KGNU - How On Earth

Symbiosis – Maybe We Are All Living Together

In this week’s show, Beth speaks with author and evolutionary biologist, Rowan Hooper, discussing the themes and examples of symbiosis from his current book, Togetherness

Measuring War: Aaron Clauset

CU Boulder Computer Scientist Aaron Clauset says military leaders frequently underestimate the ultimate length and size of a war.   Clauset offers a new way to measure wa

How Megafires are Transforming Conifer Forests

Forests Vanishing in Wake of Megafires (start time: 7:55) Increasingly  large and hot wildfires are turning many conifer-dominated forests in the western U.S.and Canada i

Screens & Tech Safety . . . in Schools

Teaching through screens is part of getting kids ready for the digital world.  But when do tech and screens help students and when do they get in the way?  CU-Boulder Jou

Moving Beyond Climate “Hushing”

Climate “hushing” (start time: 5:41) Since President Trump began his second term as president in January, 2025, his administration, at a dizzying pace, has attacked clima

Take a Pause – With Jillian

In her new book, The Power of the Pause: 90 Seconds to Calm, Reset, and Reconnect, Jillian Pransky teaches readers how a brief 90-second break can help regulate the nervo

Operation Music – Why or Why Not?

  A heart attack forced Boulder community leader and journalist Sam Fuqua to need emergency care.  While being wheeled into the operating room, Sam hoped to soothe his an

Colorado River // Ghostbots

Colorado River Water (starts 1:00)   Steep cuts are ahead in the use of Colorado River water by Arizona and California.  But what about Colorado?  For answers, we talk wi

Just What is Wilderness?

What is a wilderness, really? Here in the US we think of it as undeveloped land, put aside to appreciate its beauty and remoteness. In other lands and cultures, wildernes

Eat Your Garden!

Gardens are popping up everywhere, from community plots to elementary school yards to vertical plantings. A unique approach proposed by award winning British landscaper,

Plastics: Health Risks & Solutions

Microplastics: Health Concerns, Solutions (start time: 6:02)  The Environmental Protection Agency recently issued a new rule related to monitoring 30 unregulated chemical

Poking the Squid – What We Can Learn from Animal Sex

Poking the Squid –  Good Reads calls author and illustrator Perrin Roosevelt Ireland’s new book a brilliantly funny, beautifully illustrated graphic nonfiction book that

Childrearing Tips (and Cautionary Tales) From the Animal Kingdom

Parenting Across the Animal Kingdom (start time: 5:02) As humans, we tend to think that we raise our children with more care than any other animal on the planet. After al

Kyle Datta – Energy Security, War & Renewable Energy

Global conflicts are revealing vulnerabilities in the global reliance on imported fossil fuels and centralized power.  Energy Analyst Kyle Datta says energy security need

Hidden Nations of Animals

Complex Animal Networks (start time: 7:17) As humans, we’re all familiar with, as we live in and are members of, nations. But most of us don’t think of non-human species,

Climate Change: Perils and Progress

Climate Change & Action: From the Arctic to Colorado (start time: 2:33) Twenty years ago the Academy-winning documentary An Inconvenient Truth was released in theaters na

Silent Sky // Gold Lab Symposium

Protest It, Respect It, Defend  It, Use It (starts 1:00) Friday at Denver Patagonia and Saturday at Boulder Patagonia environmental activists Annie Leonard and André Caro

A Longer Healthier Life

On this week’s How on Earth, Beth speaks with author, psychologist, and aging explorer Alan Carpenter to discuss the paradigm shift on aging he espouses. Following a life

The Loneliness Epidemic – CSU Researcher Natalie Pennington

The Loneliness Epidemic – Social media fuels extra risk.  Especially vulnerable are people undergoing transitions . . . such as college students, who today share what can

Forest as Superorganism: What it means to Clearcut.

On this week’s How on Earth, Beth speaks with Suzanne Simard, professor and researcher at the University of British Columbia, about her book, WHEN THE FOREST BREATHES, bo