Viewpoints Radio
Award-winning reporting on current issues featuring America's leading experts.
You may have held out on getting a pet for years and years, but when the pandemic hit, it seemed like an opportune time to add a new furry member to the family. Today, more than 70 percent of Americans own one pet or more, and this number is only set to increase in coming years. We speak with two pet experts this week about the evolving sector and the …
There’s something special about dinosaurs. These majestic creatures walked the Earth more than 230 million years ago, yet, even today, they capture our wildest imaginations. Most us have heard the familiar narrative that an asteroid collided with Earth and this catastrophic event led to their downfall..but is there more to the story? Would dinosaurs still be …
In 2017, Sara Dykman biked more than 10,000 miles, following the path of the annual Monarch migration. Along her route, she stopped to educate and raise awareness about the beauty and fragility of the butterfly. Dykman joins us this week to teach us about the insect’s unique migration patterns across North America and how individuals can help this dwindling …
Did you know that only one out of every five dogs will finish their life with the family who originally took them home? Top Dog Foundation, specifically helps find new homes for senior dogs through a variety of programs. We speak with the founder of the organization, Jean Stelten-Beuning about the current need and how owners can plan ahead to ensure the …
Being a teenager is tough these days – but being a parent to a teenager can be even be tougher sometimes. Over the last five years, two researchers, who are parents themselves, traveled across the world to observe several different animal species and their socialization out in the wild. The focus? To possibly better understand our own adolescence and …
It’s almost 2020. While many more Americans have grown to be increasingly eco-conscious, some things still remain the same. It seems like almost everyday a smoker can be seen stomping on a cigarette on the pavement or chucking a lighted butt out their car window. Did you know that more than one-third of all collected litter is cigarette butts? We speak with …
Did you know that dogs can smell up to 100,000 times better than the average person? Most of us are familiar with service or police dogs using their nose to sniff out a particular scent, but researchers have been recently harnessing the power of a dogs nose to find malaria, diabetes and even some of the hardest-to-detect cancers.
When most of us think of rodeo, we travel back in time to the Wild Wild West where cowboys roamed the streets. These days, the sport is still alive and thriving but is evolving with the times. We speak with three rodeo experts about everything from bull riding to rodeo clowns and queens.
Around 90 percent of the plastic we use is left unrecycled and dumped in a landfill. Over time, this waste seeps into our oceans, harming its ecosystems and creating massive islands of floating garbage. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is now more than twice the size of Texas. What small steps can we each take to reduce plastic consumption and get …
In Meredith May’s new book, she examines the parallels between the inner workings of beehives and our society, and how beekeeping taught her numerous life lessons as a child. She also discusses the threat to bees with commercialized beekeeping and what we can do to protect these insects vital to our ecosystem.
You’ve probably heard that bees are in trouble, and that we need bees for many of the foods and plants we have come to love. We learn what we can all be doing to do our part and help save the bees before it’s too late.
We talk to two experts about the need for average citizens to be the eyes and ears of big data collecting projects.
We explore the benefits of bats, and why their numbers are decreasing in alarming numbers.
Jon Katz’s dogs do more than just play fetch: they help comfort Hospice patients in their final days
We talk to a Humane Society spokesperson who has seen his share of disasters about keeping your pets safe and secure during a catastrophe.
We talk to two “citizen scientist” advocates about the importance of having average citizens be the eyes and ears of large research projects.
Our guest has studied animal intelligence and discusses how neuroscience and biology are coming up with new definitions of what it means to be an intelligent animal.
We talk to a search dog owner and trainer about these amazing animals and the physiology that helps them hone in on a single scent.
Many worry that non-native plants and animals are preventing native species from thriving but are so-called native species of plants and animals really native?
Cheetahs are the fastest of all land animals – they can reach speeds of up to 70 mph in short bursts. Despite their speed and hunting ability, cheetahs are endangered in Africa and Asia, and don’t breed especially well in captivity. In Africa, they can attack livestock herds for food, and that puts them in danger from the subsistence farmers who need to …
Two of the scariest symbols of Halloween are spiders and bats. They have bad reputations for not just being creepy, but dangerous. We get the straight scoop in these creepy critters from two experts in the fields of entomology and bats, and hear how both of these creatures are not as scary as we think, but very beneficial members of the insect and animals …
When an American trophy hunter killed Cecil the Lion, a protected animal in an African game preserve, the internet was packed with Tweets and Facebook diatribes condemning the man who did it and big game hunting in general. Why are we so concerned about one animal when there are millions of them killed around the world every year? Is there a good reason to …
Are invasive species present because they’re the only ones that can thrive in an area? Are they multiplying because of something bad we’re injecting into their environment? Are these aliens actually helping nature create a diverse and robust environment? And are those so-called native species of plants and animals really native? Our guests have some …
Search dogs will follow a scent for miles and even put their lives in danger looking for survivors of mudslides and building collapses. How do they do it, and why? We talk to a search dog owner and trainer about these amazing animals, the physiology that helps them hone in on a single scent, and why they will work for hours in horrid conditions for their …
