Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

Subscribe: Spotify | RSS

If you’re a parent trying to decide where your child should go to school, you’d prefer to have a choice, right? After all, everyone likes to have options. But the appealing rhetoric of school choice is being used by the right-wing to undermine and underfund public schools, while allocating public subsidies to wealthy families. Today on Sea Change Radio we are talking about school vouchers. Currently, eighteen states have a universal private school choice program, and more are likely on the way. But the expansion of the school voucher system has been made with minimal oversight and has led to waste, fraud, and abuse. The cost to public education is tremendous, as public revenue that would otherwise support public schools (which still educate roughly 90 percent of American students) is redirected to private, religious, and largely unregulated institutions. Our guest this week is ProPublica reporter Jennifer Smith Richards who is here to tell us what she has learned about the damaging effects of school vouchers across the country. We look at the history of the concept in the US, examine issues of abuse and discrimination in Arkansas and Florida, and discuss the very powerful messaging tool embedded in the term “school choice.”

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

Subscribe: Spotify | RSS

Many listeners are probably familiar with the term misanthrope – combining the Greek misein (to hate) and anthrōpos (human), it means someone who doesn’t like people (and most of us probably know one or two such folks, for better or for worse). But today we are talking about synanthropes, plants and animals that live and thrive by hanging around human beings in human environments. This week on Sea Change Radio, we speak with Dan Werb, an epidemiologist who’s new book Our Wild Familiars: How Animals Are Adapting to Cities and Reshaping the Natural World delves into the fascinating domain of synanthropic creatures. Come dumpster diving with us as we learn more about raccoons, rats, and coyotes and how we are all existentially linked.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

Subscribe: Spotify | RSS

In May of 2026, Marshan Camese addressed a Louisiana state senate subcommittee to voice his objection to the elimination of one of Louisiana’s two majority-Black districts. The moment went viral as Camese’s fiery rhetoric captured the feelings of millions of Americans fed up with the status quo. This week on Sea Change Radio, we are joined by Camese as he breaks down the behind-the-scenes story of the speech, discusses some of the inequities that ignite his passions, and talks about why he’s hopeful that a positive change is imminent.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

Subscribe: Spotify | RSS

Imagine you jumped in a time machine and went back 15 years. You might get a chuckle seeing the flip phones and watching masses of people on that thing we used to call a “work commute,” but you might not think twice about the slightly cooler temperatures. If you set the machine to go back a century, however, you would probably want to pack an extra sweater. This week on Sea Change Radio, we speak with author and environmental journalist Jason Dove Mark to explore a phenomenon known as shifting baseline syndrome. We discuss Mark’s new book, The Earth Said Remember Me, learn how our brains adapt to the new normal of degraded environmental health, and unpack examples of how we are collectively being lulled into complacency.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

Subscribe: Spotify | RSS

What better way is there to recognize the value of the natural world than to spend some quality time outdoors? This week on Sea Change Radio, we speak with environmental journalist Roddy Scheer about his series of field guidebooks, which, incidentally, cover destination hikes as well as city trails. We look at how urban and easy-access trail guides can help raise people’s awareness of their surroundings, get a behind-the-scenes glimpse into what it takes to publish a field guidebook, and discuss some helpful technology for hikers.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

Subscribe: Spotify | RSS

When it comes to electric vehicles, we hear a lot more about cars than we do about big rig trucks. The fact is that while Americans are buying electric cars at record rates, the electrification of the US trucking fleet is on a slow roll. This week on Sea Change Radio, we speak with Adam Browning from Forum Mobility, a company that is trying to change that. We look at Forum Mobility’s vision for helping freight companies go electric, get a glimpse of the new electric trucks coming to market, and compare how America’s electric freight fleet compares to others around the world.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

Subscribe: Spotify | RSS

If you go to the website of the Pellet Fuels Institute – the industry’s trade association, you will see the claim that “wood pellets are renewable and clean-burning.” But the reality is something quite different – the manufacturing and burning of wood pellets have severe environmental, health, and social impacts. This week on Sea Change Radio, we speak with Danna Smith, the Executive Director of the Dogwood Alliance, about her organization’s efforts to keep the wood pellet industry in check and preserve America’s southern forests. More specifically, we focus on a campaign between several non-profits that have come together to create tribal and community-owned forests across the South with the goal of revitalizing local economies through eco-tourism and outdoor recreation.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

Subscribe: Spotify | RSS

If you remember watching Ginsu knife ads back in the day, you’re already well-aware that the hand can’t cut a tomato. This week on Sea Change Radio, we take a brief time out from all the ills of the world to learn more about knives. We speak to master knife maker Adam Simha about all things cutting. We discuss the ins and outs of knife maintenance, compare the quality of knife manufacturing across various countries and take a look at his new line of high-end knives.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

Subscribe: Spotify | RSS

As we kick off summer, looking forward to school breaks, barbeques and live outdoor music, it can also mean wildfire season and with it, bad air. This week on Sea Change Radio, we revisit discussions with the heads of two companies doing their best to let consumers know if the air they are breathing is healthy. First, we speak with Glory Dolphin Hammes, the CEO of IQAir North America, to discuss how her company’s online technology gives us a snapshot of air quality. Then we learn about PurpleAir’s unique crowdsourcing model from the company’s founder, Adrian Dybwad.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

Subscribe: Spotify | RSS

In 2016, the leader of the MAGA cult (who believes that climate change is some sort of hoax) incorrectly referred to the EPA as the “Department of Environmental Protection,” then vowed to, “get rid of it in almost every form.” After listening to this week’s guest on Sea Change Radio, you might think that getting rid of the EPA actually would have been preferable. Rather than protecting the environment, the EPA in its current iteration is rolling back sensible regulations and frankly wreaking havoc. Today we hear from John Walke, a senior attorney at the NRDC, the Natural Resources Defense Council, to discuss the enormous environmental cost of artificial intelligence, or AI, whose data centers consume ungodly amounts of water and electricity. We learn about the unquenchable thirst of these data centers, how much of this problem is uniquely American, and why new EPA policies constitute a Trojan horse filled with enemies of the environment, poised to pollute and consume at will.