Grist reporter Amelia Urry visits an Australian lab, where scientists are trying to grow coral that can survive in the future. And a farewell from Flora and Katherine.Autor: Flora Lichtman and SoundVision Productions

Outside of Taos, NM, you'll find a community of people living in off-grid homes made of garbage. We visited them.Autor: Flora Lichtman and SoundVision Productions

Michael Reynolds builds off-grid homes out of garbage. Meet the Earthship.Autor: Flora Lichtman and SoundVision Productions

Wild yaks live on the roof of the world, a frosty high-elevation plateau north of the Himalayas. Conservation biologist Joel Berger, of the University of Montana and the Wildlife Conservation Society, wanted to find out how climate change might affect yaks, so he paid them a visit.Autor: Flora Lichtman and SoundVision Productions

Reporter Ryan Bradley follows up on his quest to buy water.Autor: Flora Lichtman and SoundVision Productions

When you hear "renewable energy," you think solar and wind. But what about spores? Columbia University's Ozgur Sahin explains.Autor: Flora Lichtman and SoundVision Productions

What do Algerian monks have to do with 400 parts per million? Reporter Jeff Delviscio investigates how we measure CO2 in the atmosphere.Autor: Flora Lichtman and SoundVision Productions

Dogs evolved in response to environmental changes tens of millions of years ago. Can that tell us anything about how animals might adapt to climate change today?Autor: Flora Lichtman and SoundVision Productions

Jeremy and Charlie, 11 year old students, are worried about climate change. They say it's because their generation will be the one to bear the brunt of its effects.Autor: Flora Lichtman and SoundVision Productions

Historian James Fleming talks about the surprising history of weather control and what past failures can tell us about today's geoengineering proposals.Autor: Flora Lichtman and SoundVision Productions

When exposed to high temperatures, Australian Central Bearded Dragons do something strange.Autor: Flora Lichtman and SoundVision Productions

Ethicist Travis Rieder thinks that it's time we talked about population.Autor: Flora Lichtman and SoundVision Productions

On the International Space Station, sewage, condensation and even sweat get recycled into potable water. We have the technology to recycle water on Earth, too, but we don't use it as often as we could -- mostly because we think it's gross.Autor: Flora Lichtman and SoundVision Productions

Lichens are under threat from climate and habitat changes. Should we care?Autor: Flora Lichtman and SoundVision Productions

We interviewed New York City rats to get their thoughts on climate change and whether humans will be able to adapt.Autor: Flora Lichtman and SoundVision Productions

If humans were to go extinct, what would the planet look like? One paleobiologist says the creatures most likely to take our place are rats.Autor: Flora Lichtman and SoundVision Productions

Reporter Ryan Bradley lives in California. Given the drought, he figured it'd be a good idea to buy some water rights. It was more complicated than he thought.Autor: Flora Lichtman and SoundVision Productions

We asked for your stories of climate shame. You delivered.Autor: Flora Lichtman and SoundVision Productions

Wild yaks live on the roof of the world, a frosty high-elevation plateau north of the Himalayas. Biologist Joel Berger wanted to find out how climate change might affect yaks, so he paid them a visit.Autor: Flora Lichtman and SoundVision Productions

Why did a young Romanian inventor build an eco-friendly car made out of half a million LEGO pieces that runs on compressed air? Well, why not?Autor: Flora Lichtman and SoundVision Productions

We can imagine the deep past: full of mammoths and dinosaurs and climates very different from our own. But how are we supposed to imagine the future?Autor: Flora Lichtman and SoundVision Productions

In a fusion world, we'd generate unlimited clean energy from mini suns that we build all over Earth. Sound like a fairytale? Scientists at Princeton Plasma Physics Lab say we can get there -- if we can pay for it.Autor: Flora Lichtman and SoundVision Productions

How far would you go for climate change? NYU philosopher Matthew Liao has an outside-the-box proposal: Decrease energy use by engineering humans to have meat allergies, fur, and yes, cat eyes.Autor: Flora Lichtman and SoundVision Productions

Is there something you feel like you should be doing, or not doing, for the environment? If so, you're not alone.Autor: Flora Lichtman and SoundVision Productions

What if you had an idea that you believed could change the world? What if that idea was a tornado machine? In this episode we ask, what drives some people to pursue an idea for their entire lives? http://trbq.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Tornado-Man-TRBQ-18.mp3 Download audio Retired engineer Louis Michaud believes he has an idea that could solve…

New York City is poised to become the country's largest producer of an unexpected type of green energy. This fuel source you can make yourself - and you certainly do. Anthony Fiore, director of the NYCDEP Office of Energy, explains how NYC's Newtown Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant is turning sewage and food scraps into "black gold."…

What if you had an idea that you believed could change the world? What if that idea was a tornado machine?Autor: Flora Lichtman and SoundVision Productions

Retired engineer Louis Michaud believes he has an idea that could solve the world's energy problems: A tornado machine. For 50 years, Michaud has been working on an "Atmospheric Vortex Engine" -- a device that he hopes someday will generate mile-high tornadoes from warm air heated by the sun or waste heat from power plants. The updraft would turn t…

Meet the adaptors: the visionaries, the scientists, the entrepreneurs, the backyard tinkerers who are responding to the challenges presented by climate change. We'll introduce to them, one story at a time. We'll bring you a new podcast every two weeks. We make videos, too. Host Flora Lichtman and producer Katherine Wells set the stage.…

A very brief announcement. Really, really brief. http://trbq.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/TRBQ_Shorts_Shortly.mp3 MORE AUDIO from TRBQ: Subscribe the to the TRBQ podcast on iTunes. Listen to the TRBQ podcast on Stitcher. Follow TRBQ on SoundCloud.Autor: SoundVision Productions

You can vote when you’re 18 and drink when you’re 21. But when do you really become an adult? http://trbq.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/TRBQ_Podcast17_Adulthood.mp3 Download audio Psychologist Jeffrey Jensen Arnett says people in their 20s are in a different life-stage than people in their 30s. He coined the term “emerging adulthood” to describe t…

These are the final words of Jennifer Michael Hecht’s most recent book: “Choose to stay.” Hecht argues against suicide as an escape from despair. She offers two reasons. Choosing to stay allows you the chance to be helpful to someone else. And, she says you owe your future self a chance at happiness. AUDIO: Hecht talks with Dean Olsher about her bo…

Maybe it’s a stuffed elephant. Could be a pepper shaker. Or perhaps a very special rock. Many adults have an object that’s particularly dear to them, but it’s not something that most people openly talk about. Unless you ask them. http://trbq.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Podcast15_Things.mp3 Download audio Share your special thing with us on Faceb…

Mary Roach wants you to give yourself away. Not yet, though. After you’re dead. She wrote a book called “Stiff,” in which she details what has happened over the years to bodies that were donated—willingly or unwillingly—to science. “I think that, for many people, does take the edge off it,” Roach says. “You know there is some good coming from somet…

If you ever doubt that animals have the capacity to share, look no further than chimpanzees and capuchin monkeys. Frans de Waal studies primates, and he teaches psychology at Emory University. He says says looking at the way other primates share sheds light on the way humans act. http://trbq.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/TRBQ_Podcast13_DeWaal.mp3 …

On the altar of a former cathedral in Duluth, Minn., an ensemble of musicians begins to play. Their notes are piercing and sometimes dissonant. It’s not your typical cathedral music—but then again, these aren’t your typical musicians. They’re robots. http://trbq.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/TRBQ_Podcast12_I-Musician.mp3 Download audio None of the…

The human instinct to tell stories is strong. So strong, in fact, that sometimes people see stories when they’re not there. http://trbq.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/TRBQ_Podcast11_Stories_Heider-Simmel.mp3 Download audio In the 1940s, two researchers set out to demonstrate the proclivity of humans to see stories, even in random events. Fritz Heid…

Storytelling is an integral part of human culture. It teaches, enlightens and connects. But according to author and playwright Anne Bogart, it can also be dangerous. http://trbq.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/TRBQ_Podcast10_Stories_Bogart1.mp3 Download audio Bogart just released a book called “What’s the Story: Essays about Art, Theater and Storyte…

Unraveling the truth behind why human beings tell stories requires a scientist who can explain science to non-scientists. Enter E. O. Wilson. http://trbq.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/TRBQ_Podcast9_Stories_Wilson.mp3 Download audio Wilson is a biologist, but he’s also a storyteller. He’s among the world’s top experts on ants, but he’s also written…

Tad Hoskins thinks we should face the facts: We’re all going to die. So we should make the necessary preparations. He’s not a morbid guy — just well prepared. That’s why he has his mom’s casket stored in his workshop. http://trbq.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/TRBQ_Podcast8_Caskets.mp3 Download audio Spring came late this year to New York Mills, Mi…

TRBQ paid a visit to the United House of Prayer for All People in Harlem to spend some time with a gospel brass band called the McCullough Sons of Thunder. And we talked with some neuroscientists who study our perceptions of music. http://trbq.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/TRBQ_Podcast7_SonsThunder.mp3 Download audio When the McCullough Sons of Th…

Pinning down a definition of music is harder than it sounds. A song composed by a human easily fits into the category of music. But what about a song composed by a bird? Or the rumble of a freight train? http://trbq.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/TRBQ_Podcast6_Music-Pinker128.mp3 Download audio Steven Pinker is a cognitive scientist at Harvard, and…

Americans don’t seem to have much trouble with violent death at the movies. But real death is a different story. Slow, lingering death from old age, funerals, embalming, cremation – these are not really dinner table conversation. A group called The Order of the Good Death is trying to change that. The Order wants to “prepare a death-phobic culture …

Why do people share? In this episode we hear from Yochai Benkler about his research into people who write Wikipedia articles, and we meet Sam Harnett who moonlights giving people rides — and recording their stories. http://trbq.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/TRBQ-Podcast4.mp3 Download audio Any given day, in any given place, someone is giving away …

Money can make you happy. Especially if you give it to someone else. A growing body of research shows that giving money to other people is more likely to make you happy than keeping the money. In this episode, Michael Norton from the Harvard Business School tells Dean about his fascinating research into sharing and generosity. http://trbq.org/wp-co…

TRBQ pays a visit to the marriage market in Shanghai to talk with parents who are looking for mates for their adult children, and host Dean Olsher talks with scientists about brain scans of people who are in love. The question is, does “love” mean the same thing in different cultures? And it appears the answer is yes. And no. http://trbq.org/wp-con…

We look at brain scans of people who are madly in love. We talk with the neuroscientists who did the scans. And we talk with writer A.J. Jacobs, who compares his love for his wife to a ride on a Segway. http://trbq.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/TRBQ-Podcast-1-The-science-of-love.mp3 Download audio Researchers discover romantic love Head to your lo…