WPR: To the Best of our Knowledge - Environmental Issues

Marshall Curry on The Earth Liberation Front

webmaster@wpr.org (Wisconsin Public Radio) — Sun, 27 May 2012 00:00:00 -0500

There’s one devil we NEVER sympathize with: the terrorist. But... Hold on. Not so fast, says filmmaker Marshall Curry.

Terry Tempest Williams on "When Women Were Birds"

webmaster@wpr.org (Wisconsin Public Radio) — Sun, 6 May 2012 00:00:00 -0500

Terry Tempest Williams has spent much of her life trying to understand her mother - both a private woman and a trickster. Her memoir is also an exploration of silence and finding one's voice.

Terry Tempest Williams on Thoreau

webmaster@wpr.org (Wisconsin Public Radio) — Sun, 6 May 2012 00:00:00 -0500

Terry Tempest Williams adores Thoreau. She says his passion for social justice and his love of nature are intimately connected.

Davyd Betchkal on Denali soundscapes

webmaster@wpr.org (Wisconsin Public Radio) — Sun, 6 May 2012 00:00:00 -0500

Davyd Betchkal is a soundscape engineer in Alaska's Denali National Park. We hear recordings of wood frogs, bear cubs, even an avalanche.

David George Haskell on One Square Meter of Woods

webmaster@wpr.org (Wisconsin Public Radio) — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 00:00:00 -0500

Listen in on this UNCUT interview from the Into the Woods show. He tells Jim Fleming about what twigs have to teach us about climate change, and the poetry of the forest.

Stephen Long on How to Read a Forest

webmaster@wpr.org (Wisconsin Public Radio) — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 00:00:00 -0500

Stephen Long is the founder of Northern Woodlands Magazine. He takes us for a walk in his Vermont woods and teaches us how to "read" a forest.

David George Haskell on the Forest Unseen

webmaster@wpr.org (Wisconsin Public Radio) — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 00:00:00 -0500

Biologist David George Haskell spent a year making weekly visits to the same one-square-meter patch of old-growth forest near his home in Tennessee. His writes about his experiment in "contemplative science" in a series of gorgeous essays, called "The Forest Unseen".

Jeremy Seifert on Food Waste in America

webmaster@wpr.org (Wisconsin Public Radio) — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 00:00:00 -0500

Jeremy Seifert fed his family on pickings from the local dumpsters in Los Angeles California. The adventure awakened him to the immense waste of food going on in America every day. The result is his documentary "Dive!" which tackles food waste in our throw-away culture.

Melissa Coleman on a Childhood Spent Back to the Land

webmaster@wpr.org (Wisconsin Public Radio) — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 00:00:00 -0500

Melissa Coleman spent the formative years of her chilldhood roaming the lands of her family's farn in rural Maine. Melissa, her sister Heidi, and their parents, Eliot and Sue Coleman, lived off the grid, and became media darlings when the Wall Street Journal ran an article about her father. Coleman writes about that time in her memoir "This Life is in Your Hands."

William Powers on the Art of Living Small

webmaster@wpr.org (Wisconsin Public Radio) — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 00:00:00 -0500

William Powers had returned home from abroad, in shock at the excess of American culture. Then he found a woman he calls Dr. Jackie Benton, living sustainabily in a 12 x 12 house in rural North Carolina. He tells her story in the book "Twelve by Twelve."

Ann Patchett on "State of Wonder"

webmaster@wpr.org (Wisconsin Public Radio) — Sun, 1 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0600

Ann Patchett's "State of Wonder" is a story about medical ethics and self-discovery when everything seems lost. Patchett describes her own experience visiting the Amazon while researching her novel.

Scott Wallace on "The Unconquered"

webmaster@wpr.org (Wisconsin Public Radio) — Sun, 1 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0600

Reporter Scott Wallace joined Brazilian explorer Sidney Posseulo on an expedition deep into the Amazon in search of one of the last uncontacted tribes, the Arrow People.

Veronica Rueckert on Encountering the Orca

webmaster@wpr.org (Wisconsin Public Radio) — Thu, 1 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0600

TTBOOK essayist and producer Veronica Rueckert has had her own close encounter with whales, on a first visit to Sea World in San Diego. For Veronica, laying eyes on an orca was stranger than she’d ever imagined.

Ellen Prager on Odd Sea Creatures and Why They Matter

webmaster@wpr.org (Wisconsin Public Radio) — Thu, 1 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0600

Ellen Prager wants you to care about the oceans. She’s a writer and former chief scientist of the Aquarius Reef Base, the world’s only undersea research station. Her latest book is called “Sex, Drugs, and Sea Slime." She says we ignore the oceans at our own peril.

Robert Finch on "A Cape Cod Notebook"

webmaster@wpr.org (Wisconsin Public Radio) — Sun, 6 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0500

Nature writer Robert Finch gives Steve Paulson an insider's view of the ecosystem of the Cape Cod town of Wellfleet. They walk along the outskirts of Wellfleet, and visit shellfish growers Pat and Barbara Woodbury, who are raking for clams. You can see photos from Cape Cod here.

David Gessner on "My Green Manifesto"

webmaster@wpr.org (Wisconsin Public Radio) — Sun, 6 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0500

David Gessner wants to change the way people write about nature. Instead of the traditional stories about wild animals in pristine landscapes, he calls for a style of nature writing that's messy, even raucous.

Erin Clune on Urban Beekeeping

webmaster@wpr.org (Wisconsin Public Radio) — Sun, 28 Aug 2011 00:00:00 -0500

Erin Clune is a reporter for Wisconsin Pubilc Radio and a blogger. She visits the hives of urban beekeeper Bob Falk from Madison, Wisconsin.

Taggart Siegel & Jon Betz on their documentary "Queen of the Sun"

webmaster@wpr.org (Wisconsin Public Radio) — Sun, 28 Aug 2011 00:00:00 -0500

Filmmakers Jon Betz and Taggart Siegel talk about their documentary "Queen of the Sun: What are the Bees Telling Us?"

Justin O. Schmidt on the Schmidt Sting Pain Index

webmaster@wpr.org (Wisconsin Public Radio) — Sun, 28 Aug 2011 00:00:00 -0500

Justin O. Schmidt is a research biologist and professor at the University of Arizona School of Entomology. He's the creator of Schmidt Sting Pain Index.

Hugh Raffles on Bee behavior and the work of Karl von Frisch

webmaster@wpr.org (Wisconsin Public Radio) — Sun, 28 Aug 2011 00:00:00 -0500

Anthropologist Hugh Raffles talks about the work of celebrated bee biologist Karl von Frisch and the remarkable ways bees reach consensus.