Wednesday
September 18, 2019
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Works in Progress

Two men dancing during a second-line parade in New Orleans

Following the Music

by Nima Taradji | Tuesday, September 03, 2019
Men standing in a prison yard behind a chain-link fence

Unlocking Prison Problems

Four questions on he future of incarceration

by Emily Bazelon | Tuesday, September 03, 2019
Whitewater river

The Girl Diving

A short excerpt from a novel-in-progress

by Daniel Woodrell | Tuesday, September 03, 2019
Exterior view of a greenhouse lit up at night

Progress Report, Winter 2019

Old rice made new, women inventors, cli-fi hits the art world

by Rebecca McCarthy | Tuesday, September 03, 2019
A man and his dog sit in the cab of a druck, with the sun filtering in over ranchland.

Heritage Ranching

Preserving a way of life

by Katie Daniels | Monday, June 03, 2019
A wall of glaciers, colored in a gradient of blue

Speeding at a Glacial Pace

Four questions about the future of Antarctica

by Elizabeth Rush | Monday, June 03, 2019
An illustration of tiled smartphones showing a simplified person graphic and a giant red checkmark

Counting Americans in the Digital Age

The census goes online

by Brad Edmondson | Monday, June 03, 2019
Aerial shot of forest on the edge of water, with a town in the background

The Secret Life of Trees

Reading the rings of New York’s last maritime forests

by Rebecca McCarthy | Monday, June 03, 2019
A scuba diver descends to the jagged edge of a rock beneath the deep blue sea

Searching for Seamounts

A seismologist maps the mountain range below the Pacific

by Rebecca McCarthy | Monday, June 03, 2019
A cruise ship at dock in a beautiful bay

Journey to Nowhere

A very short excerpt from a poem-in-progress

by Dana Gioia | Monday, June 03, 2019
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Smarty Pants Podcast

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THIS WEEK’S ARCHIVE PICK

2nd Look

After the Storm

by Stephanie Bastek

In the wake of Hurricane Dorian, we’re revisiting our interview with environmental reporter Elizabeth Rush. Smarty Pants host Stephanie Bastek asks what the future looks like for America’s coastal residents, especially as climate change contributes to rising sea levels and worsening storm seasons. “The options for the people and animals in these places is stark: retreat or die,” Bastek says. “Those are the options we generally associate with far-off islands, like Fuji or Kiribati. But dramatic, life-changing climate change is happening right now in our own backyard.”