professor Mark Easter talks about the Blue Plate Book Launch, THIS THURSDAY at Boulder’s Patagonia Store, and a Hiking Song:Vocal Improvisation in the Wild, NEXT THURSDAY October 9th. Tiny “Peacock” Spider c James O’Hanlon EIGHT-LEGGED WONDERS:  The Surprising Lives of Spiders (starts 5:41) HowonEarth Hosts talk about spider phobias, and zoologist James O’Hanlon shares stories from his new book about peacock spiders, vegetarian spiders, spiders in outer space, and more. Hosts: Esther Frost, Joel Parker Executive Producer: Susan Moran Show Producer: Shelley Schlender Engineer:  Jackie Sedley Listen to the show here:

The Blue Plate in a Red-hot World (start time: 7:46) While adding cream to your morning cup of coffee, or digesting the hamburger that you grilled last night, you might not have been asking yourself, What’s the carbon footprint of these ingredients and meals? Understandable. Our guest today, ecologist Mark Easter, however, has pondered this question intensely for many years, when he grocery shops, plans his next meal, and researches. Easter is a so-called greenhouse gas accountant, one who measures the sources and sinks of GHG emissions from agricultural practices. It’s a vexing and critical calculus. After all, agriculture generates more than 10 percent  of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. Easter’s debut book,  The Blue Plate: A Food Lover’s Guide to Climate Chaos (Patagonia),  has just been published. It highlights not just the causes of our climate crisis, but also a growing number of farmers, ranchers and orchardists who are practicing low-carbon, soil-enhancing methods on their land, and as a result boosting their crop yields and revenues. Hosts: Susan Moran, Joel Parker Show Producer/Executive Producer: Susan Moran Engineer: Joel Parker Headline contributors: Beth Bennett, Joel Parker, Shelley Schlender Listen to the show here:

Colorado Parks & Wildlife Wolf Release Wolf Family Recaptured  (Starts 1:40)    Colorado Parks & Wildlife did not reply to our request for an update on the fate of Colorado’s newly captured wild wolf family.  CU Boulder Professor Marc Bekoff did, offering suggestions for how to improve human-wolf interactions under the voter mandate to reintroduce wolves to Colorado.  Go here for a transcript and extended interview with Marc Bekoff.  Go here to see the “Kill Permit” Colorado Parks & Wildlife denied to the rancher who lives near the wolf family’s den. HOOF  BEATS.  How Horses Shaped Human History. (Starts ) We speak with CU-Boulder Archeologist William Taylor about his new book, Hoofbeats, that chronicles the origin of horses and the human/horse bond. Taylor will give a talk about his new book, Thursday, September 19th at the Boulder Bookstore. Special music courtesy of YouTube and The Hu, about Mongolia, the cradle of horse domestication, where a horse culture still exists and thrives. Executive Producer: Susan Moran Show Producer: Shelley Schlender Engineer: Jackie Sedley

This is an extended interview with CU Boulder Wildlife Expert Marc Bekoff about challenges and possibilities with Colorado Wolf Reintroduction.  For the broadcast interview, GO Here.  And here is an AI-generated written transcipt.    

In this week’s show Beth spoke with Marc Bekoff, well known and loved for his decades of research into animal behavior, emotion and cognition, about the new edition of his classic book, The Emotional Lives of Animals. Marc Bekoff is professor emeritus of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Colorado, Boulder. For decades he has studied animal behavior, cognitive ethology (the study of animal minds), behavioral ecology, and written extensively on human-animal interactions and animal protection. He centers his work and writing around compassionate conservation, namely the principle of, “First do no harm” and the life of every individual matters because they are alive and have intrinsic value, not because of what they can do for us. We talked about the new edition of his classic book, The Emotional Lives of Animals, and many related topics. On his website you can find links to his many books, articles, and remarkable listing of honors and awards. If you frequent the dog parks in Boulder, you may see him watching and talking to the dogs. Executive Producer: Susan Moran Show Producer: Beth Bennett Additional Contributions: Susan Moran Engineer: Jackie Sedley Listen to the show:

Peter McGraw SOLO:  Building a Remarkable Life of Your Own.  CU Boulder Professor, Behavioral Economist and book author Peter McGraw uses statistical data and personal anecdotes to explain the growing worldwide trend for adults to live “Solo.” (for Cat Ladies song, go here) Show Producer and Host: Shelley Schlender Executive Producer: Susan Moran      

When people talk about going to the Moon, it is often in terms of establishing a station there, or finding water, or doing science about the Moon such as studying moon rocks.  But we can do interesting science from the Moon that can’t be done on Earth, which is our topic today with guest Dr. Jack Burns, Professor Emeritus in the University of Colorado Department of Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences and Department of Physics.  We talk about doing radio astronomy with instruments on the Moon such as ROLSES, LuSEE-Night, and FarView. Show Producer and Host: Joel Parker Executive Producer: Susan Moran Additional Contributions: Shelley Schlender, Beth Bennett Listen to the show: