Why Science Communication Fails: How to Break Down Misleading Arguments and Inoculate Against Misinformation

In this episode, Nate is joined by John Cook, a researcher who has spent nearly two decades studying science communication and the psychology of misinformation. John shares his journey from creating the education website Skeptical Science in 2007 to his shocking discovery that his well-intentioned debunking efforts might have been counterproductive.

The Darien Gap and Central America Biological Corridor: critical biodiversity hotspots and local adaptations following mass human migration

The Darien is a hub of extraordinary terrestrial and aquatic diversity, a sanctuary of indigenous communities already devoted to protecting local wilderness, and habitat for endangered Apex predators, including the Harpy Eagle. It also, unfortunately, serves as an example of contemporary environmental and societal threats magnified by large-scale geopolitical changes.

Bus Driver on Mars

To live outside of one’s ecological context—and in fact where no ecology of any relevance exists—would require somehow creating a suitable ecology, or borrowing a sufficiently-complete subset of an existing one that can tolerate a completely novel setting for which the beings are not adapted.

Wide Boundary News: Biodiversity Depletion, Iran & the Strait of Hormuz, and the Green Wedge

This week’s Frankly is another edition of Nate’s Wide Boundary News series, where he invites listeners to view the constant churn of headlines through a wider-boundary lens. Today’s edition features reflections on renewable energy and CO2 emission trends, updates on species adaptability, and a discussion about nuclear treaties and Iran.

Humanity as Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde: The Symptoms, Patterns, and Drivers

In this week’s Frankly, Nate looks at how aggregate human behavior changes as groups scale from small tribes to large and complex societies. He uses the framing of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde throughout the episode to illustrate how traits that once helped small groups survive can serve to destabilize complex societies when expanded globally.

Lessons from the “Poor Man’s Cow”

Shane has been busy with the next generation on and off the farm too, visiting schools with a herd of Old Irish Goats. Once a common sight in the Irish countryside, this rare native breed is helping to revive a cultural heritage that has lessons to teach us today, on biodiversity, wildfire management, and the transmission of knowledge from one generation to the next.