Category: Blog

After decades of relying on imported oil, the U.S. achieved the unthinkable and became the world’s largest producer. Production has doubled over the past decade, and in February reached its highest level ever – thirteen million barrels a day. But as it turns out, all of that overabundance has led to a different kind of oil crisis. “We’re producing more oil and gas than ever, and this industry’s stocks are tanking,” says Amy Harder, energy reporter for Axios. Meanwhile, renewables are experiencing unprecedented growth. What will be the lasting impact of the COVID-19 recession? What is the future of energy in a post-pandemic world?

Climate One airs Saturdays and Sundays at 10am.

Host: Dave Schlom

Even casual observers of the night sky are familiar with the winter constellation Orion. It’s two brightest stars, Rigel and Betelgeuse and its three belt stars make it an easy one to spot. But one of them has dimmed dramatically in recent months, the red supergiant star Betelgeuse. The dimming led to rampant speculation that the star, nearly 700 light years from Earth, may be about to explode into the ultimate cosmic fireworks show — a supernova that would be visible in the daytime sky. But is that what’s really going on? Dave Schlom talks to Spitzer Space Telescope scientist Luisa Rebull about the giant star, the life cycles of stars in general and the ending of one of NASA’s Great Observatories — Spitzer.

Blue Dot airs on Saturdays at 11am.

More Posts for Show: Blue Dot

Host: Greg Dalton

Guests:  Ani Dasgupta, Global Director, World Resources Institute, Ross Center for Sustainable Cities; Eva Gladek, Founder and CEO, Metabolic; Lauren Faber O’Connor, Chief Sustainability Officer, Office of Mayor Eric Garcetti, City of Los Angeles

Can we solve the climate crisis by reimagining our cities? Climate activists have long envisioned the zero-carbon cities of the future. Now, with COVID-19 shutting down congested urban areas, city dwellers from Los Angeles to New Delhi are getting a rare taste of clean air and blue skies. But the view is also more clear of things more painful to see – social inequalities that have existed for generations. “This is an opportunity to think about what kind of systems do we actually want, what kind of future do we envision for our cities and for our economy,” says sustainability expert Eva Gladek. “And how do we actually try to address multiple challenges at once when looking toward that future.”

Climate One airs Saturdays and Sundays at 10am.

More Posts for Show: Climate One

DJ GMac and DJ E-Dubs offer up a new remotely produced episode of The Feel tonight at 8pm Pacific.

More Posts for Show: The Feel

Two new episodes today of KSPB shows, produced remotely during shelter in place:

• Cup of Tea at 4pm Pacific
• The Jukebox at 8pm Pacific

KSPB DJs are producing new episodes of their shows from their shelter-in-place locations. First up, DJ Quilliam and DJ Yeddy of the Friday Afternoon Talking Hour, which airs Fridays at 5pm Pacific.

More Posts for Show: Friday Afternoon Talking Hour

KSPB will air a nationwide live call-in special on COVID-19 produced by Minnesota Public Radio and hosted by MPR News’ Kerri Miller and WABE’s Rose Scott.

The special will occur over two days at 11 a.m. Pacific Time. Audiences across the nation are invited to call in and ask medical and public health professionals their hard questions.

Each of the stand-alone midday call-in shows will shine a spotlight on the COVID-19 crisis:

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  Wednesday, March 18: Kerri is joined by guests from the Mayo Clinic to talk about the science of treating COVID-19 — the challenges medical professionals are facing, what they know about the spread, and their plans for stopping it.

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  Thursday, March 19: We will be partnering with station WABE in Atlanta, GA (home of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) for the second hour of the special, centered around public health.

Listener calls will be taken as live only, not pre-recorded. Call-in number: 800-242-2828

The week of March 2 starts the semiannual satellite solar outage in northern California. A solar or sun transit out is an electromagnetic phenomenon wherein our station’s downlink is temporarily unable to receive a satellite signal due to interference from the sun as it passes behind the satellite. During the outage window KSPB will air programming that does not rely on the satellite:

• Monday, March 2 from 10:30am–11am: With Good Reason “Finding Classroom Success”
• Tuesday, March 3 from 10:30am–11am: The Best of Our Knowledge “The History of the Dracula Legend”
• Wednesday, March 4 from 10:30am–11am: Bookworm with Michael Silverblatt “Charles Yu”
• Thursday, March 5 from 10am–11am: Blue Dot “Modeling Climate with Gavin Schmidt”